darkz Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 (edited) Hello, I'm having issues with a windows 8.1 pc, which starts up like it should (dunno really, never used 8.1 before) but then just goes back to blank screen. Like display is on, but shows a black image, doesn't go to sleep. My question is how do I reset the pc, while keeping all the applications and their settings? Is it possible? should I install a new installation on the same partition so it just goes to Windows.old etc, and old programs can be accessed? TY edit: I can access the automatic repair wizard, but I'm not sure if either option will work for me, can somebody please shed some light on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ve7878 Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 I saw this issue some years ago when we had a Windows 8.1 deployment at work, it affected a few machines over the years (All replaced by 10 now). I found that if you just leave it for an hour or so it does eventually load up and then do a restart the issue seems to go away. Really strange but doing that always seemed to resolve it. darkz 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkz Posted February 15, 2019 Author Share Posted February 15, 2019 Thanks Vince, I'll try that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon H Supervisor Posted February 15, 2019 Supervisor Share Posted February 15, 2019 any drivers updated recently? could be the graphics driver or something stalling/failing to initialize; I've had a similar issue with some of our work PCs where they would hang on a black screen with just the cursor after login for 15 minutes or so due to a stalled process in the background (Windows 7 with this experience) a fresh install to another drive/partition would be a good way to rule out corruption darkz 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkz Posted February 15, 2019 Author Share Posted February 15, 2019 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Brandon H said: any drivers updated recently? could be the graphics driver or something stalling/failing to initialize; I've had a similar issue with some of our work PCs where they would hang on a black screen with just the cursor after login for 15 minutes or so due to a stalled process in the background (Windows 7 with this experience) a fresh install to another drive/partition would be a good way to rule out corruption Yes, I saw a system restore point with some windows update driver installed, but sadly it didnt work, I'm currently trying out what Vince said, if that doesnt work then I guess I will clone the drive, play around with the cloned copy or install a fresh copy of windows in the same partition, and show the owner if everything's in place once I get it fixed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkz Posted February 15, 2019 Author Share Posted February 15, 2019 I guess I will try the fresh copy thing too, but that probably wont be any good, since he really wants his software settings in place. Or maybe I can find them and copy them in the new installation, IDK Also this is not a commercial thing if You're wondering, I'm just helping out a buddy, his printing business is stalled because the plotter machine computer did this and is currently at my place bc nobody could get it fixed on time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon H Supervisor Posted February 15, 2019 Supervisor Share Posted February 15, 2019 23 minutes ago, darkz said: I guess I will try the fresh copy thing too, but that probably wont be any good, since he really wants his software settings in place. Or maybe I can find them and copy them in the new installation, IDK Also this is not a commercial thing if You're wondering, I'm just helping out a buddy, his printing business is stalled because the plotter machine computer did this and is currently at my place bc nobody could get it fixed on time that's exactly why I suggest trying the fresh install on a different hard drive or separate partition of current drive; that way if the clean install DOESN'T help you can go right back to the other install without loosing anything edit: If the owner agrees you could also try upgrading to Windows 10; an upgrade should retain the user profile/settings As far as I'm aware free upgrades still work by booting from the installer ISOs darkz 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkz Posted February 15, 2019 Author Share Posted February 15, 2019 3 minutes ago, Brandon H said: that's exactly why I suggest trying the fresh install on a different hard drive or separate partition of current drive; that way if the clean install DOESN'T help you can go right back to the other install without loosing anything that's the next thing I'm going to do, now magically, just by waiting mouse cursor appeared on the screen, maybe it will load the whole thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkz Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 7 hours ago, Brandon H said: edit: If the owner agrees you could also try upgrading to Windows 10; an upgrade should retain the user profile/settings As far as I'm aware free upgrades still work by booting from the installer ISOs Thats one thing I can't do, he told me explicitly that his machines doesn't support windows10, I even suggested switching to mac, as all my old scanners and printers work on all my macs, but he said it wasn't the case, so win 8.1 is the newest I can go, but thanks, I'll install a fresh copy of win81 on a new drive and see whats salvageable there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkz Posted February 19, 2019 Author Share Posted February 19, 2019 Fixed. TY Y'all for input Brandon H 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon H Supervisor Posted February 19, 2019 Supervisor Share Posted February 19, 2019 On 2/15/2019 at 11:04 PM, darkz said: Thats one thing I can't do, he told me explicitly that his machines doesn't support windows10, highly unlikely the case since 8.1 runs fine but his computer his choice I suppose glad you got everything working for him again at least darkz 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted February 19, 2019 MVC Share Posted February 19, 2019 2 hours ago, darkz said: Fixed. TY Y'all for input How did you fix it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkz Posted February 19, 2019 Author Share Posted February 19, 2019 Well, You'll both probably waited for something different, but given his machine configuration, we both agreed on windows 7 which also happened to be supported. Weird thing is that I installed all the drivers, but when he got back at the office he had to reinstall usb bridge drivers. I've forgotten how to windows, if honestly. I remember that it used to reinstall removable device drivers just because, but not anything like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulATMOS Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 First thing to in future for the black screen at boot up would be to restart in a minimal safe mode. Then, you can get to the event viewer and see what errors were logged and whatever else was happening at the previous black screen boot up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkz Posted March 25, 2019 Author Share Posted March 25, 2019 On 3/22/2019 at 5:00 PM, freqnasty said: First thing to in future for the black screen at boot up would be to restart in a minimal safe mode. Then, you can get to the event viewer and see what errors were logged and whatever else was happening at the previous black screen boot up. It's already fixed, but as far as I remember it didn't boot any safe mode, so I just installed win7 on it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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