I’m installing Windows 8.1, and after a reboot, it has a black screen.

Anonymous
2013-10-29T18:13:23+00:00

I’m installing Windows 8.1, and after a reboot, it has a black screen, with just a cursor. How do I solve this?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Install and upgrade

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2013-10-29T18:14:57+00:00

This may be an issue with your display drivers. Try entering Safe Mode and updating the drivers:

  1. When you boot your PC, try hitting the F8 key. This may take you to the Startup Settings that include Safe Mode.
  2. If hitting F8 doesn’t work, and you have media for Windows 8.1 (such as a DVD or USB), you can boot from media using the instructions here. Further instructions about Safe Mode can be found here.
  3. If you do not have media, use the power button to restart your computer during the boot process three times (do not let it get to the end of the boot process) . This should bring up the Windows Recovery Environment.
  4. Once you have started in Safe Mode with Networking, check for updated drivers:
  • Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings.

(If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.)

  • Tap or click Update and recovery and then tap or click Windows Update.
  • Tap or click View details, and tap or click Check for updates. (If you don't see View details, there aren't any optional updates available.)
  • Under Optional, tap or click the update that you want to install, then click Install.

If no updated drivers are available through Windows Update, check the website of the manufacturer of your video card to see if they have updated drivers available.

If this does not resolve your issue, post in this thread.

Was this answer helpful?

10+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

123 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2014-08-29T23:15:14+00:00

    My son's Toshiba was bought with Windows 8 and the computer did the auto update and now the screen is black. I have tried the instructions above and it is not clear to me. In windows 8 you have to log in so I would press the F8 button after putting in his password and still nothing just a black screen. Then I tried clicking the power button 3 times and no safe mode turns on. The laptop did not come with any cds like most of them don't anymore. I am at a loss for what to do next but I do find that these mandatory updates with issues for non IT people are crazy....

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2014-06-24T16:24:46+00:00

    To anyone still having this error.  I don't remember where, but I found a solution on another website forever ago.  Turn off Microsoft's "App Readiness" service.

    howto:

    Windows key + R (or right click the windows icon and click Run, or use the Run feature in taskmanager, whatever)

    type "msconfig"

    push enter (click OK)

    Click on "Services"

    Uncheck "App Readiness"

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2014-06-18T13:21:46+00:00

    MarkoM, I'm sorry to hear you're one of the people stuck with this terrible problem.  I hope none of your Hyper-V machines were critical, but I thought I'd mention some things that helped me and might help you in future. 

    I'd periodically backed up my VMs to a separate external hard drive...but I'd also noticed that I could run a VM pretty well from an external drive, too.  If you're not hosting major apps or trying to keep the VMs spinning 24/7, try using an eSATA or USB 3.0 connection with a good hard drive.  I've used Seagate GoFlex disks lately, and I use PerfectDisk to be really granular about defragmentation:  using SMART Placement / Performance Aggressive, the VMs run fairly decently, so long as you have the RAM to allocate and don't cram the hard drive full.  Performance got squirrely if I didn't use *exactly* the USB cable that came with the drive--perhaps they use more twists per foot or something.

    The other step I tried for a while was using a Patriot Magnum 128GB USB 3.0 thumb drive, and that ran really fast.  It's not technically an SSD, but the performance is fairly similar.  I'd even used it to install Windows To Go and run the OS from that, just for kicks.

    If you've got cash to spare, then use an SSD with a USB 3.0 enclosure or adapter.  I've done that too (yes, I love to fool around with hardware! :)  ) and you should get good performance without being tethered to any one machine/OS install.

    Hope that helps in future - I've been in your shoes and even had to re-re-do Windows 8 or 8.1 a time or two.  It wasn't fun.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2014-06-18T03:53:14+00:00

    I tried everything you wrote here.

    When I try to enter Safe Mode I get same black screen. I tried thing with updates, no luck.

    I have 2 graphic cards, Intel 4000 and Radeon 8670, updated drivers on both of them, tried uninstaling/disabling each of them, no luck. 

    It looks like my only solution will be formating hard disk and reinstalling windows. I have all my data backed up, but like 15 Hyper-V machines will be gone.

    Thanks a lot, Microsoft.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments