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
    2014-01-18T00:03:59+00:00

    Try to do an early recovery its working for me

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-02-05T16:12:28+00:00

    I just recently activated my Windows 8 after the initial problem with the black screen which i thought was a result of an update gone awry, much to my surprise, it happened again, after updating all drivers of my computer with recent updates on Windows 8, i tried to download 8.1 and the black screen came back., good thing that F8 worked now, unlike last time, i had to reformat my HD and deleted all important stuff just to install Windows 8 (gpt issues). this is really annoying Microsoft. I was already working with 8.1 in the same machine last time, and i applied your updates and the updates for my nvidia card -- that was the start of the horrible experience with MS Windows 8.1. Good thing that the Guys at the Answer Desk where able to help me activate. Now I dont know if im going to ever try to download or upgrade to 8.1 again. I wast able to use my PC for almost a month because of this.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-02-07T22:16:27+00:00

    It happened on my one-month old HP Envy, I did succesfully the upgrade from Windows 8 to 8.1 in January, everything worked fine. On the 4 of February Microsoft released an update, during the installation I got a permanent black screen. I reinstalled the original system (loosing one month of work data and several days of productivity as a consultant), then attempted the upgrade to Windows 8.1 again, without any antivirus or application loaded and again got the black screen.

    I have restored the original system again and I will never attempt to upgrade, at least until Microsoft release version 8.2 or later. They did a shoddy work on 8.1, it is buggy product. This problem has been around for more than six months (as per forums comments) please do not use it and do daily backups, dont trust Microsoft updates anymore.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-02-07T22:28:11+00:00

    I empathized with you.  I have experience all sorts of issues with 8.1, but over the past few weeks, the system seems to be better stablized.

    The black screen issue is comical.  Two great firms are at the heart:  Microsoft and Nvidia.  Here it is 21st century, 2014 and the video driver / operating issue has driven us to bitter resentment.  There is no excuse for it. 

    Moreover, there has not been any significant notification to customers about the issue or a fix, if there in fact is one.  I think Nvidia did something, but I really don't know.

    Now that Microsoft has moved its cutomers and continues to move them out of their computers to Microsoft's web, they had better pay more attention to their customers.  All of our stuff at one time resided on our personal machines, but today, a great deal is in the cloud.  Scarry.

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