Windows 7 boots to an unresponsive black screen with mouse cursor...

Anonymous
2012-04-05T04:26:16+00:00

Started up the PC one day and it booted to a black screen. I didn't change the configuration in any way, it just happened suddenly.

What it does:

The PC turns on like normal. I get the bios screen. I get the Windows logo screen. Then I get a black screen with a mouse cursor in the middle.

I can move the mouse, but the buttons don't do anything--left or right click.  No keys on the keyboard change the screen. Ctrl+Alt+Del does nothing. Windows key does nothing. Esc does nothing, etc. At this point the only option is to hold down the power button and turn it off.

What I've tried:

I tried to start it in safe mode, but the same thing happens. It shows the system files that are loading. The last file it shows loading is Windows/system32/DRIVERS/AtiPcie.sys then it goes to a black screen with a mouse cursor again; only this time it is in safe mode resolution so the mouse cursor is larger and not as sharp. Also, no keyboard strokes have any affect just as with normal mode.

It is a Dell Inspiron, so it came with an onboard repair utility. I used the Startup Repair tool, but it found no problems. The diagnostics tools found no issues with the hard drive or any of the other major system components. However, this error came up which appears to be related to the multi-card (SD, micro SD, etc.) reader on the front of the PC:

error code 4400:011A

msg:SCSI_1-000 DISK_generic-_SD/MMC - target not ready

It seems that this is unrelated to the black screen. I unplugged the card reader and still had the same problem. Otherwise, it passes all other tests the onboard diagnostic utility has including, memory tests, fan tests, hard drive tests, etc.

I have not, however, tried a full system restore yet. From what I've read in several forums, many have tried this in similar situations and still had the same problem. Since there are several files I'd rather not lose, I wanted to explore all other avenues.

Sorry if this is a repeat question in the forum. Most of the other situations seemed similar, but there was always something they could do that I could not, like press Ctrl+Alt+Del or boot into safe mode or whatever.

Here is as much of the system info that I can gather without having the PC on (not mine, I'm doing this for a friend):

-Dell Inspiron (I think it's a 570)

-OS: Windows 7 Home

-AMD Athlon II X2

-Integrated Video Card (I tried both the VGA output and the HDMI, which he normally uses, and both give the same results) ATI Radeon HD 4200

I hope I've been thorough enough to allow you to help me without wasting any of your time, and I thank you in advance.

Windows for home | Other | Input and language

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-01-27T17:36:07+00:00

    This fix applies to my model y-580 and similar Lenovo laptops.  Upon startup, mine would boot to a black screen with cursor about 1 time in 5.  After much frustrating trial and error, I found the problem.  It's a Lenovo program touchzone.exe.

    You can deal with this two ways.  One is to push ctrl-alt-delete while in the black screen, and go to the task manager. Under applications you'll find Lenovo touchzone.  Kill that process, and your desktop comes back immediately!  Each time you get the black screen, do this and you're back to normal.

    The other solution is ensures it won't happen again.  Go to the file itself (c:\program files\lenovo\intelligent touchpad\touchzone.exe and rename the file to something else like touchzoneexe.old.  Viola, problem solved!

    Hope this helps someone.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-01-22T06:07:21+00:00

    I did a bios roll back................fixed

    Win 8.1 Gateway

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-11-01T21:22:43+00:00

    I have 2 monitors. When I reset windows 7, I found my monitor was black and my big screen had the start up menu. Try turning on the second screen? Hope that helps someone.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-10-11T21:54:45+00:00

    I solved this problem on my machine.  I'm running win 7 Home Premium on a Lenovo with an intel i7 processor and a separate Nvidia graphics card.

    This was driving me crazy.  Sometime it would just boot straight to a black screen with mouse cursor.  Other times Win 7 would appear to be booting normally, and then partway through the boot process the screen would go black with a mouse cursor.  Additionally if I hit the "windows" button on my keyboard, I'd get the start button, quick launch bar, and system tray...but the desktop would remain black.  I could restart via the start button, and sometimes it would boot up normally, other times to the same black screen.

    I tried system restores both from both normal and safe mode, no luck.

    After trying lots of things with no success, I finally experimented with my anti virus software and hit pay dirt.  I suspect the cause was a conflict between something in Windows (perhaps the last update?) and my Avast Free antivirus. I uninstalled Avast and put on another antivirus program (I used Panda because of the good reviews), and the problem disappeared.  It's been running solid for more than a week now.  And the Panda icon is kinda cute....

    Hope this helps someone.

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-09-19T09:36:35+00:00

    I solved this problem on a computer : black screen with mouse cursor before logon screen.

    The problem was appear after an antivirus cleaning.  The safe mode didn't work too.

    In my case, the security on folders was changed.

    You must restore security parameters for all the partition where WINDOWS is stored not only for SYSTEM32 (as I read it on some forums).

    For the WINDOWS's PARTITION : 

    • full control to ADMINISTRORS and SYSTEM on subfolder and files
    • full control - subfolder delete - permission change  to ADMINISTRORS and SYSTEM on this folder only
    • read, execute, open folder rights to users.

    Add full control  for each user to its home folder

    ....

    The best is to check the security folders on an another working computer (W7).

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