Windows 11 displays black screen only

After turning sleep mode on and leaving the computer online for days, I now can't get windows to display anything. When I reset the computer, the motherboard logo shows and I can navigate through all those BIOS options (I've even changed some on a hunch because I don't know what else to do).

I can't see my mouse cursor. The monitor is on and it turns off automatically by power saving settings after 3 minutes, I guess. The black screen mode is not that the display is turned off, it's just that all its pixels are set to black (which is a little brighter than when all the LEDs are actually off).

I can't know my windows' build for sure

First of all, you never change bios options on a hunch. Go back into bios and set to default.

After reset, go back into bios again and look under boot options. What is the first boot device listed? What drives does bios recognized as being installed?

You mention you did a reset. What was the reason for this? If it was a black screen did it display any error code. Exactly how did you do it?
Also you have not completed the specs of your system and your version of windows in your forum profile. It would be of great help if you will do that.

glasskuter said:

First of all, you never change bios options on a hunch. Go back into bios and set to default.

After reset, go back into bios again and look under boot options. What is the first boot device listed.

You mention you did a reset. What was the reason for this? Exactly how did you do it?

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Default seems to have some options that are incompatible with Windows 11. I did restore to default, and then I started fixing these options, like TPM should be enabled (there's disabled, firmware and another option here; I remember setting to the other option), CSM needs to be off. The first option is my SSD, where the system is installed

What I meant by resetting was turning the PC off then on again (even disconnected it from the power grid at some point).

I tried to make the safe mode option to appear, too. By holding the power button for a few seconds seconds while the TUF logo "press F2 or del to enter BIOS" 3 times.

I can take a picture of whatever you need to see in my BIOS. Before messing with it, though, this black screen problem was already present

glasskuter said:

First of all, you never change bios options on a hunch. Go back into bios and set to default.

After reset, go back into bios again and look under boot options. What is the first boot device listed? What drives does bios recognized as being installed?

You mention you did a reset. What was the reason for this? If it was a black screen did it display any error code. Exactly how did you do it?
Also you have not completed the specs of your system and your version of windows in your forum profile. It would be of great help if you will do that.

Click to expand...

I get no errors. Instead of the picture of a beautiful place and a login text box, I get a black screen. I can even hear the 3 notes Windows plays before I am prompted to type my password. I did my best regarding my PC specs. Some data, like resolution and internet speed I can only have access to when I see it at Windows (I've been messing with my resolution, by the way. I wanted to be able to see the screen from afar, so I put that 1200x800 recently. I'm pretty sure I've already changed it back to what I think is 1900x1040 (or something like that...)

I have another hard drive. A mechanical Samsung HDD at D:. I think it has the whole system there except it's Windows 10. Instead of making proper backup and formatting the thing, I just left that HDD like a second boot option

Starless said:

The first option is my SSD, where the system is installed

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You've messed with a lot of things.

Here's what we know. Monitor and cable is good because you see bios. You do not see a cursor but you do hear windows sounds. This points in the direction of your video output/driver/settings or incorrect bios setting. I believe it's loading Windows 10 from your second hard drive and that's what you're hearing but I can't say for sure.

Your cpu indicates to me you have a modern uefi device. In bios, your first boot device should be Windows Boot Manager, TPM enabled, UEFI should be on and originally secure boot would have been on. Since you do not have a graphics card, make sure video setting in bios is set to auto or Intel 630 graphics. Verify these and attempt to boot.

If you have more than one video output on the back of computer, switch the cable to it.

You say you have 10 on second drive. If that drive was originally formatted for this machine, try booting from the second hard drive using the boot menu which is usually f12 as soon as you see the flash screen.

Try these and report back. You said you left the second hard there for backup rather than making a backup. That's all fine and good for files, but it is not a backup for 11.

I couldn't find any video related options in BIOS settings.

I remember turning on Intel Virtualization Technology or something like that for the sake of running Blue Stacks (something I never did...)

The HDD with Windows 10 wasn't formatted for this PC, I just put it in here because it's where all my stuff was. I should have made a proper backup. I tried starting from it. I think it downloaded some stuff and then restarted in Windows 11 (with the same black screen) because the SSD has priority in boot order (because I just double clicked the HDD to force the system to start from there instead of changing boot priority).

Should I put the HDD as option 1 and try again?(below are some pictures of a few tabs in BIOS)
20220709_180259.jpg
20220709_180534.jpg

Starless said:

Should I put the HDD as option 1 and try again?

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I did this and there's graphics. It's an HDD running for the first time in a new machine, so it's absurdly slow... But yeah, the graphics component doesn't seem to be the issue. It's running Windows 10.

The system seems to have some incompatibility in terms of LAN, because it's already configured for a network that isn't there anymore... So with doesn't really work, but it proves that the integrated graphics are ok.

To me the problem here is that I can't wake it up. I think I turned it off while it was sleeping, and now when I turn it on, it is still sleeping and I can't wake it up. There should be an option to tell the SSD to "forget everything about last time it ran". To clear all cache, or something?

Starless said:

Should I put the HDD as option 1 and try again

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No, if you chose that drive from the f12 menu, that's the drive it attempted to boot from.

Starless said:

I think it downloaded some stuff and then restarted in Windows 11

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What indication gave you that idea. When your chose HDD from the boot menu, what did you actually see before it restarted? Was it a black screen, no cursor?

glasskuter said:

No, if you chose that drive from the f12 menu, that's the drive it attempted to boot from.


What indication gave you that idea. When your chose HDD from the boot menu, what did you actually see before it restarted? Was it a black screen, no cursor?

Click to expand...

What happened was I forced the system to start from D:, That message "getting things ready" or something appeared and a percentage. Then it restarted (as Windows does after that sort of thing) and when it did so, it followed boot priority, and restarted from the SSD.

To make it start Windows 10 in the HDD, I changed the boot priority order, putting the HDD first (I can easily revert this).

Someone said to me this (the black screen) can't happen in "Windows safe mode". If only I get to restart my Windows 11 in Safe Mode, then maybe we can make some progress. What happens instead when I follow the procedure to start in safe mode (holding the power button a bunch of times before Windows loads) is that I get a message saying "POST failed repeatedly. Press F1 to run setup", which just sends me to BIOS.

glasskuter said:

I believe it's loading Windows 10 from your second hard drive and that's what you're hearing but I can't say for sure.

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That cannot be it. The HDD is at least 30 times slower than the SSD. The SSD has no Windows 10 in it. The black screen is way too fast for the HDD. When I used the HDD to load Windows 10, it took time in that Windows-blue screen, with the little dots circling indicating "loading".

Maybe I can access the file system through the BIOS setup screen somehow and type in a PowerShell command or something that will restore the system? Is there such a thing?

I'll give up for tonight, don't give up on me though, guys!

Sorry, my last post got crosswise with yours. That's good, from a cpu/mobo standpoint at least. Now, we've narrowed it down to the m.2 and the windows installation.

To cover your points, unless you changed it, more than likely it was not set to sleep, but hibernate.
It's not sleeping/hibernating because when you power off a system it is no longer sleeping.
We've proved your hardware is good so windows is hosed up whether from file corruption or some of the various settings you changed.
I only suggested it might be booting into Windows 10 because it was your second boot device. We've proven that is not the case because Windows 10 will boot when you select it from boot menu.

IMO it's going to take a clean install to fix this or if you can get into recovery options you can try a reset. (to get into recovery options turn it off using the power button or AC plug. Hold down SHIFT key and keep it held while powering it on. You should boot into the recovery menu. Choose reset.)

If you can not get into recovery or reset doesn't work you will need to do a clean install (unless someone else here has other ideas). From another computer, you will need to create installation media. Use this tutorial to create the media, but in Option 1 step 1, download the latest media creation tool listed below because the link in the tutorial is for an earlier version of windows.

latest media creation tool Download Windows 11
how to create the media Create Windows 11 Bootable USB Installation Media Tutorial

Here's how to do a clean install. Make sure all other drives but C are disconnected during this process.

If you have files you can't live without, with some work you can attempt to recover them. I have had great luck using a live Linux Mint usb drive and running it straight off the usb. From there you can access your user folder and copy and paste files to external media.

This should say UEFI Mode

Starless said:

What happened was I forced the system to start from D:, That message "getting things ready" or something appeared and a percentage. Then it restarted (as Windows does after that sort of thing) and when it did so, it followed boot priority, and restarted from the SSD.

To make it start Windows 10 in the HDD, I changed the boot priority order, putting the HDD first (I can easily revert this).

Someone said to me this (the black screen) can't happen in "Windows safe mode". If only I get to restart my Windows 11 in Safe Mode, then maybe we can make some progress. What happens instead when I follow the procedure to start in safe mode (holding the power button a bunch of times before Windows loads) is that I get a message saying "POST failed repeatedly. Press F1 to run setup", which just sends me to BIOS.

Click to expand...

To get into safe mode, while Windows is loading, hit the reset button. Do that three times. On the third time, it should give you the option to boot into safe more. Windows needs to be loading for this to work, I think.

Scott said:

This should say UEFI Mode

View attachment 33494

Click to expand...

I'll try that, but I already had that option on before (in the many permutations I tried).

Starless said:

Someone said to me this (the black screen) can't happen in "Windows safe mode"

Click to expand...

Not always so. If windows is corrupted badly enough to prevent boot, there's no way to get into safe mode.

glasskuter said:

IMO it's going to take a clean install to fix this or if you can get into recovery options you can try a reset. (to get into recovery options turn it off using the power button or AC plug. Hold down SHIFT key and keep it held while powering it on. You should boot into the recovery menu. Choose reset.)

If you have files you can't live without, with some work you can attempt to recover them. I have had great luck using a live Linux Mint usb drive and running it straight off the usb. From there you can access your user folder and copy and paste files to external media.

Click to expand...

Holding down shift does nothing.

I'll try to get files from C: booting from Windows 10 in D:. I hope it works. When I start from D: it becomes C:, and the SSD is nowhere to be found. I'm not even sure what I'll lose...

This computer is merely a few months old and I'm already getting this kind of problem. Using Windows 11 makes me feel very unsafe now.

So I will lose every program installed?

Do you guys know how to get in touch with a Microsoft technician? Maybe there's a fix to this.

Starless said:

I'll try to get files from C: booting from Windows 10 in D:. I hope it works. This computer is merely a few months old and I'm already getting this kind of problem. Using Windows 11 makes me feel very unsafe now.

Click to expand...

Don't think too badly of 11, as it's not specifically a 11 issue. Any OS can get corrupted for various reason. Stuff happens.

Starless said:

So I will lose every program installed?

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Yes. A clean install is exactly what it implies, you start over clean with only what comes with Windows. Make sure to remove all partitions during the install process and install on unallocated space. That's in the tutorial so don't miss it.

May I suggest if you've never done a clean install before that you disconnect you HDD while installing to make sure you are doing so on the correct drive.

glasskuter said:

May I suggest if you've never done a clean install before that you disconnect you HDD while installing to make sure you are doing so on the correct drive.

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Is that the only reason why I should disconnect the HDD? Because the prospect of opening the computer's glass case and messing with cables was making the job seem too hard. Hardware is not my thing (I was kinda down... and wasn't planning on going on about fixing this PC very soon).

If you're only preoccupied that I might commit some mistake like choosing the HDD for something during the installation, then don't worry. They are different in nature (HDD and SDD), manufacturer (Samsung and Western Digital), and memory size (2TB and 4TB). Thus, their names when shown bybya the computer are quite different.