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

Thanks Clarence!

Your explanation could help some people with similar trouble.  It didn't help me, but I like to learn more about the black (or blank) screen feature of Windows 8, 8.1 and now 10.

What I would really like to know is EXACTLY how your black screen looked: Did you see anything at all? Some people - like the original poster of this thread - see a moving mouse arrow. Did you see that too? If so, was it in high resolution? Did you also see tiny white network and wireless icons in the lower left corner?

Microsoft has created this ugly black screen mess and simply ignores the thousands of affected Windows users. They should come up with a proper script for troubleshooting black screen issues. In some cases the black screen can magically 'go away' with repeated power up/down, without a need for resetting, refreshing, restoring or reinstalling anything, if only the proper steps are followed depending on the class of black screen.

Different classes of 'Black screen' (AKA 'Blank Screen') are for instance:

1.  Visible mouse arrow

1.1)  Mouse arrow in high resolution (as small as before the black screen trouble started)

1.1.1)  Mouse arrow moves normally

1.1.1.1)  Keyboard input visual  (test if CTRL_ALT_DEL pops up a menu)

1.1.1.2)  Keyboard input non visual  (CTRL_ALT_DEL shows no menu)

1.1.2)  Mouse arrow doesn't move

1.2) Mouse arrow in different resolution (larger then before the black screen trouble started)

2.  No visible mouse arrow  

2.1) Keyboard input works  (test if CTRL_ALT_DEL , SHIFT_TAB , SHIFT_TAB , ENTER shuts down machine)

2.2) Keyboard input has no effect

etc.

I assume your black screen was of class 2.1  but please correct me if I'm wrong :)

From your comprehensive and detailed description of the black screen issues, I must say that mine have been very basic in that my black screen was just that - black with no indication at all, mouse or otherwise.  That lead me to the input area.  At first, back when windows 8.1 came out and I encountered this surprise thinking the install was fouled up; I disconnected the DVI input, leaving the VGA input in place and the screen appeared and the windows installation was finalized as normal.  Then after months and a few more installation and a new monitor I learned to just switch to the HDMI during the installation when a black screen showed up, routinely.  It was the same with this windows 10 upgrade, which went quite smoothly.

The black screen issue you describe appears to be more complex in that the mouse and other indicators appear.  Mine surely is an input connection and driver install issue, which if I just sit out the black screen and leave it on the black screen, the windows installation eventually complete and the video input appears on the screen.

There is one more factor that might be affecting all this.  In my case, my machine has the UEFI instead of bios.  The UEFI and video works differently than the regular bios so that might be part of all this, but I am not sure.

Anyway, writing out all of the symptoms and possibilities can become quite complex and difficult to explain and difficult for the reader to understand.

I'll leave it at this point, and wholly agree that Microsoft should be on top of all this and inject their position with regard to the video issue at installation.  It might have to do with Nvidia too, but that's all beyond me.

I appreciate your response and hope for the best.

Cordially,

Clarence

Okay, thanks!  Plain black without cursor is annoying too and I'm glad you found a solution for that one.

You're right that a long list of different black screens is difficult to explain.  However, the people from Microsoft who try to help in these forums should realize that all black screens are not identical.  You don't want to make matters worse by assuming things, if a few simple checks could rule out video driver or cabling issues for instance.

These days many PC problems can be solved using Google.  Just type in: error 8001000b or something and voila, other people tell you what they did to solve it.  With 'black screen' it's not so easy anymore.  We have black screens and now we can't even read the errors.  We need a way to discriminate between our black screen and the other black screens.

Kind regards,

Pete

Pete and Clarence, good job bringing this thread about again--it's been running for a long while, but that chart sums things up nicely.

I'm just going to interject that, like Clarence, I came across state 2.1 again with an nVidia driver last month and learned:

a) if switching to HDMI still doesn't solve anything, try unplugging the HDMI cable and re-plugging.  Then if that doesn't work, unplug the HDMI cable, turn the monitor off, then plug the cable in and turn the monitor on.

I've since learned that when you plug an HDMI cable in, no matter what the equipment, a "handshake" takes place across the cable--and there will be times the screen stays black because something went wrong.  Turning one or both devices off and powering back up re-initiates the handshake and may get your signal going again.  This is just a workaround, though; in cases like the nVidia driver screwing up...

b)...I uninstall the nVidia driver, roll back to the last one that worked, and wait for the next one before trying again.  I put this in NVidia's lap to fix.  Sometimes it's best when rolling back to check the box that says "Perform a clean installation", just understand you'll have to re-do any custom configurations you had (and re-add GeForce Experience games to the list).

Hope this helps thread readers, since it appears the many variations of black screen probably won't stop happening to random people any time soon.