Windows 10 booting to black screen - sometimes

[Yuriman]

I'm trying to isolate a booting problem with Windows 10, hardware in my signature below.

When I first power on my PC (or wake it from sleep), I'll see POST -> Windows loading screen -> the numlock light will blink as it should, then numlock light goes off and I have a black screen. It's not a no-signal screen, but a black one. For comparison, when it boots properly, the numlock light blinks and then stays on, and I get my welcome screen instead.

Restarting the PC several times will eventually show the Windows 10 blue "Your PC has failed to start several times, press enter to continue to your OS or F8 to go to boot options" screen. Booting into safe mode always works, while other options do not.

I've tried disconnecting all of my external devices, and removing the external hard drive. I have not yet tried removing my video card or WiFi card.

What seems to get it to boot up properly, pretty consistently, is to go into bios and restore defaults, then reapply all of my settings, save and exit. If I do that, Windows (almost?) always boots up. Even if I am using default bios settings when I first hit the power button, Windows will fail to boot, and I have to go into bios and restore default settings to allow Windows to boot, suggesting that none of the changes I'm making in bios are the issue (though I've tried isolating nearly every setting, to no avail). Sometimes, I can go into bios and change something small (e.g. disable virtualization, raise or lower voltage, adjust a fan setting), then save and exit, and it will *sometimes* boot after that.

I suspected the CMOS battery, but replacing it has not resolved this. The old battery's voltage tests fine.

I can't say for sure when this issue started. I've always had flaky sleep with this system, so I generally just shut down when I'm not using it. Some of the things that have changed recently are that I've installed Radeon Crimson drivers, some Windows updates, and a new (more efficient) power supply. Can't think of any other big ones, but the issue didn't seem to immediately follow any of these, to my memory.

Once in Windows, the system is perfectly stable. Shutting down or putting it to sleep has issues though.

Normally I would just wipe my drive and start fresh, but I used the Windows 8 -> 10 upgrade, and I'm unsure if my Windows 8 key will still be valid to reinstall 8 with. I also don't know how long the free upgrade to 10 is valid? And, I'm not sure if simply using Windows 10's "start over" tool will fix this, as it will still keep the current partition and a lot of system files, to my knowledge. I figure it's worth a try, but I'd rather try that last as a wipe is kindof a big deal, especially if it doesn't fix my issue.

I guess the first thing to do would be to pull the video card and WiFi card? Any other suggestions, specifically, regarding Windows 10's Refresh tool? Is there a way to start fresh from a Windows installation medium using my 8 key, without going through the upgrade process again? (e.g. use the 8 key in 10's setup)

Thanks

 

[pauldun170]

Prior to going back to Win 8,

Pull all the "extra's (wifi\external\maybe even the vid card) and then use the built in Reset functionality. Still issues? Do a fresh Win10 install off USB using the most recent build from Microsoft.

Start from bare minimum and then start adding stuff one by one.
Add Radeon - test out the build. Check for errors in the logs.
Add the wifi - Test out the build Check for errors in the logs

 

[TridenT]

I'm experiencing this with sleep mode sometimes now.

If the computer goes to sleep automatically, it won't wake up. I'll hit a key on the keyboard and it'll boot the computer up but then my screens stay black, the numlock light stays off, and if I hit the key again... the light will flash on then go off again.

Mouse stays off the whole time IIRC. Only solution is to unplug the computer and plug it back in. Super annoying!

This just started happening after I cleared the CMOS, unplugged the CMOS battery (and plugged it back in!), and installed a new stick of ram.

I've been searching my mobo settings for a cause but I can't find one. So annoying. System was working perfectly before I installed that new stick of ram. (I don't blame the ram. Something is wrong with settings)

 

[Ketchup]

I had an issue with a Windows 7 laptop randomly going to sleep under Windows 10. It was quite odd because it had been running 10 a few months without issue, and I always wonder if a repair I performed a couple years ago might cause some strange issues, but took it back to Windows 7 a couple weeks ago and haven't had the issue since.

OP, I am looking at your board and I don't see any drivers for Windows 10, nor do I see a BIOS update since Windows 8 was first released. Considering your issue, I am guessing that Windows 10 does not have the best driver for a least one of your devices.

Since you already have Windows 10 reserved for that board (so you will be activate a re-install at any time down the road), you might want to go back to an OS at works, and see if a later version of 10 does better.

 

[Yuriman]

That seems a reasonable suggestion, but I had the same sleep issues under 7 and 8, and the boot issue in 10 started only recently, and I've had 10 since the day it was available. When isolating issues, 10 doesn't seem to be the factor here. I'll try it if all else fails though.

 

[TridenT]

Mine still doing this thing where it'll be asleep and then never come out of sleep (although the computer will boot up and fans will spin but no power to USB devices it seems and no monitor output). You figure a solution for your problem?

 

[bononos]

That seems a reasonable suggestion, but I had the same sleep issues under 7 and 8, and the boot issue in 10 started only recently, and I've had 10 since the day it was available. When isolating issues, 10 doesn't seem to be the factor here. I'll try it if all else fails though.

I think I had a hanging black screen on bootup and the Radeon sleep issue after the 1511 update. I think the update changed some system settings back to default including the one to auto update hardware drivers so Crimson beta got silently installed. But after a few reboots, I never had issues again(knock wood) even though I did not roll back the AMD driver to 15.71.

The AMD sleep issue went away or got extremely rare with newer Catalyst drivers and I didn't have the sleep issue with 15.71 or the ones before that (can't remember).

 

[Puffnstuff]

I also have a periodic issue with the amd driver rendering a black screen at boot right after logging in and I never see my desktop just a black screen but I can see my cursor. Even pre-crimson drivers have done this on my laptop and windows 10 x64 requiring me to reboot. Most of the time this will bring my desktop up normally and I can use my laptop normally.