Help!!! Bizarre desktop reboot and now the desktop is gone!

[Sulaco]

Hello,

I had just started up my computer today, checked email, done a few things online, and it was idling on the desktop while I took a call.
All of the sudden, it reboots.

A second later it comes back on. the BIOS splash screen shows up, then it proceeds to boot windows. The windows loading taskbar shows up, then the spinning Windows loading circle, and then the Windows "Welcome" screen is displayed.
A few seconds later, it fades to black and only the mouse pointer is visible. I can move the mouse all around, but the desktop remains black! Not a single thing is visible except the cursor.

I hard rebooted and went into safe mode, and the same thing!! Nothing except the cursor.


Does anyone have any ideas?? I'm completely stumped! Is this a virus?? How can I check without getting to the desktop?
What on earth would just cause the desktop to go black, even in safe mode!?

Please help!!

 

[mpilchfamily]

You may have a bug in your system. I suggest a clean install of windows just to be sure. If you still have problems after that then it could be a hardware failure.

 

[Sulaco]

Thanks for the reply.

A quick update:

Here's what I've tried so far:

-Startup Repair (Windows cannot detect any boot problems)
-2 separate system restores (neither worked)
-Memory diagnostic (no problems found)
-Unplugged all USB devices
-Unplugged HDD, plugged back in
-Safe mode boot

Nothing worked.

Next, I took the HDD and hooked it up to another PC. Same problem. Windows looks like it's loading just fine, black screen appears with cursor, and that's it.
I ran an AntiVir AntiVirus scan on the entire drive from my other PC. It says nothing was found.

So I went ahead and transferred my important files to a thumb drive and am prepared to just wipe the HDD and start from scratch

This really irks me though...I feel like I'm just "cheating" my way out without knowing what caused this problem and how to prevent/fix it. Which worries me, because what's to stop it from coming back?
If it is hardware related, what could it be? I've never heard of anything quite like this before.
My system has been running just fine since mid november, so I'm worried how long until the next catastrophe.
Any particular hardware components I should be suspicious of?

 

[mpilchfamily]

Chances are it is related to the Video card. But since it happens in Safe Mode that kind of rules that out. And just because a repair install doesn't find any problems or can't fix anything doesn't mean there are not problems with the OS.

 

[techmanc]

Did you run chkdsk on the hard drives?

 

[krnmastersgt]

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
Chances are it is related to the Video card. But since it happens in Safe Mode that kind of rules that out. And just because a repair install doesn't find any problems or can't fix anything doesn't mean there are not problems with the OS.

I agree on the OS part, but the video? He said he's tried from a different system so that already ruled that out as a possibility.

Can you hit ctrl+alt+del to open the task manager up? A friend of mine had a similar problem to this and it was a virus that screwed with his explorer process. I think he renamed the processes his system uses, but if it's a virus a clean install would be the best plan of action since there's a virus already in the system.

 

[Sulaco]

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

As of a couple of days ago, I went ahead and just reformatted the drive and reinstalled Windows from scratch.
As of now, it has been working fine. I just was at a point where I didn't really have the ability to trouble shoot anymore. There didn't seem to be much else left to do.

As far as the problem goes, everything booted and looked fine up until the "Welcome" screen for Vista, when the screen would go black with just the cursor (which could be moved). Hitting CTRL+ALT+DEL did nothing, clicking did nothing. Bizarrely, I found that if I tapped the power button, the black screen would disappear and the Vista Welcome screen would display, but it was forever stuck on the "Please Wait" with the rotating circle icon. Nothing worked at that screen either, and I let it sit for at least 20 minutes.

I've read that the FEAR 2 demo, which I recently installed, can cause video problems by eradicating Direct X 10, and some people have reported "black screens" and other problems on the desktop.
But the same problem occurred in Safe Mode as well. Which seems really strange.

I wish I could post a resolution for future readers who might get a similar problem, but I just don't know. Nothing makes sense.
All I do know, is that reinstalling Windows seems to have fixed it and is likely the faster route anyway.