Despite the attractiveness of the tenth version of the Windows operating system, after installing it or installing updates, you can often find moments when, instead of the expected boot of the system, a black screen appears and a cursor may sometimes be missing. What is the reason for this phenomenon and how to deal with it, read on.
Black screen and cursor when starting Windows 10: what is the reason?
In general, for all Windows OSs, this problem is usually a result of incorrect operation of the video adapter, even though when the computer is turned on, the BIOS signals that everything is OK with the system and that all devices are working properly (this is determined by the long signal of the system speaker )
But not so simple. The operating system itself is such that the graphics accelerator is not always directly related to the problem that a black screen appears at startup. What to do, not everyone knows. Meanwhile, it is worth paying attention to some components of the OS itself. First of all, this is incorrect operation or malfunctions in the operation of the explorer.exe service, disabled quick start, activated re-licensing, outdated, incorrectly installed or missing video card drivers.
System Restore
The black screen and cursor when starting Windows 10 can be removed in several ways. However, the simplest solution may be to force the computer or laptop to shut down and then restart (the method, of course, is quite barbaric). But after that, either a hard drive check for damage to system files and bad sectors can occur, or the system recovery tool will start working.
In the second case, all operations will be performed automatically without user intervention. It is very likely that after half an hour of waiting, depending on the hardware configuration, everything will return to normal. If this solution does not work, you can use either the installation disk or the recovery disk (or USB flash drive), but you need to take care of creating such media in advance.
Return to the old system
If the tenth version was installed on top of the existing one in the form of an update (for example, Windows 7), you can use the tool to return to the old OS (only if the 30-day period has not expired since the installation).
To do this, go to the settings section and select the update and security section there, and then use the appropriate line.
By the way, a black screen and cursor may appear after starting Windows 7 (this refers to the situation after returning to the old OS). And here you need to look for the reason already in the graphics accelerator drivers.
Problem: black screen at system startup. Update graphics card drivers
Updating video card drivers is a fairly effective method. Often it helps in situations when two cards are installed in the system - discrete and integrated. Failures mostly concern discrete cards.
In this case, you can switch to the integrated accelerator. In parallel, you will have to reinstall or update the drivers of the main adapter (it is advisable to completely remove them first). This is done in the "Task Manager" by calling the appropriate commands in the RMB menu.
Safe mode and command line
The black screen and cursor when starting Windows 7 or 10 can be removed by another universal method, which many computer users are not aware of. You need to use the command console (no matter in a loaded system or when starting from removable media).
In the installed system, loaded in Safe Mode, the command line must be run as administrator, when booting from a disk or flash drive, selection is not required. The line bcdedit / set {globalsettings} advancedoptions true is written in the console, after which when restarting it will be possible to select tools for working with the system.
The command line in the current system is called up via the Run menu with cmd, in the recovery console on removable media Shift + F10 is used.
In the console itself, you need to register sfc / scannow and wait for the integrity check of the system files to complete. Perhaps this procedure will help. Indeed, well, do not overwrite the entire bootloader and the boot area (although this is quite simple).
Restart explorer.exe service
Another option that users encounter when trying to understand why the black screen and cursor hang constantly is related to Explorer (not to be confused with Explorer).
Alternatively, if the system still comes to life, you can use the restart of the process (if the screen hangs, you have to act blindly). Here you will need to call the "Task Manager", complete the explorer.exe process through the PCM menu, and then start again. There is also a quick restart command in the menu, but, it seems, it is not effective enough, therefore, it is better to first complete the process completely, and only then restart it.
You can use another method. For normal loading, a space bar is pressed several times at startup, and then the Tab key five times.
Enabling Quick Launch
All actions to configure the system, of course, it is desirable to carry out in safe mode (this is not mandatory, but recommended).
But the black screen and the Windows 10 cursor may also appear during the installation of the power scheme, which for some reason failed. In this case, you need to go to the appropriate section from the “Control Panel” or call it from the PCM menu on the battery icon on the laptop. On the main page, you just need to tick off the quick launch line when you exit hibernation or hibernation state (if enabled).
Disabling Reactivation
The black screen and cursor may also be due to the activation of the reactivation service. Accordingly, the solution is to disable it.
Using the "Explorer" or any other file manager, you need to enable the display of hidden objects and find the Windows Activation Technologies directory. On 64-bit systems, it is located directly in the Windows directory; on systems with 32-bit architecture, it should be looked for in the System32 folder. Next, you need to delete both the folder and all its contents (if deleting the entire directory at once proves impossible, the elements inside it will have to be manually deleted one by one). After that, you need to perform a complete reboot of the system. Perhaps after this the black screen and the user cursor will no longer bother.
Similar actions can be performed in the services section (stop and disable the start of the process), but this will take more time.
Brief Summary
Here, in fact, are all the methods that make it possible to find a solution in such an unpleasant situation. Of course, far from all aspects related to the fact that instead of loading the system a black screen and cursor appear, however, these situations are the most common. And the fact that video accelerator drivers are to blame is not always the main reason (except for conflicts between the system and previously installed drivers, if Windows 10 left them unchanged during installation). Here, as we see, the question is also in the system itself. No matter how good it may be, there are enough shortcomings in it. By the way, at the worst, you can simply try to change the resolution of the stationary monitor from its own menu. Of course, there is little hope of resolving the problem, but as they say, what the hell is not joking ...
But seriously, when nothing helps at all, try rewriting the boot sector using the following combinations:
- bootrec.exe / fixmbr first;
- then bootrec.exe / fixboot;
- and finally bootrec.exe / rebuildbcd.
This operation helps in 99% of 100 cases. When booting from removable media, a notification may be issued stating that these commands are not supported. It's okay, you can ignore them or use the sfc / scannow system file check command before executing them, along with chkdsk / x / f / r and the shutdown -t 0 -r –f command to reboot and check the system’s health.
If none of the options is suitable, you will have to check the system for viruses by booting from a medium such as Kaspersky Rescue Disk, and if the system comes to your senses, use the Microsoft Fix It utility, as well as an additional tool - DLL Suite for recovery, download and integration into Windows 10 environment missing or incorrectly installed dynamic libraries.