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

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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.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-11-05T08:10:46+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?

    I ran into this issue a week ago. It happened with a notebook that has the switchable graphics feature. the issue showed itself when I installed the Windows 8 version of the high performance GPU driver and software package. The notebook was delivered with Windows 7, so there was still a recovery partition on the hard disk. I had backed up all of my data before I upgraded to Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

    I used the manufacturer's (HP) recovery manager program to re-install Windows 7 and then upgraded it to Windows 8 and therafter to Windows 8.1. At this point there was still no black screen graphics issue.  I decided that a Windows 7 survival tool by the name of Safe Mode would help if I ran into the issue on the second upgrade attempt. I enabled F8 as a Safe Mode even trigger by using the bcdedit command at an elevated command prompt. I entered bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy and pressed enter

    Once that was done I tested it. I was able to enter Safe Mode without any issues in Windows 8.1 by tapping the F8 key after pressing the power button.

    Otherwise, as many of us have discovered, Safe Mode is extremely difficult to access in Windows 8.

    Once this is done and a working driver is installed and tested it might be worthwhile to create a custom refresh image.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-03T18:45:14+00:00

    I've got a 4 month old Dell 3521 touch screen laptop that came with Win 8.  Coming from XP and after reading a number of the positive reviews on 8.1 it installed the upgrade.  I liked the new features and some improvements on existing features.

    Last week my laptop shut down (on its own) for "mandatory upgrades" (from MS).  When it tried to reboot it went into a "repair" mode.  After hours of trying a number of different approaches I was able to "return to the previous" version - Win 8.

    All of my installed software, apps, shortcuts, etc were gone - and I'm rebuilding slowly.

    What a rip-off!  This is a new computer with 'fresh' software - there is no excuse for this type of "mandated" performance.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-03T01:18:59+00:00

    Same problem here.

    Ms store doesn't open either.

    I went back to w8

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-02T21:04:04+00:00

    I have run into this situation with windows 7 install too.  It happened again when I did the update from windows 8 to 8.1.

    I read of another person solving this by hitting the windows key and shift key and using the left or right or up arrows to shift the video screen.  I my case the video was being project at a place other than my screen.

    Back in the day of windows 7 install when I first encountered this, I installed three times thinking something went wrong with the install.  On the third time I said to my self, really it couldn't have been a bad install. There was no auto reboot and the drive activity was going, same as the first two installs.  So I just left the thing alone for a  long time and the screen appeared.  I think the video driver auto downloaded and installed in that case, but during it all there was just a black screen.

    If I'm out in left field on this, then ignore; however, if there's an MS expert around seeing this, please investigate and post the solution so it can easily be handled if and when a generous consumer, like we all are here, encounters the issue.

    thanks,

    Clarence

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