Black Screen AFTER Login (not before)

[Malinthas]

I upgraded a Win7 laptop from Dell to Win10. It's one of ten identical machines, and the only one that developed this problem. The machine boots fine, and I get a login screen. I can enter my username and password (on my domain, of course). However, as soon as it accepts my login information, the screen goes black, showing just a mouse pointer. Nothing that I click or type causes ANY change, including Ctrl-Alt-Del. Just black. If I walk away for ten minutes, it goes back to the log screen, and I can log in again, with the same result. This happens on a dozen different accounts, most of which have never been used on this machine before, a few of which have.
Wait, it gets weirder. The Administrator account works fine. No problems. But JUST the Administrator account.
I have run Windows Update and SFC. All updates installed, no file issues. I have manually deleted and re-created accounts, to no avail.
In desperation, I restored the machine back to its (Win7) factory settings from the restore partition and re-ran the upgrade. Same result.
I WOULD think it was a hardware issue, but if (say) the video card was failing, wouldn't it fail all the time, on every account?
I'm open to suggestions at this point. Server is running SBS 2008, if that matters.

 

[Malinthas]

Quick note: The title is a reference to the fact that there is a fairly well-known phenomenon whereby the Windows 10 upgrade causes a black screen with cursor on boot. While this SOUNDS like my issue, it isn't. That problem occurs BEFORE the login screen, and if the user logs in blind, all is well. This isn't my issue, as I get to the login screen fine, and everything goes awry after I log in. But not with Administrator.

 

[Beilstwh]

Have you tried a safe boot? It sounds like some software that is starting up is causing problems.

Bill
Lead Application Developer
New York State, USA

 

[cdogg]

A blank (or black) screen during bootup or after login is one of the most common issues following a Win10 upgrade, at least on laptops. No idea why, but I had to troubleshoot one recently, and there are posts all over internet forums about it.

Your issue is a little different than the one I had, since it goes black after login. I suspect a bad video driver installation that is occurring every time you try to upgrade to Windows 10 (though it doesn't make sense that the local administrator account works). First, download the latest driver for your GPU. Then, log in under the working account and remove all GPU-related software and drivers. Don't reboot until you've removed as much as you can. After rebooting, run the driver install you downloaded earlier. If this happens to be an Nvidia driver, choose the option for "Clean install" under custom installation settings.

Hopefully that does it. If not, your best bet is to backup everything to an external drive and perform a clean install of Windows 10. Likely, something is carrying over from the Win7 installation that is corrupting the Win10 install.



-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

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[linney]

How does it run from Safe Mode?

What if you disable the Display Adapter in Safe Mode, via the Device Manager, and then check out Normal Mode? This will use the Microsoft Basic Display Driver instead of the current installed Driver.





What if you do a Clean Install of Windows 10?

Installing Windows 10 using the media creation tool

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install

Microsoft Will Now Let Windows 10 Upgraders Use Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 Product Key to Activate

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/wi...se-windows-7-8-or-8-1-product-key-to-activate

Clean Install Windows 10

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ndows-10/1c426bdf-79b1-4d42-be93-17378d93e587

Perhaps your machine would have benefitted from a Clean Install of Windows 10? That way it would not have to carry across the excess baggage from earlier Windows.

A Clean Install of Windows 10

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/a-clean-install-of-windows-10/

Can I clean re-install Windows 10 after upgrading?

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...pgrading/f59fb5bd-21a5-4010-8a39-7b975611b73b