Despite all 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 system boot, a black screen and a cursor appear, which sometimes may be absent. 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 operating systems of the Windows family, such a problem, as a rule, is a consequence of incorrect operation of the video adapter, despite the fact that when you turn on the computer, the BIOS signals that everything is in order with the system and all devices are working normally (this is determined by a long beep from the system speaker).
But not everything is 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. BUTmeanwhile, it is worth paying attention to some components of the OS itself. First of all, this is incorrect operation or malfunction of the explorer.exe service, disabled fast startup, activated relicensing, outdated, incorrectly installed or missing video card drivers.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 a computer or laptop to shut down and then reboot (the method, of course, is quite barbaric). But after that, either a hard disk check for damage to system files and bad sectors may 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 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 over an existing update (for example, Windows 7), you can use the rollback tool (only if the 30-day period has not expired since installation).
To do this, enter the sectionparameters and select the update and security section there, and then use the appropriate line.
By the way, even after that, a black screen and a cursor may appear when starting Windows 7 (meaning the situation after returning to the old OS). And here the reason must be looked for already in the drivers of the graphics accelerator.
Problem: black screen on system startup. Update graphics card drivers
Updating video card drivers is a fairly effective method. It often helps in situations where two cards are installed in the system - discrete and integrated. Mostly failures 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 Prompt
The black screen and cursor when starting Windows 7 or 10 can be removed with another universal method that many computer users are not aware of. You need to use the command console (it doesn't matter whether it's on a booted system or when starting from removable media).
In an installed system loaded in Safe Mode, the command line must be launched as an administrator; when booting from a disk or flash drive, the choice is not required. The line bcdedit / set {globalsettings} advancedoptions true is written in the console, after which it will be possible to select tools when restartingto work with the system.
The command line in the current system is called through the "Run" menu with the cmd combination, in the recovery console on removable media, use Shift + F10.
In the console itself, you need to register sfc /scannow and wait for the integrity check of system files to complete. Perhaps this procedure will help. And really, well, do not overwrite the entire bootloader and boot area (although this is quite simple to do).
Restart service explorer.exe
Another variant faced by users who are trying to figure out why the black screen and the cursor hangs all the time is related to the Explorer service (not to be confused with "Explorer").
Alternatively, if the system still comes to life, you can use the process restart (if the screen hangs, you will have to act blindly). Here you need to call the "Task Manager", end the explorer.exe process through the RMB menu, and then start it again. There is also a quick restart command in the menu, but I think it is not effective enough, so it's better to complete the process first, and only then restart it.
You can use another method. For normal loading at startup, press the spacebar several times, and then five times the Tab key.
Enabling fast startup
All actions to configure the system, of course, it is desirable to perform in safe mode (this is not mandatory, but recommended).
But the black screen and Windows 10 cursor can also appear when installing a power plan that for some reason failed. In this case, you need to go to the appropriate section from the "Control Panel" or call it from the RMB menu on the battery icon on the laptop. On the main page, all you need to do is tick the quick launch line when waking up from sleep or hibernation (if enabled).
Disabling Reactivation
The black screen and cursor may also be the result of the reactivation service being enabled. Accordingly, the solution is to turn it off.
Using "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 is 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 that, the black screen and the user's cursor will no longer bother.
Similar actions can be performed in the services section (stop and disable the start of the process), but it will take more time.
Summary of results
Here, in fact, are all the methods that allow finding 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 a cursor appear, however, these situations are the most common. And the fact that the video accelerator drivers are to blame for everything is not always the main reason (except perhaps 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 worst, you can just try to change the resolution of a stationary monitor from its own menu. Of course, there is little hope for the elimination of the problem, but, as they say, what the hell is not joking …
But seriously, when nothing helps at all, try overwriting the boot sector using the following combinations:
- first bootrec.exe /fixmbr;
- then - bootrec.exe /fixboot;
- and finally - bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd.
This operation helps in 99% of cases out of 100. When booting from removable media, you may receive a notification 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 the way - chkdsk /x/f/r and the shutdown -t 0 -r –f command to reboot and check the system.
If none of the options work, you will have to check the system for viruses by booting from media like Kaspersky Rescue Disk, and if the system comes to its senses, use the Microsoft utilityFix It, as well as an additional tool - DLL Suite for restoring, downloading and integrating missing or incorrectly installed dynamic libraries into the Windows 10 environment.
