BleepingComputer.com: Black Screen At Startup On Vista

Hi,Ok this is getting to be very irritating that I can't figure out whats wrong here. First off after I boot up my computer,it'll say microsoft corporation with the loading bar above that,then it'll show the Vista logo,after that right when the screen is gonna come up to type in my password to enter my desktop,the screen goes black. where I end up having to shut down the computer the improper way.

At times now it does this 2 or 3 times in a row,where then after that everything works just fine as if nothing was wrong. Something weird I've realized after having this happened multiple times. when I start up says the microsoft corporation with the loading bar. Say if that bar loads just for a split second or so then moves on to Vista logo,all of the time it does that black screen after that. where as when the bar loads for several seconds,normally everything works after that. something isn't clicking right I guess.

I've tried re-installing windows,where at first it worked right for 2 or 3 times I started it up and just now it started doing it again where I had to restart 3 times the improper way before it worked. thanks

Can you get into Safe Mode?
Does the problem ever occur in Safe Mode? (this'll help to verify if it's a driver issue or not)
Do you have all the latest Windows Updates?
Have you updated your video drivers to the latest available version from the manufacturer of your video chipset (nVidia, ATI, Intel, etc)?

Hi there,well I updated my Nvidia video and anything else I can think of and it still does it. where I can tell by just that loading bar above the microsoft corporation,first thing that comes up when I boot up. where if it loads just for a split second or 2 then moves on to the next step,then it'll end up doing that black screen right when that log on screen pops up to enter my desktop. where as if it bar loads for several seconds then it'll work just fine.

Last night for example. I had to restart the improper way 5 times in a row before it worked correctly. just now it didn't work twice in a row,so I shut it down again,restarted by hitting F8 to get into safe mode,the screen came up for safe mode,where I choice that and everything worked but thats just me trying it out once,where I probably should try it out few more times.. I Just don't get it at all. At times by shutting off the improper way,when I restart that screen will pop up about either choose start up repair or just the regular mode. So i'll click on start up repair and it'll still do that black screen.

You may want to read this KB article to see if the situation applies to you: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932539
Unfortunately, I received an email from Microsoft stating that the update wasn't available - but there was a link to their support center for additional assistance in the email.
But, you can still check the version info in the article to see if you have the updated versions or not (I didn't check because I was trying to get the update for computers that I fix at work).


ARRRGGGHHH!!!!! Stupid !%^(#*&^ email! Found this link while trying to find the fix on Technet: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/938194
It supercedes the previous link and has the fix contained in it. It doesn't appear on my work computer, so I suspect that it isn't included in your Windows Updates.

While it's not much help now, SP1 may contain these fixes also.

OK thanks,i'll check it out. yeah I spoke too soon about it working under safe mode. When I boot up,I hit F8 for the screen to come up,then I clicked on Safe mode,where normally when its working i'll get this long list of files posted,well this time it only loaded a few then went on to the next step,eventually the black screen came up. very irritating haha just started doing this recently. not a since day 1 type of thing.

Ok I clicked on that link and downloaded that file. right now i'm just trying anything. haha anyway I downloaded it and clicked on open,after loading a bit,the part where it says serching for updates..a popup then comes up that says "the update does not apply to your system" Don't you just love computers and every little issue. lol

You might have a damaged User Profile causing the problem.

Why not try creating a new one in User Accounts -- or for test purposes enable the "guest" account and see if the problem still occurs?

Also if the problem is relatively recent you could try doing a System Restore to fix it. These can be undone if not helpful.

For that update that you tried to apply -- which version did you download? You want the first one unless you are running a 64 bit version of Vista.