Computer boots to a black screen, help!

[BaconXBits]

Frequent TPU posters may recognize me from my many threads I've posted every time my computer breaks (which is absurdly frequently considering how careful I am with everything). One month after fixing the most recent problem, it breaks AGAIN. I'm pretty much on the verge of busting a hole through the useless machine, but first I'd like to see if anyone knows what may be wrong. To add insult to injury, I caught my 6-7th cold of the year yesterday, but that's irrelevant.

I came home from work today to find my computer riddled with 3-5 of the same Flash Player 9 popup errors, seemingly caused by the Internet Explorer processes that I noticed were spawning in my Task Manager (it would stop at around 5-6 processes, and would respawn if I closed one). I thought it would be a good idea to restart my computer, so I did. My computer did the usual startup messages and such, and then just went to a black screen instead of the Windows loading screen. Obviously this pattern continued, or I wouldn't be posting this thread. I CAN load the BIOS menu, but I'm at a loss of what I would be able to do there, since there isn't any indication as to what the problem might be.

Note: I NEVER use Internet Explorer; the only application I have that uses it would be Steam, which was running at the time (but there were no windows open). I also never opened Flash Player outside of a few YouTube videos running in Firefox several hours prior.

Anyone have some insight they might like to share?

Here's my specs if it helps:
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q Pro Turbo
CPU: Intel Q6600 Quad
GPU: EVGA GTS 250 1GB
PSU: Corsair 700W modular
RAM: Corsair DDR2 4GB

[JrRacinFan]

First and foremost, check in bios to see if the motherboard recognizes your hard drive is connected.

[BaconXBits]

Originally Posted by JrRacinFan

First and foremost, check in bios to see if the motherboard recognizes your hard drive is connected.

It does detect all of my drives. I also removed the mobo (CMOS?) battery to reset everything; no dice.

[JrRacinFan]

Originally Posted by BaconXBits

It does detect all of my drives. I also removed the mobo (CMOS?) battery to reset everything; no dice.

Yes that would essentially clear CMOS if no power plug connected for a few moments along with battery removed.

Sounds strictly software involved. At this point in time see if you can gain access to Windows safe mode by tapping F8 after bios post(right before you get the Windows splash load screen). If you gain access that way, see about then installing Avast along with Spytbot S & D. Report back if all that is a go or if you have any questions.

[garyinhere]

Have you tried to start up in safe mode... how far does it get until you get a black screen... kinda seems like a virus.

[Xorgetra]

i think the same , try to boot in safe mode and install any antivirus , and then scan your pc , its probably a virus

[neoreif]

Good day! This sounds like the problem I encountered yesterday on a family member's rig! The PC would turn including fans but it would only show a black screen on the monitor then shuts down by itself! It's a fairly old system (amd sempron + Asrock K7VM3 mobo) but I kinda did a 'soft hardware check' and everything seems to be OK. It was only used for web browsing and some mild gaming so I know that it was'nt really used that much. What I did was took out the HDD and scanned it on my PC. Turns out it had 1 worm, and several addwares (30 to be exact!) as reported by kaspersky and malwarebytes! Nuked it to kingdom come and after that, family member's PC boots and works fine!

[Jeffis108]

Download memtest 86 link http://www.memtest86.com/download.html and run it. If you get any errors remove all but 1 stick of ram and run it. IF you get errors replace that stick and re-run. If no errors on any stick, judging from your previous post i'de have your PSU Stress tested as a shop if you dont have the tools to do it yourself.

[BaconXBits]

I can't seem to get my computer to boot into safe mode. Is there any way to initiate safe mode from within the BIOS menu? An alternate method would work, too.

Originally Posted by Jeffis108

Download memtest 86 link http://www.memtest86.com/download.html and run it. If you get any errors remove all but 1 stick of ram and run it. IF you get errors replace that stick and re-run. If no errors on any stick, judging from your previous post i'de have your PSU Stress tested as a shop if you dont have the tools to do it yourself.

What exactly does that do? Test for hardware issues?

[Radical_Edward]

It sounds like you may have quite a bit of nasty viruses/malware messing with your computer. It my honestly be time for a fresh install of windows if it's causes this many issues.

[95Viper]

What OS? XP, Vista, or 7?

I'll assume it is Windows 7...

Try this:
If you have a Windows installation disc, you need to restart (boot) your computer using the installation disc.

Then follow this tutorial...
How to Perform a Startup Repair in Windows 7

Goodluck. It still could be a nasty.

[BaconXBits]

Sweet tits, the startup repair worked! I was scared for a second, because it initially said that my version of system recovery options wasn't compatible with the version of Windows I was trying to repair (7), even though it was the exact same disc I used to originally install Windows.

Thanks for the prompt replies, guys!

Edit: All of my taskbar icons are completely invisible, so the problem may not be entirely solved...Running AVG (since it's already installed) to see if it finds anything. I'll probably go to bed soon, so I'll post here again if it ends up still being broken.

[BaconXBits]

A quick bump/update...I managed to get Windows to boot through the Windows DVD, with all of my files intact. Almost everything seems to be glitched up/broken in one way or another (AIM/MSN not working, most startup icons invisible, Firefox thinking that Gmail is a malicious website, Windows thinking that it's 2002, etc.); is this because I'm running Windows off a disc or because my computer is critically broken?

I'm worried that the only solution would be to reformat, but I'd like to hear if there are any other miracle solutions to this. I already did startup repair (twice), system restore didn't work, and AVG/AdAware scans came up with nothing. CCleaner did come up with a bunch of errors that it "fixed," but there were no noticeable results.

It should also be worth noting that I still can't boot Windows without the disc drive as the primary boot device.

[garyinhere]

Install and run Microsoft Security Essentials it's free if you OS is legit... if that don't work you might jst need to do a fresh install after you save what data you can

[BaconXBits]

Went and installed Security Essentials, but it won't let me scan anything without updating it. Of course, clicking the big red "update" button does absolutely nothing for whatever reason. It just grays out the button; recognizing that I pressed it, but it never actually updates anything.

Any other tips? I might just go and install Avast for poops and giggles just to see if it can do anything, but I'm not too optimistic about it.

[95Viper]

Go here and run this: Safety Scan for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Let it run all (everything) and it might take a while, but it will fix a lot of problems with the registry, files and do a virus scan.

P.S. Use MS Internet Explorer... You still might have to try to save what data you can and do a re- install. Sounds, like your registry got screwed up and\or a virus got you. If, you have any system restore points, before the problem started, you might be able to go back to one off those points.

[BaconXBits]

Security Essentials ended up working (apparently the update feature doesn't tell you that it's updating), but it came up with nothing after a full system scan. Safety Scan keeps failing to install for whatever reason, even in IE with popups off. It tells me to read the troubleshooting details (there are none) and to retry installation (which fails).

Any other tips?

[JrRacinFan]

Time to run a few passes of MemTest.
http://www.memtest.org/

If that comes back ok, attempt a backup/reinstallation of Windows.

Have you tried a fresh installation on a different hdd(possibly a spare)?

[95Viper]

Don't know, safety scan works ok for me...
Did you click ok in the pop-up bar; for it to run the active x control?
Make sure your on an admin account.

It might not have been you, I checked and they were having a problem were some were not able to run it. The Live team is looking into the problem and will hopefully have it corrected.

Check in programs and features in your control panel; if the program installed Live Safety Scanner, then un-install it, re-visit the site and try, if you wish to.
__________________________________________________ _____________________

Yeah, you might need to save the data(files) you want to a different drive and re-install (life would be better with a back-up); unless, you are familiar with the OS and want to spend time (could be a lot of time, probably quicker to re-install) fixing all the items.

[BaconXBits]

Just to clarify, how do I run MemTest? If I were to burn the ISO to a DVD, I'd just boot my computer with it in the disc drive? If it loads, is the UI simple enough for a moderately-tech-knowledgable person such as myself to determine whether or not a component is working? Or, are any of the available downloads on their site bootable through Windows (the "binary" version is throwing me off, what does that version run off of?), or do I have to do it via disc/floppy/USB?

Originally Posted by 95Viper

Check in programs and features in your control panel; if the program installed Live Safety Scanner, then un-install it, re-visit the site and try, if you wish to.

It wasn't installed/didn't come up.

Originally Posted by 95Viper

Did you click ok in the pop-up bar; for it to run the active x control?
Make sure your on an admin account.

If I recall, the pop-up bar only asked for me to enable pop-ups for the site. Also, I assume I count as an administrator being logged on to an administrator account, though through the DVD.

Thanks for the help thus far; I'm pretty much prepared for the worst. At least I'm able to salvage all of my files; though reinstalling games and such will be a bitch on my 512k connection.

[Jeffis108]

To run memtest, yes you burn the ISO to CD and boot off it. It will start automatically, and have a blue window. There will be a section with errors, and should be blank. You will know if you get errors as a error counter will show the number of errors. Its not too dificult, and if you try it you should get the just of it. If you do get any errors remove all sticks of ram and then test them one at a time till the faulty stick is identified.

[BaconXBits]

I ran MemTest, which came up with no errors. Unless anyone has any final insight, I'm probably going to reformat and reinstall Windows tomorrow.

[eidairaman1]

Change the motherboard...