Windows 10 Black Screen w/Cursor Issue

[Pepsi_Jamie]

Hi all,

To start with, I realise this isn't a problem specific to PCSpecialist. It seems to have been an issue with Windows computers for many, many years.

I purchased a gaming laptop for over £2,000 a month ago and I loved every second of it, until the past few days that is. I decided to do a factory restore due to a variety of reasons (no viruses or anything like that) which took about 6 hours to complete. After that happened, I noticed my laptop would stick at a black screen with nothing but a cursor showing. I then followed instructions online to reinstall windows via the CD provided by PCSpecialist, which seemed to get everything working again.

After I re-installed my software, I restarted my laptop only to find the black screen issue occurred yet again. I don't know how, but I fixed it, but the problem is that my laptop is now noticeably slower than it was prior to the factory restore. There are also noticeable changes in the way my laptop starts; for example, it would simply show a glossy PCSpecialist logo which would immediately load the sign-in (log in) page, which again loaded my desktop within seconds. Now, it gives me a grey background with Setup + Boot options (a minor complaint, but it slows down what was a fast boot).

I would like to ask if anyone on the website knows how to reset my laptop to the exact way that PCSpecialist set it up (e.g. fast boot times, glossy look, processors working very well, and pre-installed software working flawlessly), as PCSpecialist have ignored 3 of my messages within 72 hours, or if I should call them and see if they can set it up as if it were being sent out for the first time?

If it helps, here are my specifications:

Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Extreme i7-4940MX (3.10GHz) 8MB
32GB HyperX IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (4 x 8GB)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 980M - 8.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1TB WD BLUE 2.5" WD10JPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
6x BLURAY ROM, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7260 HMC (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence.

Thank you for any responses, recommendations, and especially any fixes.

Edit: After restarting my laptop, the cursor issue came back again.

 

[ubuysa]

6 hours is way too long for a factory restore, so something was not right there. Have you changed any of the BIOS settings?

I think the first thing I'd suggest is that you check the disk for surface errors. To do that open a command prompt and enter the command "chkdsk /r" (but without the quotes). You'll have to reboot to get chkdsk to run. If it reports errors found that could not be corrected then your hard disk is on it's way out.

Assuming chkdsk runs clean then next thing to look at is how you are reinstalling Windows 10. The first thing to do here is to ensure you have all the Windows 10 drivers. You should have received a DVD with all the drivers on, but if not logon to your account on the main PCS website (where you order from) and under the Tech Support menu on the left hand side is a Download menu item. Click that and all the drivers for your build will be there, download them all to a USB stick.

The best way to install Windows 10 is to boot the install DVD and select a custom install. Delete all partitions on the hard disk and create a single partition the size of the disk (I'm assuming you don't have the disk already partitioned with separate partitions for programs and data). Format that partition. All that can be done from the same install screen.

Now install Windows 10. After it has installed and you've gone through the basic customisation you should install all the drivers. For this you'll need either the drivers DVD that came with the laptop or the USB stick with the drivers you downloaded earlier. Install the chipset driver first, after that the order is not usually important. Be sure to reboot after each driver install if you ate asked to. This is important.

Once all the drivers are installed you should run Windows Update and allow it to install any updates it finds. Keep running Windows Update until there are no more updates found.

Windows 10 is now fully installed. Before going any further I suggest you reboot a few times to verify whether the issues you had earlier are now resolved. If they are not you need to call PCS because it's likely to be a hardware issue - assuming you haven't made an BIOS settings changes.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Pepsi_Jamie]

Thank you for such a detailed response.

If I have changed the BIOS settings, I wasn't aware as I'm not even sure what it is or how to do it. All I did was restore my laptop to its factory defaults, which has been the root of all my problems.

After typing in chksdk /r in the CMD, I received this response:
"The type of the file systen is NTFS.
Cannot luck current drive.

Chdksk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

I will reinstall Windows 10 by the method you have suggested, and I will let you know if the issue has been resolved. If it hasn't, then I'll call PCSpecialist and ask them to sort it out for me.

Thank you.

 

[Pepsi_Jamie]

I reinstalled Windows 10 and I was able to access my desktop screen, so I began installing each of the drivers with the CD provided by PCSpecialist as you recommended.

The chipset driver installed, fine, followed by the Intel, but the Nvida VGA driver caused the black screen again (though I can still hear the cursor touching the CD software, without any visual display).

Even though I managed to access my desktop initially, there was a string of text than ran prior to booting my laptop, which I never experienced before this.

I think it's best if I contacted PCSpecialist and ask if they could reset my laptop as if they were sending it out the very first time (with the software installed etc.).

 

[ubuysa]

Thank you for such a detailed response.

If I have changed the BIOS settings, I wasn't aware as I'm not even sure what it is or how to do it. All I did was restore my laptop to its factory defaults, which has been the root of all my problems.

After typing in chksdk /r in the CMD, I received this response:
"The type of the file systen is NTFS.
Cannot luck current drive.

Chdksk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Yes that's quite normal, as I mentioned you have to reboot to get chkdsk to run (because it can't lock the drive). It's runs automatically on reboot.

I reinstalled Windows 10 and I was able to access my desktop screen, so I began installing each of the drivers with the CD provided by PCSpecialist as you recommended.

That's good news.

The chipset driver installed, fine, followed by the Intel, but the Nvida VGA driver caused the black screen again (though I can still hear the cursor touching the CD software, without any visual display).

This suggests that either the driver is bad or the graphics card is faulty. Visit the NVIDIA website and download the latest driver for your graphics card and OS and try that.

Even though I managed to access my desktop initially, there was a string of text than ran prior to booting my laptop, which I never experienced before this.

If this "string of text" happens every time can you photograph it and post the image here? Or write down what the string of text says.

I think it's best if I contacted PCSpecialist and ask if they could reset my laptop as if they were sending it out the very first time (with the software installed etc.).

Be aware that if the laptop is not faulty and PCS simply reinstall Windows for you they make make a charge.

 

[dogbot]

Have a glance at this

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ter-boot/6c216e14-a112-461e-9faa-62594e195b13