Desktop gets black screen on reboot after sleep/shutdown following update install

Hi Jim Donaldson1

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Based on your description, I understand that after your computer went into sleep mode and updated last night, it will keep turning on today with a black screen, and I understand very well how you feel!

This problem has happened to me before, but perhaps it may be a bit different from your situation.

I was using an Asus laptop, and then it basically never shut down, including when I brought it to class or brought it back from class, and it was always in sleep versus working mode.

But all of a sudden one day I couldn't turn on the computer, it also kept turning on with a black screen, I tried command line scanning the disk, USB repair with no success.

Finally I sent the computer to an offline ASUS repair store, and eventually realized that it was due to the fact that I left the computer on all the time, and it looked like the computer wasn't running in the sleep state, but the hard drive, memory sticks, and other hardware that exchanges data was still in working condition, and eventually my problem was solved after replacing the hard drive.

I hope you don't have a hardware problem, so I'm going to give you some advice on different aspects that will hopefully help you get into the system without any problems.

Option 1: Let's try to perform a discharge operation for the computer.

(1) Make sure to turn off the computer completely

(2) Remove all external connections, including: keyboard, mouse, etc. If you have a laptop, you will need to remove all external connections. If you have a laptop, you will need to additionally remove the charging adapter.

(3) Press and hold the power on button (power button) for about 30s.

(4) Turn on the power normally.

Please note: Repeat the above operation 4~5 times to ensure complete discharge.

Option 2: Since we seem to be able to enter Safe Mode, let's try to perform the following checks and actions in Safe Mode.

(1) You mentioned that there seems to be an update after sleep, so we will try to remove this update for now.

Open Settings with “WIN + i” -> Select “Windows Update” -> “Update history” -> “Uninstall updates” on the left sidebar.

Uninstall this update according to the date and time.

(2) Check that the hardware is detected properly in Device Manager and see if there are any devices with a yellow exclamation mark. (Especially devices under “display adapters”)

(3) We tried disabling fast startup.

Click “WIN key” to open the search bar -> Type “Control Panel” and open it -> Under “Large icons”, select “Power Options” -> Select “Choose what the power buttons do” on the left sidebar -> Uncheck “Turn on fast startup”.

Option 3: We try to make a new external USB installation media (probably due to the low version of Windows ISO in the current installation media).

To make a Windows installation media you can refer to: Create installation media for Windows - Microsoft Support

After making the installation media we try to boot the repair from the Windows installation media.

The system repair steps are:

(1) First, create the Windows installation media.

(2) Connect the created installation media to the computer.

(3) Boot the computer and set the Windows installation media as the first bit in the BIOS.

(4) Save and enter, the computer will enter the Windows installation program

(5) Click Next, and then click “Repair Computer” in the lower left corner.

(6) On the “Choose an option page”, click “Troubleshooting”.

(7) “Advanced Options”

(8) “Start Repair”

Option 5: If you have made a restore point before, we can try to restore the system to before the problem occurred via a restore point.

Restore point restore system you can refer to:

Please note: Restore Point Restore System will not delete your personal files and data, but it will delete third-party applications, drivers and Windows Update installed after the restore point time.

Option 6: We will try to disassemble the computer and check for signs of loose hardware connections or re-plug the hardware cables.

I sincerely hope that the above solution will solve your problem. Please feel free to contact me if you have any problems or still can't solve them. (Photos related to the question would be great!).

I look forward to hearing back from you. 

Best Regards

Arthur Sheng | Microsoft Community Support Specialist