Solved Black display. Partially solved.

I have a oem custom build SFF pc. Ryzen 5800X, ASUS B550-I MB, 2x16MB Corsair Vengence RAM, Nvidia 3060 Ti, Samsung 980 NVME os drive and a 10TB Seagate Iron Wolf storage drive. I have it connected to a 4K TV through HDM Iand a AVR .The pc has been mostly unusable back and forth to oem. Previous problem cut HDD power cable. That was November so I paid a local tech to fix it and it worked great until February when the pc would power, but no bios display or windows just pure BLACK screen with fans running. Tried all combinations of cables, ports, etc. Last hooked directly to working TV/HDMI port.

OEM sent replacement 3060 Ti and I had a local tech come to do the replace. They had to call in a second tech just to get the old gpu out. Put in new 3060 Ti, but still black screen and my time was up.

So today a local tech came back with new ram sticks, popped one in and BIOS Display showed then logged into Windows 11 22H2 PRO. Great! He ran a quick diagnostic CPU=OK, RAM= OK, It was cranking through my 10TB storage before cancelled. He updated to latest game ready nvidia driver then powered pc down and put the case together. I paid, signed no damage and he left. I should have kept him there because later when I powered the pc back up I saw the BIOS display screen and could get into UEFI bios, but dropped right back into black display screen (no cursor) with power and fans on.

Called OEM who said to clean install Windows. It seemed like a drastic next step so I researched internet and this forum. Used MCT to make bootable usb install disk. Powered on into BIOS, set boot from usb then exited. The first screen came up, but I chose REPAIR. It showed a restore point in Feb and programs lost/kept looked ok so I went ahead. Then windows login screen came up and I entered my pw, but it dropped right back to a black screen.

I booted from the install usb again and again chose REPAIR, but this time I entered the command prompt. I did a DIR on C: but it showed my storage HDD folders. I switched to D: it showed my system drive folders. I could even type a txt. file on D:. I typed DISKPART then LIST DISKS. Drive 0=C: was my 10TB storage HDD. Drive 1 =D:was my 1TB system drive and finally drive 2 was the 32GB usb stick. Now I realized why tach's storage tester was running on my HDD.

I am really stuck now. I don't want to clean install if I don't have to. Also, not sure if I pick the 1TB that installer will make that the C: drive after installation and D: the HDD. Any advice welcome and hope my problem gets solved best so to also help others.


I'm doing all this on my old pc right now.

This should have been posted in the BSOD Crash Analysis section to get the attention it needs. I am flagging @zbook to see if he has any advice for you.
I can say if you clean install, disconnect the second hard drive before you begin to prevent any accidental data loss on that drive.

Detach all non-essential hardware and report whether the computer does or does not boot.

If the current installation is Windows 10 then please open the thread in Ten Forums.

Consider clean installing Windows 10 and making free backup images.

Install no motherboard drivers and use Windows default drivers.
Install no applications.

Report whether the computer does or does not boot with only a "vanilla type" clean install and whether you can or cannot logon to Windows.

Diagnostic tests work great for a failed hardware component.
Unfortunately diagnostic tests frequently display false negatives when testing for malfunctioning hardware and most often swap testing is required.

In this guide, i will help you troubleshoot black screen problem in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

glasskuter said:

This should have been posted in the BSOD Crash Analysis section to get the attention it needs. I am flagging @zbook to see if he has any advice for you.
I can say if you clean install, disconnect the second hard drive before you begin to prevent any accidental data loss on that drive.

Click to expand...

Gk,

I believe you helped me last year with this same computer when it was booting into Windows and I got into some kind of settings loop. Thanks again for the attention. It seems as Windows evolves my knowledge of it devolves. But with reminders glimpses do reappear.

I thought BSOD was BLUE screen where you get hex text error codes and something to work with not a completely black screen with no cursor or error codes?. Are you suggesting I cut.paste my first post into a new thread in BSOD forum? Let me know.

No worries. You don't have to move the thread. Your issue is one of those cross kind of threads that could be posted in more than one section. That particular section of the forum does deal with crashes but also boot issues too and generally the members who have more experience in dealing with such stuff handle such threads.

IMO I would keep this on the OEM's back to deal with. You have to stay after the OEM and it can be an unpleasant process. Been there, done that.

It appears you can boot from usb. I would boot from one of the 3rd party backup applications boot media and backup the system. This media is easily created from another computer by installing the backup application and creating the recovery media. Once I had my data backed up, I would do exactly as the OEM instructs and do a clean install. If it still fails, pitch it back into their lap ASAP.

One such backup app is Macrium. For the time being you can still get free Macrium Reflect here. https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/go?...flect/v8/v8.0.7279/reflect_setup_free_x64.exe

zbook said:

No worries. You don't have to move the thread. Your issue is one of those cross kind of threads that could be posted in more than one section. That particular section of the forum does deal with crashes but also boot issues too and generally the members who have more experience in dealing with such stuff handle such threads.

Click to expand...

GOOD TO KNOW

glasskuter said:

IMO I would keep this on the OEM's back to deal with. You have to stay after the OEM and it can be an unpleasant process. Been there, done that.

Click to expand...

Agree. have been since July involving some North/South border shipments and many e-mails/calls. Right now without a clean install they're like Microsoft with hardware except vice-versa "we're not windows people". Do not expect any more windows help. That's why I am here.

glasskuter said:

It appears you can boot from usb. I would boot from one of the 3rd party backup applications boot media and backup the system. This media is easily created from another computer by installing the backup application and creating the recovery media. Once I had my data backed up, I would do exactly as the OEM instructs and do a clean install. If it still fails, pitch it back into their lap ASAP.

Click to expand...

I can only boot into installer then after Black Screen. From previous info I did a REPAIR System Restore then COMMAND PROMPT from installer which should've negated the nvidia driver issue, but also showed at that point the Drive 0-D and Drive 1-C were switched. Whichever way it shows in a clean install I can point it at the right drive to clear and install. However, when it comes out of install will Windows be on a C: drive?

Also, from REPAIR -COMMAND PROMPT I can see everything is there so I'd like to try from there the Startup Repair option or roll back last windows update option. Unless you think that might wreck the ability to do a clean install after?

glasskuter said:

One such backup app is Macrium. For the time being you can still get free Macrium Reflect here. https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/go?https://download.macrium.com/reflect/v8/v8.0.7279/reflect_setup_free_x64.exe

Click to expand...

For a long time I was an Acronis subscriber because they supported me great doing restores which I found difficult, but stopped when they went all-in-one into backup+security. At this moment I do not want to spend the time learning a new tool to bkup+restore system drive. Also, all critical files from storage drive are already backed up.

zbook said:

Detach all non-essential hardware and report whether the computer does or does not boot.

If the current installation is Windows 10 then please open the thread in Ten Forums.

Consider clean installing Windows 10 and making free backup images.

Install no motherboard drivers and use Windows default drivers.
Install no applications.

Report whether the computer does or does not boot with only a "vanilla type" clean install and whether you can or cannot logon to Windows.

Diagnostic tests work great for a failed hardware component.
Unfortunately diagnostic tests frequently display false negatives when testing for malfunctioning hardware and most often swap testing is required.

Click to expand...

Everything detached, but Black Screen after BIOS Boot Display. It's Windows Eleven Pro. I'd like to try a few other Repair options before going ahead with clean install.

Agree all Microsoft drivers+apps, but don't I have to install ASUS MB drivers or do I do that after a few boots and Explorer views?

chockfullof546 said:

when it comes out of install will Windows be on a C: drive?

Click to expand...

It will be for sure if you disconnect the other drive. From reading all that has already happened, I highly suspect, only a guess you understand, your issue is hardware related. But it's standard issue for OEM's to want a clean install of Windows to prove it. As zbook suggested, keep it a bare metal install using Windows only drivers, no extra apps, not even Nvidia or Asus. No one ever wants to clean install, but sometimes it is what it is and you just have to bite the bullet.

Understood, but my case is a Very Small Form Factor and I'm not sure I could even disconnect the sata cable if I wanted to.

As mentioned the system drive is NVMe stick. The storage drive is SATA HDD. No chance they could be physically switched

glasskuter said:

It will be for sure if you disconnect the other drive. From reading all that has already happened, I highly suspect, only a guess you understand, your issue is hardware related. But it's standard issue for OEM's to want a clean install of Windows to prove it. As zbook suggested, keep it a bare metal install using Windows only drivers, no extra apps, not even Nvidia or Asus. No one ever wants to clean install, but sometimes it is what it is and you just have to bite the bullet.

Click to expand...

Sorry, for not posting for so long. I am hoping somebody will still reply. After more researching I decided to go ahead and clean install as suggested except not disconnecting the HDD as explained above.

Drive 0 (HDD) had 2 partitions with the 1st being very small and MSR (reserved). I deleted all partitions on drive 1 (NVMe) and started installing Windows 11. It went swimmingly into OOBE setup. After getting by account verification by text msg I was at least past setting privacy options, but do not remember anything about 365, etc., just then having the BLACK display again!

I rebooted into the installer again, deleted all partitions on NVMe, but the backed up into Repair / Command Line. This time there were 2x Volumes. D: Data storage with all folders intact. Also, C: with bootmgr, bootfix and a setup.exe among them. Both on the HDD.

Not sure what this all means but any hypotheses or steps to try before contacting oem again would be welcome. IfHW, please suggest possible components. Thanks Again.

chockfullof546 said:

The pc has been mostly unusable back and forth to oem...............................I was at least past setting privacy options, but do not remember anything about 365, etc., just then having the BLACK display again!

Click to expand...

This is my opinion and the hardware guys here may disagree with me.. You have a system in trouble beyond what you can fix. It is not normal for a new system to be mostly out of commission since you got it and it is not normal for a black screen to occur during windows install if all the hardware is working. Your OEM can't expect you to clean install windows if the system won't work long enough to allow you to do so. As far as possible components causing this issue, literally anything...drive, cpu, ram, mobo, GPU, even a flaky power supply. Let your OEM deal with this, including getting Windows back on it especially if it is in warranty.

As far as your clean install, you said this:

chockfullof546 said:

I rebooted into the installer again, deleted all partitions on NVMe, but the backed up into Repair / Command Line. This time there were 2x Volumes. D: Data storage with all folders intact. Also, C: with bootmgr, bootfix and a setup.exe among them. Both on the HDD

Click to expand...

After you deleted all partitions on the nvme and went back into diskpart to check your drives, you should have seen 3 drives,
1. your data drive,
2. your usb installation media drive( that's the drive with boot, efi,bootmgr, setup, etc on it) ,
3. and your nvme which should have had no partitions assigned to it.

If the nvme indeed does not show up in diskpart, go into UEFI bios. Does bios recognize that the nvme is installed. If not, maybe the drive is your problem... or the port it's plugged into on your motherboard..

Sorry I can't offer any more positive suggestions.

Thanks Gk. All points well taken. I probably got a lemon. The pc has 1+1/4 years left of a 2 year warranty. I'll just have to deal with the oem.

Thanks for everyone's help. I'd like to leave this open for the next time I get the pc back from the oem.

I feel your pain. I had to deal with the OEM multiple times the first year I had mine. Customer service just about everywhere is a joke these days. Quality of computer components is not what it once was either.

If your data drive has any sensitive information on it, be sure that the drive is removed before you let the computer leave your possession.

Well I think the problem has now been solved although I'd like to keep the thread open another week or two. The reason is due to the problem diagnoses and solutions. I will succinctly review them here.

Originally the pc was on an Audio/Video stand (TV Right) connected through an AVR (audio/video receiver) to the left side of the TV via 2xHDMI cables. Display went black and would not boot to BIOS, but fans/power was working. After verifying AVR/TV and all cables/ports were working the pc was moved to TV left and hooked directly to UPS+TV. Still black display no bios.

The pc was moved to a work table this time with an extension cord. The nVidia card was replaced witn an exact model. Still same black display. The RAM sticks were then tried and 1 was bad. Both sticks were replaced and pc booted and logged into Windows 11. A few HW tests were run and seemed to pass. The latest nvidia driver was installed and pc shut down.

Same day the pc would boot to BIOS but then black display. The rest of the details are in previous posts above.

Just before calling oem, Gk's last post inspired me, I disconnected the extension cord and moved pc back to TV left and was then able to successfully install vanilla windows. I updated to the latest Microsoft Tuesday releases. Checked Device Manager no check marks. Entered Disk Management. System boot drive C: was still Disk 1 and had the right partitions. Storage drive D: had 2 partitions. Still do not know why the small MSR was there.

Have restarted several times no problems. Will leave mainly vanilla and not add most of my apps for a week. At that point I'll move the pc back TV right onto AV stand and connect to AVR. If no problems I'll leave mainly vanilla another weekn then mark this thread Solved. Wish me luck everybody and thanks for your help.

Case testing closed. So far keep running benck marks for usage along with basic windows. I think I can now setup my regular program and start using my pc.

Thanks so much everybody for all your help.