[Windows 7] Booting to black screen

SiD the Turtle · 21 Nov 2009 at 13:51

Hi guys,

I've got a problem that's got me foxed. I have an old P4 running on an Abit IC7 motherboard. This machine was running XP perfectly fine. I've installed W7 Home Premium (fresh install, not an upgrade) which installed fine however after the install reboot the PC posts fine, but when you'd expect the loading Windows screen and the bright Windows logo against a black backdrop, all I get is a black screen. The monitor doesn't go into power saving mode suggesting it is sending a picture, just a blank one.

I've tried different graphics cards and booting with only one stick of RAM, the hard disk and nothing else plugged in, same problem.

Any ideas?

IAmATeaf · 21 Nov 2009 at 15:15

What happens if you boot up in safe mode?

rolypolyman · 21 Nov 2009 at 16:45

Try running the Win 7 dvd from boot and choose repair option, let it do its stuff and it may just fix it. Do you have more than one hard drive connected and if so maybe its the boot manager problem.

SiD the Turtle · 21 Nov 2009 at 20:20

I can't get as far as selecting safe mode unfortunately and the repair option finds nothing to repair.

Thanks both for the suggestions though.

rolypolyman · 22 Nov 2009 at 13:02

Cable problem?

davethe11 · 22 Nov 2009 at 13:07

a little poking around suggested that when you get to the OS selection menu, make sure Windows 7 is highlighted and press the F8 key, you should see an option to boot in low resolution mode (or something like that), if you boot into windows 7, update your graphics card drivers immediately and then reboot and see if the problem has gone.

Bottle · 24 Nov 2009 at 12:51

I repeatedly had a black screen on start up that eventually goes to the desktop after a few minutes of annoying waiting. All I did was remove the DVD I had in the diskrive and the problem went away.

I've subsequently changed my setup to AHCI and then updated the firmware on my Samsung SH-S203B diskdrive. Now there is no problem, if I leave a DVD/CD in or not. Not sure which of the above fixed it or if it is coincidence.

davethe11 · 24 Nov 2009 at 17:08

if it is the problem that Bottle desribes, then it is just a bios setting, AHCI boot timeout (mine was set to 15 secs, I have two optical drives therefore a 30 second wait), change it to 5 seconds in the bios and see if you boot up. If this is what is causing the delay, you should see a flashing white underscore at the top left of the black screen btw.

ChileanLlama · 24 Nov 2009 at 17:58

SiD do you have a multiple monitor configuration? I've seen this happen when the Windows primary is not the physical primary.

If this is the case either try swapping them over or unplug one of them.

OpenToSuggestions · 24 Nov 2009 at 18:03

Use the windows 7 disk and repair boot problems.

I did this to solve my issue

Kezmo · 24 Nov 2009 at 18:30

If you have more than 1 display connected , remove all but one.

Tarnblade · 24 Nov 2009 at 18:35

Another option you might want to consider is remove any extra usb devices, mics etc as I used to have an issue where my old pc wouldnt boot with my mic connected.