Windows 7 B(lack)SOD...but different!

rickatnight11

New Member
My buddy came home from Christmas vacation to find his desktop suffering from the Black Screen of Death, but it's acting a bit differently from most people's experience.

  • Same black background with only mouse response, but he never gets to the log in screen
  • He can't launch Task Manager
  • Doesn't have the Computer icon or window that some people get

The only fixes I've found for this require the ability to boot into Safe Mode or use the Task Manager, neither of which he can do. Is there another fix for this issue?

XP has an option to repair an OS straight from the disk...the only repair option I've found for Windows 7 merely fixes boot problems. Is there a way to repair the OS if there isn't another fix for his problem?
 
Thanks, Trouble, but that method requires the ability to boot and log into Windows 7, which is the problem he's having.
 
Sorry, that didn't help. I see by the OP that he can't boot into safemode, but I was wondering if he could boot into safemode Command Prompt. If so, I've had some success in tricking my way back into safemode from there. Try it and see if it boots with the command prompt screen, if it does, close it and press ctrl+alt+del and choose start task manager, then on the file menu choose new task run and type explorer.exe and tick the box that say start task as administrator and see if you get a safe mode desktop, this has worked for me before in Vista and more recently in Win7, not sure if it will work for you or not. Let me know.
 
Ah, I see what you mean now. He tried this, but he merely get's the black screen with mouse again. No command prompt loads, nor can he get any other response, such as the Task Manager.
 
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Assuming that he has disconnected all external pereipherals and is just booting with a keyboard mouse and monitor and all three of those are attached properly and in good repair and he has exhausted the repair options from the Windows Install DVD, and he has inspected the inside of the desktop for any poorly seated memory, add on cards, cpu and associated cabling, then I would imagine the only option left would be a backup of critical files and data and a clean install. Sorry, I'm just out of ideas.
 
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Hi,

There are repair utilities on the Win 7 DVD.

Boot from DVD, When the "Install" dialog appears, at the bottom right of the dialog there is a link that offers a repair/diagnose windows link. Click that and then look at the options. you can even do a system restore from there if my memory serves me right.

Basher
 
Thanks for the help guys. The Repair option from the DVD only really fixes boot errors. There's no real OS repair like the XP disks have. Out of everything I love about Windows 7, that's pretty unfortunate.

He ended up backing everything up and reinstalling Windows. Too bad. I would have loved to have found a solution for him.
 
Sorry to hear, but I suspected that was going to be the case. Now remind him to employ the new backup application that's built into Win7 and create an image. Really works well, creates a .vhd (virtual hard disk) file which you can mount and examine very similar to what acronis does with their .tib files. I like it and have stopped buying new versions of Acronis.
 
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