Solved Unable to load W11 Pro v. 23H2 - MSI Katana GF66 - Black Screen

I am unable to boot into my MSI Katana GF66 laptop which is running W11 Pro v. 23H2. It was running perfectly and then all of a sudden it started having problems with an Explorer window refusing to come forward/open to screen while minimized. I opened Task Manager and it went to “Not Responding” and I had to close it and reopen it. I eventually tried to “restart explorer” from the Task Manager and it again took TM to “Not Responding” I did a forced shutdown with the power button and that’s when everything went bad. I am now 100% unable to boot into Windows. I started out with it taking forever to boot but it would eventually get to the login screen. I would enter my PW and then it would go to a black screen (not turn off – machine stays on) with Windows refusing to load. I have had a miserable time getting the advanced startup options to even open using any of the “F” keys.

There are reasons why I really NEED AT ALL COSTS to NOT RESET WINDOWS….too numerous to list…..This I am capable of doing myself quite easily as I am a corp. IT help desk professional with 25 years experience so, been there done that didn’t buy the bad T-shirt….I am seeking OTHER METHODS of repairing what I believe is a screwed up boot partition.

What I’ve done so far:

Windows Advanced Startup Repair Options – told me it couldn’t repair
Launched the command prompt from the Advanced Startup Repair (ASR)
SFC /SCANNOW – this found issues and it reported it repaired it
DISM will not recognize the options/switches – it wasn’t recognizing the cleanup image nor the restorehealth
Unable to get into Safe Mode with or without networking – Tried to get into Safe Mode through the ASR and it started the process of enabling what it needs to for safe mode but then gave me a CTFMON.EXE Success Box with a Hard Error

Did some online research using my second computer and found this:

Run different commands
BOOTREC/FIXMBR and hit enter. After that, write BOOTREC/FIXBOOT and hit the enter button. If the Master Boot Record (MBR) has issues, then the first command will fix it. Also, during the execution of the BOOTREC/FIXBOOT command, you may come across an error message saying, "Access is Denied." Well, you can fix this error by using another command in the same window.

Fixing the error - Access is denied
If you get this error while executing step 3, then use these commands to fix it. Write BOOTSECT /NT60 SYS in the same window and hit enter. Now, once again, write BOOTREC/FIXBOOT and hit the enter button. The first command will update the boot code. Besides, it will also execute the BOOTREC/FIXBOOT command.

Identifying Windows
In this step, we will run the BOOTREC command. For that, write BOOTREC/SCANOS and hit the enter button.

Rebuilding the BCD file
Now, it's time to run the REBUILDBCD command. For that, write BOOTREC/REBUILDBCD and hit the enter button. It will rebuild the BCD file and also eliminate the possible issues.

At this point I am now looking for some of the "old fashioned & time honored & trusted" diagnostic software. I am talking about software that can be put onto a USB flash drive and can be booted from like an old "Hirens" type of utility (don't know if that is even still a used software anymore because it's been a long time since I've run into a problem like this). I do have a second laptop to use.....Hope you don't fall of your chair with laughter but it is a 12 year old (but HW is upgraded to it's max) HP DV7 Entertainment laptop running W10 Pro. I have had less problems with this laptop than the 1.75 year old Katana which has the issue currently.

Really need help kind of quickly with this.......Thank you.....

What I do in similar situations is boot a Linux LiveUSB drive, usually Mint, to see if there are hardware issues, if a drive can be seen and any data copied off to another USB drive that is usually larger capacity than a Notebook drive, have a couple 1TB on hand for that. Linux has no issue with NTFS and the Live drives contain GPARTED good for looking at partitions and cleaning drives. The Live also can install the version on the drive. And the downloaded .iso file can be used to burn the bootable DVD-R or DVD+R disc, no RW.

Hello,

Thank you for the suggestion, but I am thoroughly rooted in windows. I do not do Lennox at all. I am strictly in need of windows only troubleshooting software and instructions.

You probably have an UEFI system.
in command prompt
X:> diskpart
list disk
Check the disk number of your OS disk. It should be 0
if it is 0 type otherwise take 1
sel disk 0
list par
the first partition should be FAT32 formated and appr. 100 MB in size
type
sel par 1
format quick fs=fat32 label="System"
assign letter="S"
type
list vol
Check if Windows is C ! Otherwise use the right letter in the 2 commands below!!!!!!!!!!!
exit

bcdboot C:\windows /l en-US /s S: /f UEFI

Edit: Attention run this command first!!
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows
is the right command

Your Recovery partition doesn't support WiFi. That means that you can't run DISM command without a source file (install.wim)

Prepare a boot stick USB Media Creation Tool (MCT)

Thank you so much for that instead of instructions I really appreciate it. This happened around 8 o’clock last night and I did try to do those steps that I outlined that did not work which took a while because things are so screwed up that it’s not allowing me reliably to get into the advanced troubleshooting menus for windows. Sometimes it would go in through the function keys, and sometimes it would refuse and just go to the black screen. It got to a point where it was like 10 o’clock at night and I was getting a bit tired and I know better than to keep troubleshooting a technology issue when you are tired. I will try your suggestions today and I will update this ticket. Do you know offhand if Software for diagnostics and troubleshooting and repairs like Hiren’s are even used anymore? At the beginning of my tech career I was the first female geek on a geek squad at a Best Buy. I loved the job. The pay was horrible but I learned so much and I enjoyed the repair work and the upgrading work. With Windows 10, and Windows 11 being, close to problem free I lost touch with what software is used out there for troubleshooting and diagnostics.

I know Hiren's but I don't use it.
The import thing: When you use the above format and bcdboot command you have to configure the Recovery again.
Therefore you need a USB-Bootstick. Hiren could do that as well.

Once you mentioned that the recovery would have to be reset again. It reminded me of a video that I watched while researching this problem. The person said that doing his method would require the same thing that you just mentioned about resetting the options for the start up. I tried to follow along with that video, but I was so tired at that point I wasn’t completely focused on it and decided I would rewatch it today. I am quite lucky that this is not my only computer. I still have my very first laptop that I bought 12 years ago. It is an HP DV7 entertainment laptop running Windows 10 Pro, but it is not original hardware because overall of the years I have upgraded the ram added a second hard drive (mechanical hard drive) because it has a second bay and I replace the original 640 GB mechanical hard drive because it was getting slow and installed a 1TB SSD and this machine is still running like a thoroughbred at the Kentucky Derby. I therefore do have a method to be able to download anything that I might need off of the Internet.

WonderWoman said:

There are reasons why I really NEED AT ALL COSTS to NOT RESET WINDOWS

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This is why folks here recommend to make regular use of imaging software. That's the ONLY way to 100% protect yourself from data loss.For me, I can restore everything on my system in 12 minutes.

As far as offline tools, I haven't used Hirens in many years. My toolkit includes Strelec's WinPE Download Sergei Strelec's WinPE - MajorGeeks
KYHI bootable Rescue Media Win10XPE - Build Your Own Rescue Media [2] - Windows 10 Help Forums
Minitool Partition Wizard

As far as offline hardware diagnostic tools
Memory - Memtest
Drive- Seatools bootable

But the ones I use most often are a bootable live Linux Mint or Ubuntu usb drive for file recovery and a current Windows Installation USB drive which can get me into Windows recovery tools as well as repair install and clean install Windows.Anyone who can use Windows 7 can use Mint or Ubuntu.

So far I have spent close to 24 full hours, trying to troubleshoot this problem. The result is that after approximately 12 hours of straight on troubleshooting for the problem, which was in addition to my starting the night before, on my own with doing approximately 3 to 4 hours of troubleshooting The problem was not fixable. The whole problem started late one evening with a window that was minimized that would not return back up when I click on it I went into task manager. I wanted to write click on the explorer process and restart it and pretty much almost instantly task manager went to not responding. I then closed task manager reopened it, and when I attempted to write click on the explorer process to restart it task manager once again went to not responding. I then use the power button to turn the machine off after that when I would be able to get the login window to come up for windows after I entered my password it would go to a black screen and not go any further. Eventually I was no longer even able to get the login screen to come up at all. I resorted to creating a windows media creation, tool, and trying to troubleshoot through there, and it just snowballed through all of those hours of troubleshooting.

The current status is that I had no choice, but to reinstall windows by thoroughly wiping the disk, and eliminating all partitions. The system was so damaged software wise that I could not even get it to recognize that windows was in place to just do one of those what I would call a Windows overlay what others would call a reinstall in place where windows just lays down a new copy of all the files without wiping out anything else. When I tried to do that, it ignored the fact or could not recognize the fact that windows was already installed. I finally got windows installed on the machine. I don’t know why the media creation tool did not download Windows 11, when doing the downloading of the media creation tool. I am wondering if it has to do with the fact that the computer I was using to download the media creation tool was my 12-year-old HP laptop which has windows 10 pro installed on it and is incapable of doing windows 11 but I wasn’t offered any options other than to uncheck the box that says bring across with this machine is capable of. when I tried to do the install, there was no option offering me what version of Windows do I want to install 10 or 11? There were also no options for home versus pro so I don’t know what it is downloading these days.

I finally after getting windows installed reinstalled my Acronis software, and I am currently letting it run to recover from my most recent back up. It’s not perfect but the back up is within I’d say approximately two days ago was the last back up. The software is telling me I have at least another four or five hours to go before the recovery is complete. I am just praying that it goes smoothly from here.

Just to add.. I would 100% replace replace your drive, as I am almost certain it has bad sectors that caused all of this mess… but that’s just my 2¢

Any chance of you just returning the laptop?

As far as returning the laptop, that would be a big no because it was purchased in 2022. This issue can now be closed out because the laptop has been repaired. It was not a hardware issue. I was concerned, potentially eyes wide open maybe a bad SSD because you always have to look at the possibility that there may be a hardware issue which in this case there wasn’t.

The repair was done via having no choice but to wipe out the entire drive including deleting all partitions, which was not a horrible loss because I use back up software called Acronis. Therefore wiped out the entire drive reinstalled Windows 11 Pro from scratch and then recovering from all of my back ups, which start out as a full back up and then I continue on doing incremental back ups. The laptop is now functional again. Thank you to everybody who tried to assist it is appreciated. I wish everybody a very happy, healthy holiday season.

WonderWoman said:

As far as returning the laptop, that would be a big no because it was purchased in 2022. This issue can now be closed out because the laptop has been repaired. It was not a hardware issue. I was concerned, potentially eyes wide open maybe a bad SSD because you always have to look at the possibility that there may be a hardware issue which in this case there wasn’t.

The repair was done via having no choice but to wipe out the entire drive including deleting all partitions, which was not a horrible loss because I use back up software called Acronis. Therefore wiped out the entire drive reinstalled Windows 11 Pro from scratch and then recovering from all of my back ups, which start out as a full back up and then I continue on doing incremental back ups. The laptop is now functional again. Thank you to everybody who tried to assist it is appreciated. I wish everybody a very happy, healthy holiday season.

Click to expand...

Just happy you now have a working laptop.