"Black screen of death"

Question：

I think this is the most frequent and most annoying issue in Windows Vista!

If booting is impossible because of the KSOD (Black screen of death), the user can only sit and wait. He has no idea at all what could be the cause of fault - and there are numberless possible faults that may cause this behaviour.

Now, nothing can be done.

Only access to CD or DVD drive is still working, all other controls and devices are dead.

DEAD DEAD DEAD .....

A  very old KB article (2008) No. 946532 covers this topic and does not describe all the possible faults causing KSOD. Furthermore, the type of fault described herein is rather seldom. The article does not give any solution, except a clean installation.

Are there any other, newer articles about this annoying and very frequent problem? Do they (Microsoft) know that this is an unsolved and very frequent problem?

The main question is not answered yet:

WHY DID MICROSOFT NOT PREVENT SUCH BLACK SCREEN WITHOUT ANY ERROR MESSAGE SHOWN???

TIA for any reply, BA08

Answer 1：If you do not get the Splash Screen at Startup(Dell,HP, Acer, etc Logo), it may be a Hardware problem.

If you get the Splash Screen, but it does not Boot into Windows, try these ways:

Try tapping F8 at startup, and from the list of startup selections, select Safe Mode by using UP Arrow Key to go there > then hit Enter.

Try a System Restore once there, to pick a Restore Point before your problem..

Click Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore > pick a different time > Next > etc

Cheers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

If the above does not work, try making a Bootable Repair Disk to do a Startup Repair:

 

 

As is the case with most computer/laptops these days, they do not come with the proper Vista Disk to do Repairs with; only Recovery Disks.

As yours falls into the above category, download the ISO file at the supplied link, and make a Bootable Disk from it.

 

Go into your Bios/Setup, or Boot Menu, at startup, and change the Boot Order to make the DVD/CD drive 1st in the Boot Order, then reboot with the disk in the Drive.

 

At startup/power on you should see at the bottom of the screen either F2 or DELETE, to go into Bios/Setup, or F12 for the Boot Menu.

 

When you have changed that, insert that Bootable Disk you have made in the Drive, and reboot.

 

You can do a Startup Repair, System Restore, etc with it.

Read all info at the website about creating and using it.

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

 

ISO Burner: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/active-isoburner.html

It makes a very good Repair Vista disk.

You can do a Startup Repair, System Restore, etc from it.

It is not a reinstall disk.

 

And the 32bit is what comes normally on a computer, unless 64bits requested.

Cheers.

---

Mick Murphy - Microsoft Partner

Answer 2：Michael Murphy,
thank you for your reply.

This standard answer will not lead in most of the cases to a solution, sorry!

The question is:

What was the reason for KSOD? There should be given an extended error report to localize the cause of fault.

Example:
KSOD - not booting, no messages.
After replacing the Registry files using BartPE with old backup files (there is no System Restore possible as no restore points where created!!!) the system boots partially and stops with an error message: 

ecache.sys defective (Critical system driver missing or corrupt)

Such message helps to locate the error and recover without doing new installation. After replacing only this one file with a copy from another partition, normal booting is possible.

Are there any other articles in knowledge base about KSOD?

Thank you, BA08
 

 

Answer 3：

Dear Michael,
thank you for your reply.

My intention was not to criticise your help, rather to blame Microsoft for their ignorance of problems.

As Microsoft Partner you seem to represent Microsoft in this forum, however. BTW, I did already an extended search and I found nothing, except this old article. It seems, that MS did not test Vista before releasing, if they did, they did not find the most critical errors: booting problems. Furthermore, until now when they are already releasing a successor system, these problems are not solved.

Cheers,
BA08