Author Topic: Black screen when Windows boots! (Read 34767 times)

TLG11 · « **on:** September 16, 2013, 02:27:05 am »

I have a problem after installing my new GTX 760 graphics card. Now the PC takes much longer to get to the boot screen when starting. After the "starting Windows" screen appears the screen usually turns black, turquose, white, grey. This pretty much makes the PC completely freeze. I have tried many things, excluding reseating the card, checking the interior of the case for any odd things, trying a different card. I wonder if I should try using this utility to attempt repairing Windows, as Nvidia support advice me to do using the Windows disc. I want to give this program a shot though. Do you know about this particular problem? It ONLY happened after putting the new card in, and only after a few hard reboots from the solid screen freeze the BIOS screen took ages to load. (The point from where the screen is inactive to where it shows the AMD logo or whatever.

EDIT: I must add that I can run the pc in safe mode. After a while being in safe mode I can most of the time reboot and load Windows relatively normally, and have no problems while it is on. However often when it works the screen just becomes some kind of boggy green color, but with a mouse that moves, and after a while (can be a long time) the applications start appearing. First the background image, then the bottom bar, then the icons, then some other applications and so on.

Shane · « **Reply #1 on:** September 16, 2013, 03:13:24 pm »

I have seen this happen on a few customer machines with different network cards.

Each of them had a different reason, but here are the most common.

1. Power supply isnt strong enough and isnt giving enough power to the card.
2. The card itself is bad
3. Bad drivers, when the drivers where uninstalled it ran fine, install drivers problem was back. Used a different version driver.
4. Bad memory. But of course when it was bad memory I had programs crashing as well, so most likely not bad memory here.

I had my own video card, (My last one) where when I would first turn on the machine I would have lines through the screen and the system would blue screen. I would restart and it was fine and would play games and no problems. Only happen at first turning on the computer. For me it was the power supply. When I first turn the system on the power supply wasnt giving enough juice right away, after the power supply was on for a few and warmed up it worked fine. Once I put in a better power supply the problem went away.

So as you can see it can be a number of things. And yes it can be the OS as well, but not normally since it worked fine with your old card.

So the trick is to start going down the list and try each thing

Shane

TLG11 · « **Reply #2 on:** September 16, 2013, 11:53:03 pm »

1. My power supply is 850W I believe, and it's not even that old (1 year more or less). My system should run fine on just 650W anyway.

2. The card might very well be the cause as I also get artifacts from time to time outside fullscreen applications. I should try reseating it and check the cables. If that doesn't work I could send the card back to Gigabyte.

3. I have tried many many drivers, even modifying the config files to allow the old 314.22 drivers. No luck. The artifacts might be from bad drivers or installs too right?

4. Well I wouldn't expect that.

EDIT: When I started the PC now I got a disc read error. However after a restart it worked again with no problem.

Shane · « **Reply #3 on:** September 17, 2013, 11:25:48 am »

My old power supply was a 700w, it was just a bad power supply where it didnt fully power up fast enough. But for me a simple reboot fixed it since the power supply was up and running fully.

Honestly it is either a bad card, or bad power supply. So far seems like the card.

Can you put your old card back in and see how it does? Or do you have another system you can test the new card in?

I have seen where the only a certain cable from the power supply was bad before, so by testing the card in another system you can confirm if the problem is the card or the power supply

For me, on my old power supply I thought it was a bad card, because everything worked fine, and in fact besides having to do the reset at a fresh power up I used it for almost a year before I replaced it. I played my games and everything without a single problem. The only problem I had was when I plugged in a usb drive the system would blue screen or one of the drives in my raid 1 would report as unplugged for 1 or 2 sec and then show plugged back in, breaking my raid mirror. This was because the power suply was causing a surge when I plugged in the usb and one of my drives wasn't getting the power it needed so would show up as unplugged.

Since my new power supply I haven't had it happen once.

I only say this just to show that sometimes it can be the power supply. So by putting the card in another system you are testing with all different hardware. If the card has trouble in a different system then you know for sure it is a bad card.

Shane

TLG11 · « **Reply #4 on:** September 17, 2013, 11:35:22 am »

Thanks I will try what you said, but only after reseating the card though!

I have to admit being very lazy. I simply can't bother pulling out all cables and sliding the big aluminum case out of the shelf. However some day soon I expect myself to do it.

I will reply with results when I'm done.

Shane · « **Reply #5 on:** September 17, 2013, 11:37:42 am »

Resetting the card is a good idea as well. I have had memory chips be that way before. Sometimes it just needs a better seat

Could have just got some dust in the slot and it isnt allowing for a good connection.

Shane

TLG11 · « **Reply #6 on:** September 20, 2013, 12:10:02 pm »

I now have a new and much more urgent issue. My E: drive just stopped showing up in Windows. Much of my schoolwork and games were in there... It shows up fine in BIOS but just doesn't work in Windows... I'm feeling terrible from all these issues....

Shane · « **Reply #7 on:** September 20, 2013, 02:05:21 pm »

Ok, check the device manager, does it show up in there?

If it does then go to the Disk Management, does it show up?

Post a screen shot if you can.

Sometimes in Windows, it will simply stop assigning a drive letter to external drives, it is an easy fix if that is what is happening.

Also you always want a backup, which is just a copy of your files. Keep a copy of your work on your computer as well. This way if either dies you have a copy on the other.

Shane

TLG11 · « **Reply #8 on:** September 20, 2013, 05:30:08 pm »

It shows up in neither. Of what I remember, only C:, D:, G: and a certain partition reserved by the system is there in Disk Management.

I never backed up E: because it was the least used drive I had. In itself it was almost a backup storage for my schoolwork.

It would be odd that this happens. All program and game icons from E: were normal when I started the PC. Only much later did I see that there was no E:. I tried restarting, but after that all the icons leading to E: were pictureless and suggests that this occured while the PC was on today.

EDIT: I looked in Event Logger. It mentions finding an error with the controller on \Device\Ide\IdePort2, followed by "\Device\Harddisk3\DR3 is not yet ready for access." (Roughly translated). Then following that there are three warnings that an error was detected on \Device\Harddisk3\DR3 when doing a switch action (or something).

My guess would be that something with the cable or power might be the culprit. What do you think?

EDIT 2: I found that Windows wants to update the Universal Serial Bus (it's icon got a yellow triangle warning on it). It refers to a broken link, but I found it later on ASUS homepage. That could not have caused the issue could it?

HELP!!!!! MY D: DRIVE ALSO DISAPPEARED NOW!

Shane · « **Reply #9 on:** September 21, 2013, 01:13:50 pm »

Those errors can also mean a bad drive.

Do you have anything int he device manager with a yellow ! on it?

If so post a screen shot for me.

Shane

TLG11 · « **Reply #10 on:** September 21, 2013, 02:17:56 pm »

I updated the USB Controller and D: appeared again like nothing had happened (it did however rearrange my desktop and document shortcuts as they are redirected to D:). E: however is still not appearing. But it the same thing happened with that, it should still be intact. Just that it doesn't show up in Windows anymore.

I don't have a screenshot for the USB Controller thing anymore. I installed a download for it and D: came back. The warning sign disappeared too. I seem to be forced a reinstall of Windows, or alternatively use the tool provided here. Advice? I'm confused.

Shane · « **Reply #11 on:** September 21, 2013, 05:38:12 pm »

If it is an external drive then the best test is to simply plug it into another machine.

If it doesnt show up in that machine either then you know it is the drive. If it does show up in the other machine then you know it is something on your system

Shane

jraju · « **Reply #12 on:** September 21, 2013, 08:34:02 pm »

refer tlg letter 11 -9-2013
Open the windows explorer. Go to Folder options by selecting tools options. In the General tab, in the Navigation Pane enable the Show All folders and all folders corresponding the folders boxes. Now go to the explorer and see whether E drive is present

TLG11 · « **Reply #13 on:** September 22, 2013, 02:55:46 am »

Scary thing happened. When I booted today there was a squeeling sound and a pop coming from inside the PC (couldn't be anything else than E: drive). The sounds were very faint, but at that point I lost all hope in ever regaining what is on there.

jraju · « **Reply #14 on:** September 22, 2013, 03:35:59 am »

Hi, may be your Smps has become unusable. This does not cause loss of data. try replacing the smps and then try to boot. The POP is a electrical surge that denotes, that there is some short circuit or extra surge of pulse, damaging the smps. That could be tried.
Shane would be happy to help you more in this regard, as i have also experienced and then replacing the smps, the computer becomes normal.
It has nothing to do with the drive or data. It is a electrical tab, distributing the electricity to the computers.

jraju · « **Reply #15 on:** September 22, 2013, 03:39:16 am »

Hi, Is your computer atleast starts or no lights showing?

TLG11 · « **Reply #16 on:** September 22, 2013, 04:06:01 am »

Quote from: jraju on September 22, 2013, 03:35:59 am

Hi, may be your Smps has become unusable. This does not cause loss of data. try replacing the smps and then try to boot. The POP is a electrical surge that denotes, that there is some short circuit or extra surge of pulse, damaging the smps. That could be tried.
Shane would be happy to help you more in this regard, as i have also experienced and then replacing the smps, the computer becomes normal.
It has nothing to do with the drive or data. It is a electrical tab, distributing the electricity to the computers.

I don't know anything about HDDs, so I have no idea how to proceed. The "pop" is more of a quick sliding-back sound. It's hard to describe. Should I get help from somebody with knowledge about it?

2nd question: It's not my main HDD. It's a spare drive that I used to have files from my old PC on. About 4-5 months ago I cleared it, formatted, and put my saved school material, some games, some music softwares in. Then one evening it just stopped appearing. Now today it starts that wheezing/squeak followed by a pop/slide. I can screenshot the error in event logger. It's the same that happened to D:, but D: recovered after I installed the USB Controller. Maybe it was that driver that permanently damaged E:?

Shane · « **Reply #17 on:** September 23, 2013, 10:45:50 am »

Sounds like you might have what is know as the click of death.

It is a click sound from the drive. It means the drive is dead.

In the hard drive you have 3 spinning platters and a magnetic arm that goes between them that does all the reading and writing. The click you here is when the control chip for the arm is messed up or something else has and it is just the arm moving back and fourth and clicking when it reaches the end. The arm isnt responding. So while the data is still on the platters the arm cant read or write anything.

At least that is one reason for the click of death.

Shane

TLG11 · « **Reply #18 on:** September 24, 2013, 06:49:22 am »

Quote from: Shane on September 23, 2013, 10:45:50 am

Sounds like you might have what is know as the click of death.

It is a click sound from the drive. It means the drive is dead.

In the hard drive you have 3 spinning platters and a magnetic arm that goes between them that does all the reading and writing. The click you here is when the control chip for the arm is messed up or something else has and it is just the arm moving back and fourth and clicking when it reaches the end. The arm isnt responding. So while the data is still on the platters the arm cant read or write anything.

At least that is one reason for the click of death.

Shane

Yeah. I'm thinking about buying some new harddrives and copy all my important info there, aswell as installing a brand new Windows on one of the new harddrives. I also know my music production software is quite cranky about how it wants to operate, so I wonder if it will pretty much break my current projects or something.

I might have gathered a bit too much personal stuff on my PC over the years. I'm just hesitating because of what 'might' happen to my data once I switch, and what I might miss, or what can be lost if the other harddrive fails aswell. It's all a weighing of "I need to do this as a precaution." and "Can I keep on like this and be fine for a while longer?".

I became pretty paranoid about my other HDDs which are about the same age. I'm thinking they might break any day, so right now I just keep the PC off. I know harddrives might fail any day with no warning though. No telling when. I'm just unsure what to do right now.

I was told a big electronics do HDD repairs that might just fix my E: drive. Would that work, or is that a no-go with click of death?

Shane · « **Reply #19 on:** September 25, 2013, 02:29:42 pm »

Which is why in every system in my house, especially my work computer I always have my drives setup in Raid 1 (Mirroring)

So I have 2 drives installed setup in raid 1, one drive fails I have everything on my mirrored drive. And that is on top of my nightly backups I do to my external drive

Shane

TLG11 · « **Reply #20 on:** September 25, 2013, 02:56:48 pm »

Quote from: Shane on September 25, 2013, 02:29:42 pm

Which is why in every system in my house, especially my work computer I always have my drives setup in Raid 1 (Mirroring)

So I have 2 drives installed setup in raid 1, one drive fails I have everything on my mirrored drive. And that is on top of my nightly backups I do to my external drive

Shane

That sure sounds safe. I'm thinking about using a NAS backup thing. I guess it's possible to set up a system that can take care of the backups. Or as you say I could get an external drive and let it do safety copies over to it. How is durability for external drives? Are we both talking about usb powered ones?

Shane · « **Reply #21 on:** September 27, 2013, 06:40:56 pm »

External drives are just normal hard drives inside a case.

A backup is northing more than a copy, and you want that copy on a different device in case one device dies.

So mirror hard drives, and then I use 2 external drives for backups which I rotate and keep one in a fire proof safe while the other one is hooked up. Then I just swap them every day.

Shane

TLG11 · « **Reply #22 on:** September 28, 2013, 01:42:46 am »

Quote from: Shane on September 27, 2013, 06:40:56 pm

External drives are just normal hard drives inside a case.

A backup is northing more than a copy, and you want that copy on a different device in case one device dies.

So mirror hard drives, and then I use 2 external drives for backups which I rotate and keep one in a fire proof safe while the other one is hooked up. Then I just swap them every day.

Shane

Your solution is the best, but I think I will do this for starters atleast:

1. Buy a new system HDD and a new HDD for the important stuff, and let my older drives handle less important things. Do you recommend that I throw them all away though? They are probably 3+ years old.

2. Buy a WD My Passport® 1TB Black for backup. Is that a good choice?

Shane · « **Reply #23 on:** September 30, 2013, 11:49:49 am »

The older the drives the slower they tend to be. But if they work then you can use them.

I use Western Digital drives myself. Both my external drivers are 1 TB WD drives.

And remember the point of a backup is to have a copy. SO make sure you have a copy on your drives and the backup drives.

I have had customers tell me "Oh I dont keep it on my system I just keep it on my backup drive" then I have to explain to them when their backup drive dies, which they all do, they would lose it. The goal is to have a copy

SO make that your goal, to have as many copies on as many different devices that makes you feel your stuff is safe. Every hardware dies at some point.

Shane

TLG11 · « **Reply #24 on:** September 30, 2013, 12:08:05 pm »

Yeah I agree with that. Can't have too many backups.

I opened up the PC and took out the faulty harddrive. I also used the time to change my GPU's PCI slot. However starting the PC up again brought me to the desktop and installing drivers for the card on that slot. After finishing it prompted me to restart. After the restart the screen stops responding. After "Windows is starting" and before "Welcome" the screen just lose the input. Starting in safe mode works, but even after updating all the drivers I can't start normally anymore. Should I reseat it to PCI slot 1 and try again?