Boot to black screen; only mouse works

PaulBrinkley · 08-23-2009, 08:12 PM

I've seen other people report this problem on other sites, but the threads seem to just dead end, and searching on this site keeps throwing an error for me.

I recently installed Win7 (build 7100) on my old Dell XPS 400. At first, it ran fine. A few weeks or months later, however, it just stopped booting properly. Specifically: it reports that it did not shut down cleanly, and gives me the various safe mode boot options. No matter which I choose, I get the Windows 7 startup screen (with the four fireflies combining into the logo), and then a black screen in which only the mouse works. I've left it up for hours like that, with no change.

I've tried booting from the Win7 CD I made, but there are no system restore points, and the repair feature is unable to fix the problem. (I've also tried UltimateBootCD, but I can't seem to find a way to format the partition I have Win7 on, which means I can't reinstall Win7 there from the CD.)

It may have shut down badly, indeed, but I don't remember. (I do have power outages on rare occasions.)

Win7 is installed on its own HD partition, about 30GB in size.

I do browse the web on this computer (Firefox or Chrome, if it matters).

Mcninjaguy · 08-23-2009, 09:07 PM

Download Killdisk and use that to format the HDD that Windows 7 is on. Burn the ISO image using Imgburn to burn it to a CD or DVD.

Then you should be able to install Windows 7 again normally. I hope you aren't trying to install the drivers from Dell as they are probably not support for Windows 7 yet.

PaulBrinkley · 08-23-2009, 11:02 PM

I'm installing no drivers at all, unless Win7 installs them. (And indeed, this allowed me to use that computer for everything I needed - checking mail, etc.)

Thanks for the note on Killdisk. Now, for some reason, UBCD wasn't letting me reach that partition, but that may have been a UBCD quirk. I'll have to play around with it some more, perhaps.

I'm still wondering what causes that black screen in the first place...

08-23-2009, 08:12 PM	#1 (permalink)
PaulBrinkley Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 2 OS: Windows 7	Boot to black screen; only mouse works I've seen other people report this problem on other sites, but the threads seem to just dead end, and searching on this site keeps throwing an error for me. I recently installed Win7 (build 7100) on my old Dell XPS 400. At first, it ran fine. A few weeks or months later, however, it just stopped booting properly. Specifically: it reports that it did not shut down cleanly, and gives me the various safe mode boot options. No matter which I choose, I get the Windows 7 startup screen (with the four fireflies combining into the logo), and then a black screen in which only the mouse works. I've left it up for hours like that, with no change. I've tried booting from the Win7 CD I made, but there are no system restore points, and the repair feature is unable to fix the problem. (I've also tried UltimateBootCD, but I can't seem to find a way to format the partition I have Win7 on, which means I can't reinstall Win7 there from the CD.) It may have shut down badly, indeed, but I don't remember. (I do have power outages on rare occasions.) Win7 is installed on its own HD partition, about 30GB in size. I do browse the web on this computer (Firefox or Chrome, if it matters).

08-23-2009, 09:07 PM	#2 (permalink)
Mcninjaguy Temporarily Banned Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 10,422 OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit My System Blog Entries: 1	Re: Boot to black screen; only mouse works Download Killdisk and use that to format the HDD that Windows 7 is on. Burn the ISO image using Imgburn to burn it to a CD or DVD. Then you should be able to install Windows 7 again normally. I hope you aren't trying to install the drivers from Dell as they are probably not support for Windows 7 yet.

08-23-2009, 11:02 PM	#3 (permalink)
PaulBrinkley Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 2 OS: Windows 7	Re: Boot to black screen; only mouse works I'm installing no drivers at all, unless Win7 installs them. (And indeed, this allowed me to use that computer for everything I needed - checking mail, etc.) Thanks for the note on Killdisk. Now, for some reason, UBCD wasn't letting me reach that partition, but that may have been a UBCD quirk. I'll have to play around with it some more, perhaps. I'm still wondering what causes that black screen in the first place...