Black Screen After Logging In

ETx13 said:

I'm all for this but this doesn't really make sense. This is happening on multiple different devices (laptops and PCs of different manufacturers) so they all have different graphics drivers.

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ahh. yeah thats most likely not the culprit then.

ok lets see if the user profile got corrupted somehow

reboot one of the computers into Safe Mode
open regedit to


on the left, scroll through the user SIDs
see if any have a .bak after them
there will be 2 keys with the same exact SID. one with no .bak and one with .bak
export the SID with no .bak to your desktop for backup
delete the SID with no .bak
rename the SID that has .bak and remove .bak extension
reboot to normal and try to log into that account again

Are all this machines part of the campus - or are they personal computers? As in, did some of the students in question had this issue - while using the PC/Laptop at home?

neves said:

Are all this machines part of the campus - or are they personal computers? As in, did some of the students in question had this issue - while using the PC/Laptop at home?

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They all belong to our school division. We order a chunk of new devices every year, hence the many different models that are part of our division.

dacrone said:

ahh. yeah thats most likely not the culprit then.

ok lets see if the user profile got corrupted somehow

reboot one of the computers into Safe Mode
open regedit to

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

on the left, scroll through the user SIDs
see if any have a .bak after them
there will be 2 keys with the same exact SID. one with no .bak and one with .bak
export the SID with no .bak to your desktop for backup
delete the SID with no .bak
rename the SID that has .bak and remove .bak extension
reboot to normal and try to log into that account again

Click to expand...

I will check this out once I get an affected device in front of me (hopefully this afternoon).

ETx13 said:

They all belong to our school division. We order a chunk of new devices every year, hence the many different models that are part of our division.

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I see, but are they all used at school - or some at school - while others at home? Another way to put it: does this issue occur only at one location - or does it also happen while used at a different location?

If they are connected to the school domain and try to connect to their domain account at home, the profile won't be available because it is held at the school server. They should use a local account at home instead.

Hello again, i followed an guide where i was suppose to create two admin accounts and some do some stuff.
But that did not help, those accounts behaved the same, and after the modification i was suppose to do in my original account it did not help.
I may also search for those regkeys and see if i have that .bak on one of the account keys
And i also did an keep my files reinstallation but the issue persisted.
I may test that the one in this thread did, resetting the bios, it may help, but i don't neither restart or turn off so often so i will see if i make an clean install if it gets worse.

Hopefully you only have a few applications to reinstall, after all this is a school computer, not a home computer with tens of applications and games.

neves said:

I see, but are they all used at school - or some at school - while others at home? Another way to put it: does this issue occur only at one location - or does it also happen while used at a different location?

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All used at the school. The only devices that get used at home are the staff ones. I haven't heard of this issue happening at home but it doesn't mean it's not. Every time we hear of the issue happening it's at a school. We have 30+ schools and there's no 1 school that it's happening to. This is happening at almost all locations.

I finally have a device in front of me and I checked the registry and there are no keys with .bak unfortunately.

ETx13 said:

All used at the school. The only devices that get used at home are the staff ones. I haven't heard of this issue happening at home but it doesn't mean it's not. Every time we hear of the issue happening it's at a school. We have 30+ schools and there's no 1 school that it's happening to. This is happening at almost all locations.

I finally have a device in front of me and I checked the registry and there are no keys with .bak unfortunately.

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I see, given the available information about the issue at hand - sounds more like a hardware issue. You do have a pretty high amount of units - so it's likely to get some bad units as well (be it PC or Laptops) - but i'm talking more about the electrical structure - causing Voltage spikes. You were on to something - about disabling Fast Start-up - since that's one way to create this issue (the Windows Kernel - can only properly reset on a restart - if that's on). But even with this feature disabled - if an important update failed (changing core windows files), if BIOS was not set correctly, if the systems are not properly shut-down and important files got corrupted, a faulty driver - or if a component/power-rail is shorted - are among the main causes leading to a black screen with the cursor where the system can't boot into Windows. Tho... if everything was fine for all 7000 units - while using Win 11 build 22H2 - it's probbalt not hardware related.

The faulty driver part - video in particular - makes sense too while taking into account the high amount of units - even if the systems in question use different drivers (or more like - especially cause of that). Point being - some OEMs (Asus & Lenovo in this case) - don't bother with driver updates for systems that are already couple of years old (serious security vulnerabilities - tend to be an exception but not video/audio/network drivers). And since you upgraded all 7000 units to latest stable release build for 23H2 - some might be using older/OEM drivers - which are not on par with latest Nvidia/AMD drivers where said issues are fixed. While newer system - might simply be using more recent drivers. Also worth taking into account - that a driver issue can impact one system while not so much an identical system (same components - but different potential, thus operating at slightly less voltage - the majority can do just fine - while some will crash). So hey, use the latest drivers from Nvidia/AMD site - Not the OEM (Asus & Lenovo) - which is probably what Windows installed.

Also, are you the only admin or tech support - handling 7000 units?! I mean, for this type of issues - while handing so many units - you might need more people and capable too. Finding a simple solution to cover so many systems - on a forum (any forum - even Microsoft's official forum - since the only support you get there usually comes from volunteers) - is more or less a shot in the dark. I hope the local Users Titles like "Pro User" didn't confuse you - since that doesn't stand for Pro Windows User - but high number of posts/replies (mainly quantity over quality - just look around and judge for yourself). If it's just one or couple of systems - sure, you can find what you need to troubleshot a given issue even on the internet - but honestly, as mentioned above - you might really need more capable people - to test things out and see what clicks (what works for one faulty system - might not work for all). But hey, if lucky ... could be just a simple driver issue (still time consuming tho).

Best of luck

Hey wondering if you guys have found a fix for this? I have been having this issue for a week, and I have no clue how to fix it. It's a self-build machine. Been using fine for years, one day i switch it on, it's giving me the same problem. Tried login with another user, it was fine for awhile, and then this black screen issue is happening to both devices.

I can run cmd, task mgr, ctrl + alt + delete. But whenever I try to go into Windows Recovery, it doesn't bring me there. I'm forever stuck at "please wait" on mobo logo bootup. Tried all solutions suggested so far to no avail ..

I have a lot of data in this PC, if I really do need to reinstall, how do I create a back up when I cannot access anything?

StartedAt95 said:

Hey wondering if you guys have found a fix for this? I have been having this issue for a week, and I have no clue how to fix it. It's a self-build machine. Been using fine for years, one day i switch it on, it's giving me the same problem. Tried login with another user, it was fine for awhile, and then this black screen issue is happening to both devices.

I can run cmd, task mgr, ctrl + alt + delete. But whenever I try to go into Windows Recovery, it doesn't bring me there. I'm forever stuck at "please wait" on mobo logo bootup. Tried all solutions suggested so far to no avail ..

I have a lot of data in this PC, if I really do need to reinstall, how do I create a back up when I cannot access anything?

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Are you facing a black screen with only a cursor visible on your Windows computer? This video offers a detailed walkthrough of the troubleshooting methods you can employ to fix this common issue. We will explore several potential causes and provide step-by-step instructions to help you restore your screen functionality. Join me as i tackle this problem and get your system back to normal.

Some times Windows Update is installing something on the background. Until it finishes it doesn't proceed with the login process and you see the black screen with the cursor. Give it some time.

I've been having random black screens after logging in since 24H2 update too. The last time was 2 weeks ago, until yesterday.
Happens randomly - laptop screen goes black, no cursor. External TB4 port monitor goes down too.
Alt-tab, Ctl-Alt-Del, Ctl-Alt-Esc, reset graphics hotkey, custom hotkey shutdown don't do anything.
Have to do a power button unclean shutdown. Ggggrrr...
I wouldn't mind so much if I could at least do a clean shutdown!
Cause unknown - can't find anything.
Video fault? Lockup? Hardware fault? I dunno.
Maybe the next patch rollup...

Probably some Windows update that could not finish installing and froze the system.