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Windows 7 gets stuck on black screen with cursor on startup

Hello everyone,

i have had my laptop with windows 7 on it since college, and the computer has worked great since 2012 when it bought it.

On Sunday, the computer started up normally, but then got stuck on the black screen with just the cursor showing directly after the windows 7 screen. Previously it worked well the entire week, the only change was the renewal of my Mcafee subscription (I dont think this would affect it).

I turned off the computer and turned it back on several times and still has the same result. The longest i waited for it was 15 minutes. I tried using the startup repair, and it said it found a System corrupt volume error, but fixed it. I looked for restore points that previously were on the computer, but they no longer were on the computer. 

I don’t have a windows recovery disk or usb, i am not sure if I got one when I bought the computer either. I’m not sure how i should proceed with fixing this issue.

Thanks,

Tom

Hi TJ, 

This matter is possibly caused by a system corruption. Can you access safe mode? If you can sign-in to safe mode, kindly perform these troubleshooting: 

Disk Cleanup:  

  1. On the search bar, type Disk cleanup and hit Enter.  

  2. Select the drive you want to clean up.  

  3. Select OK.  

  4. A dialog box will popup, select Clean up system files. 

  5. In the Disk cleanup dialog box, under Disk Cleanup tab, select the check boxes for the file types that you want to delete. 

  6. Click OK. 

  7. Select Delete files. 

For more information regarding Disk cleanup, refer to the article entitled "Tips to free up drive space on your PC" under "Use Disk Cleanup". 

Check Disk: 

  1. Access Command Prompt as Administrator. 

  2. Type chckdsk /r /f and hit Enter.

Run SFC Scan:         

To run an SFC scan, follow these steps: 

  1. Run Command Prompt as Administrator.          

  2. Type sfc /scannow and hit Enter.          

Run DISM Tool:         

To perform DISM, follow these steps:  

  1. Run Command Prompt as Administrator.          

  2. Type the following command:          

    1. DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /scanhealth          

    2. DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth          

NOTE: This might take a while to finish scanning. Do not cancel (after performing DISM, perform SFC again 3 times). 

Clean Boot:  

  1. On the search bar, type MSConfig.  

  2. On the System Configuration, check Hide all Microsoft Services and click on Disable all.  

  3. Under Startup tab, click on Open Task Manager.  

  4. Select each startup item, right-click and select Disable.  

  5. Close Task Manager.  

  6. On the System Configuration, click on Apply then OK.  

  7. Restart PC.  

Note: Reset the computer back to Normal Mode once you are done with the troubleshooting by following the section "How to reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting" from the same article.  

For more information regarding clean boot, click here. 

Let us know how it goes. 

Regards.

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At this point I cannot get into safe mode. It gets stuck on Classpnp.sys. 

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Hi tjsingle,


Can you tell me how were you able to get into the startup repair?

If you want to create a system repair disc, you may do so in a working Windows 7 PC. Here's how:

  1. Open Backup and Restore by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Backup and Restore.
  2. In the left pane, click Create a system repair disc, and then follow the steps. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

You may follow the rest of the steps in using the system repair disc  here.

Let me know how it goes.

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I was able to get into startup repair via the Repair options from the Advanced boot options. Sometimes I was prompted to get to use the startup repair as well upon turning on the computer. I do not have another computer with Windows 7 at this time to make a recovery disk. I contacted the Microsoft help chat service, and we tried creating a ISO disk, using a Flash drive, but I couldn't locate the product key due to paper stickers writing being worn off. I really need to get this fixed, ASAP. 

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If you've upgraded your eligible device running a genuine copy of Windows 7 to Windows 10 for free, you should have a digital license.

A digital license or digital entitlement in Windows 10, is a method of activation in Windows 10 that doesn't require you to enter a product key.

You'll only be prompted to enter a product key during installation if no digital license is found on your PC.

Were you asked for a product key even though you've upgraded your Windows 7 to Windows 10 for free before? If that's the case, it is possible that the pre-installed Windows 7 version on your device is not genuine.

What you can do is buy a genuine product key or visit your Official Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for the product key linked to your device as they should have a record for that.

Get back to me if you have any update.

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I opted to not install Windows 10 on to the laptop. It is running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit. 

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Hi tjsingle,

At this point I would recommend that you buy another Windows 7 license to activate your software.

We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.

If you have other queries, feel free to post in the Answers Community.

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Last updated May 8, 2024 Views 14,916 Applies to: