Black Screen Vista

[Richard Waldron]

Hi,

I have a problem currently with Windows Vista Ultimate(Integrale), this
occurred last Friday evening. I was finishing off a word document when
suddenly all went black.
As an end user I assumed this was a system crash and so rebooted my system,
then ran registry repair, then checked for viruses etc with Live OneCare,
eventually reloaded Vista all to no avail. Each time I rebooted I was greeted
by a black screen after logging in.
I called my tech support who could not help but I did manage to gain access
to the internet and after a short while found an item entitled Black Screen
Death. This reported that all my problems where due to Microsoft thinking I
had a non genuine copy of Vista it went on to explain how you could
circum-navigate the problem (this I did and even though I have to repeat this
process each time I log on I can use Windows normally).
I purchased my copy of Vista Ulitimate from a large chain store at the not
give away price of over 400 Euros and registered the same online on the day
of installation and have been running for sometime with other Microsoft
products including Live OneCare.
Why then am I suddenly crippled for an entire weekend by Microsoft security
and how can I rectify the situation perminently

Thank you in advance

 

[Malke]

Hi,

I have a problem currently with Windows Vista Ultimate(Integrale), this
occurred last Friday evening. I was finishing off a word document when
suddenly all went black.
As an end user I assumed this was a system crash and so rebooted my
system, then ran registry repair, then checked for viruses etc with Live
OneCare, eventually reloaded Vista all to no avail. Each time I rebooted I
was greeted by a black screen after logging in.
I called my tech support who could not help but I did manage to gain
access to the internet and after a short while found an item entitled
Black Screen Death. This reported that all my problems where due to
Microsoft thinking I had a non genuine copy of Vista it went on to explain
how you could circum-navigate the problem (this I did and even though I
have to repeat this process each time I log on I can use Windows
normally). I purchased my copy of Vista Ulitimate from a large chain store
at the not give away price of over 400 Euros and registered the same
online on the day of installation and have been running for sometime with
other Microsoft products including Live OneCare.
Why then am I suddenly crippled for an entire weekend by Microsoft
security and how can I rectify the situation perminently

Your assumption that your black screen comes from Microsoft is questionable.
How did you determine this? Only from something you read on the Internet or
from a message on your computer? We don't have enough information to give
you an accurate answer about the cause. How did you manage to "gain access
to the Internet" with the black screen problem?

Give some solid details about your computer and its current state. It sounds
to me more like a hardware failure but it is impossible to tell from your
post.

Malke

 

[Richard Waldron]

Hi Malke,

I checked with my tech support and they confirmed that I had no hardware
problems with a diagnostic programme (conflict errors etc). This would also
be bourne out by the fact that I circumvented the problem my system was fully
functional.

When the indicent fist occured I received not message at all, however, when
I reinstalled Vista I received a message informing me that Microsoft could
not verify my version of Windows automatically (this was noted in the bottom
right hand corner of the screen). I then verified windows manually on the
internet via micorsoft security centre, rebooted the message did not reappear
but the screen remained blank.

Even with the Black Screen you can access all programmes, drives etc but
through the drop down menus, you simply do not have access to the windows
explorer and the article posted on the internet indicated that you could
manually access explorer via the same menus?

My status remains the same as before, I still cannot simply reboot, I have
to repeat the same process each time, which is time consuming qnd annoying.

 

[Malke]

I checked with my tech support and they confirmed that I had no hardware
problems with a diagnostic programme (conflict errors etc). This would
also be bourne out by the fact that I circumvented the problem my system
was fully functional.

If your tech support people didn't test the hard drive (and other hardware
components) with a diagnostic program run outside of Windows, then the
hardware testing wasn't adequate. If your tech support people are
long-distance, you may wish to take the machine to a local professional. Do
not use someone from a BigComputerStore type of place. If your tech support
are local and they tested correctly, then the issue is being caused by
something else.

When the indicent fist occured I received not message at all, however,
when I reinstalled Vista I received a message informing me that Microsoft
could not verify my version of Windows automatically (this was noted in
the bottom right hand corner of the screen). I then verified windows
manually on the internet via micorsoft security centre, rebooted the
message did not reappear but the screen remained blank.

The fact that you were not able to activate Windows over the Internet is
completely understandable and does not mean you have - or were told you
have - a pirated copy. It simply means that the key was still in use and
all you needed to do was choose to activate by telephone and stay on the
line to get a human. You would tell the human that you reinstalled Windows
and they would activate Vista.

Even with the Black Screen you can access all programmes, drives etc but
through the drop down menus, you simply do not have access to the windows
explorer and the article posted on the internet indicated that you could
manually access explorer via the same menus?

Something you are running has caused the issue. It could be viruses/malware,
it could be a legitimate program, it could be bad drivers for the video
card. There is simply no way for me to know without seeing the computer.
Here are a few suggestions:

A. First, of course you will make sure that your computer is not infected.
Even though you did a clean install of Windows, there is always the
possibility that you are then reinstalling some program that is malware and
thus reinfecting yourself.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

B. If the computer is clean, you will boot into Safe Mode. Do this by
repeatedly tapping the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will get
you to the correct menu to choose Safe Mode. If the problem doesn't occur
in Safe Mode, you have something starting with Windows that is causing the
issue. It could be a driver (probably the video driver) or some other
legitimate program/process.

B1. Make sure you are using the correct drivers for your hardware. See this
general information about drivers:

Never get drivers from Windows Update. Get them from:

1. The device mftr.'s website; OR
2. The motherboard mftr.'s website if hardware is onboard; OR
3. The OEM's website for your specific machine if you have an OEM computer
(HP, Dell, Sony, etc.).

Read the installation instructions on the website where you get the drivers.

To find out what hardware is in your computer:

1. Read any documentation you got when you bought the computer.
2. If the computer is OEM, go to the OEM's website for your specific model
machine and look at the specs (you'll be there to get the drivers anyway)
3. Download, install and run a free system inventory program like Belarc
Advisor or System Information for Windows.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.gtopala.com/ - System Information for Windows

B2. If all drivers are correct, then do clean-boot troubleshooting to see
what is running to cause this issue.

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;929135

The free Autoruns program is very useful for managing your Startup -
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx - Autoruns

C. You can also see if repairing winlogon helps, although if you are getting
this issue on a clean install of Vista, something is damaging winlogon and
fixing the underlying cause is preferable.

From MVP Rick Rogerts - The shell entry may be damaged in the registry. From
Task Manager, click 'new task' on the applications tab. Type regedit and
click ok. Agree to the UAC prompt, then expand the branches to reach this
one:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Click on the Winlogon key, then on the right find the "shell" string. Double
click it, change the value data to read "explorer.exe" (without the quotes)
and click ok. Then close the registry editor and restart the system by
entering another new task as 'shutdown /r'.

That should give you plenty to work on. Standard disclaimer: I can't see and
test your computer myself, so these are just suggestions based on many
years of being a professional computer tech; suggestions based on what
you've written. You should not take my suggestions as a definitive
diagnosis. If you can't do the work yourself (and there is no shame in
admitting this isn't your cup of tea), take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of
BigComputerStore/GeekSquad). If possible, have all your data backed up
before you take the machine into a shop.

Malke

 

[Richard Waldron]

Hi Malke,

Have downloaded all software and completed all steps as noted in your post
of yesterday, still have exactly the same problem.
However, last step as noted by Rick Rogerts regarding registry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

I cannot find the last path \WinLogon in the CurrentVersion path?

Regards

 

[Malke]

Hi Malke,

Have downloaded all software and completed all steps as noted in your post
of yesterday, still have exactly the same problem.
However, last step as noted by Rick Rogerts regarding registry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

I cannot find the last path \WinLogon in the CurrentVersion path?

Path? What path? The entry is in the registry. If you don't know what you're
looking at, you should stay out of the registry and take the machine to a
professional computer repair shop.

Malke

 

[Richard Waldron]

Hi,

All now solved :

I ran the regedit.exe from task manager and located the following the
registry;

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

and then changed the String data Value "Shell" to read Explorer.exe

now boots up everytime.


Thanks for your help Malke

 

[Malke]

Hi,

All now solved :

I ran the regedit.exe from task manager and located the following the
registry;

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

and then changed the String data Value "Shell" to read Explorer.exe

now boots up everytime.


Thanks for your help Malke

Glad to hear you got it sorted. Thanks for taking the time to post back.

Malke

 

[Lorraine]

My name is lorraine and i have been reading posts for the last 4 hrs im tired
and just when i was about to give up i came across this post by MALKE i tried
ur suggestion about the registry and i just had to come back and say "MALKE,
YOU ROCK!!!!!!" i have had my laptop for 2 weeks its brand new and i thought
i was doomed lol i'm so very grateful for ur post and i wish u all the best
xxxx

 

[Malke]

My name is lorraine and i have been reading posts for the last 4 hrs im
tired and just when i was about to give up i came across this post by
MALKE i tried ur suggestion about the registry and i just had to come back
and say "MALKE, YOU ROCK!!!!!!" i have had my laptop for 2 weeks its brand
new and i thought i was doomed lol i'm so very grateful for ur post and i
wish u all the best

Thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you got things sorted.

P.S. - You're usually "doomed" in computing only if you don't back up your
data regularly. So if you're not doing that, you should. ;-)

Malke

 

[SpyCatcher]

When my system starts or restarts I get a black screen with the mouse cursor
visable. The registry edit you suggest is already set as recommended, I still
get the balck screen.

Any ideas how to fix?

Thank you