Found this solution on the LogBlog after another failed Vista boot up. This issue is being referred to as the blacK Screen Of Death (KSOD), and is described as:
“KSOD Defined: Where after a reboot the Windows Vista PC boots up to a black screen with a white mouse cursor and nothing else ever loads (no logon screen, etc). Safe mode does the same thing. Last Known Good configuration and System Restore do not fix it except in rare cases where performing a System Restore to 1 month ago or earlier does (thanks Mike Katz for figuring that out).”
Their solution:
Here is how to recover from the KSOD (blacK Screen Of Death):
There apparently this a problem related to the Remote Procedure Call service (RPC) running under LocalSystem account instead of NT Authority\NetworkService account.
1. On the affected machine, boot using the Vista Media and Select “Next” and then in the bottom left you will see “Repair your Computer”; select Next and then Select Command Prompt.
2. At the command prompt, launch regedit.exe and load the SYSTEM hive, follow the below steps.
a. Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
b. On the File menu, select Load Hive.
c. Browse to %WINDIR%\System32\Config Folder and select “SYSTEM”
d. Select Open.
e. In the Load Hive dialog box, type in “MySYSTEM” box for the registry hive that you want to edit.
3. After the hive is loaded, modify the following key value per the instructions below: You will need to know what ControlSet the machine is currently running on, this can be determined by going to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\MySYSTEM\Select and find the “Current” value in the Right hand side. (Example: Current value is 1 then the ControlSet will be ControlSet001)
Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet00X\Services\RpcSs (X is the Number from the Current Key from above)
Value Name: ObjectName
Old Value: LocalSystem
New Value: NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService
4. Unload the SYSTEM hive by selecting the key “MySYSTEM” and then select File -> Unload Hive… menu item.
5. Exit regedit.exe
6. Reboot the system normally
Thanks to Ira for posting this information. I was ready to throw my monitor across the room the most recent time this happened to me.
January 1, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I’ve had this issue with XP as well. I’m not sure if this is the same since it is supposed to be a Vista issue. I used to have Vista installed on this laptop, but since it was designed to be an XP system and I kept having drive corruption problems, I switched back to XP. Now this has come up. I tried putting new drives in and reinstalling XP, but after a few weeks it comes back. I’ll try your fix if it is possible on XP.
January 1, 2009 at 4:28 pm
I can’t get to it in XP. Thanks anyway!
January 1, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Hi Julie, I am so glad to hear that it worked for you. Thanks for letting me know via trackback/pingback.
January 27, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Hi. i have a issue on this because in the Key: ”
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet00X\Services\RpcSs (X is the Number from the Current Key from above)
Value Name: ObjectName
Old Value: LocalSystem
New Value: NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService”
Is always like this (Localsystem) . I dont have nothing to change!!!
What can i do??
January 31, 2009 at 11:10 pm
I have the same problem as Daniel.
I have been searching for hours and no other solution is working for me.
Any help would be appreciated.
February 9, 2009 at 10:03 pm
what do you mean by “Boot with the Vista Media”? I cant find that anywhere- is it a cd or something?
February 12, 2009 at 12:17 am
Arrgh What a major pain in the butt! I am with Daniel. Same stuff! I’ve restored to a month ago. The pc has never shut down correctly so it’s been Hard shut down forever! I suspect this is part of our problem. I have reset the sysem shutdown key to 1 for yes… shutdown. Its still coming up with the Black Screen! Brand new laptop! Wanna cry. My son is in colelge and needs his shtuff!
March 3, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I got a new laptop for my son in college and he just called me with the same problem. I told him to take the battery out for a bit and then replace it. I then found these threads on the issue and called him back to, wondering how I could walk him through these solutions on the phone. Guess what…..removing the battery WORKED!!!!
At first blush I am thinking that there may be something getting stuck in some type of Random Access Memory and by removing the power and letting it sit clears whatever is there – I am an old computer guy who’s last proficiency was NT and I have no Idea how Vista works (or not) – hope this is of some help and for those of you who are Vista guru’s you might want to explore this direction.
March 3, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Thank You very Much! This worked perfectly!
March 8, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Like Daniel, my system already shows NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService. I tried changing to LocalSystem (intending to change it back) and, unless I did something wrong, the computer changed it back to NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService before I could.
I have not added any hardware or software. I did make the “mistake” of defragmenting my hard drive yesterday.
I have been experiencing the KSOD problem for several weeks. I was using the “restore to earlier restore point” solution. However, I am down to one restore point and now that is not working.
I am reluctant to reinstall Vista since that apparently does not really fix the problem.
Has anyone found another solution?
March 14, 2009 at 10:41 pm
I, too, am having the same problem as Daniel, above:
(Old Value: LocalSystem
New Value: NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService”
Is always like this (Localsystem) . I dont have nothing to change!!!)
BUT….
…I found a way to extract old files from the affected laptop and put it onto an external hard drive that I had laying around. Which I then can access from any computer. This is what I did.
***WARNING***: Instructions are given in a way where my 5 year old nephew can follow them. I’m a noob when it comes to computers, so, sorry to all you IT Experts
1) Connect my external hard drive (via USB) to the affected laptop
2) Turn the laptop on, repeatedly tapping on F8 to take me to the ADVANCED BOOT OPTIONS.
3) Select Repair Your Computer
4) Under SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS I selected Command Prompt
5) Typed C: [Press ENTER]
6) At C:> typed regedit [Press ENTER]
– The registry editor will open.
7) In the Registry select ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE’ and then go to File > Load Hive.
– You should then be able to see your external hard drive, as well as your OS (C:)
From here on out, I’m not completely sure if this is how it is going to look for everyone. But this is how it looks for me (I have multiple users on this computer so I just went to into the user’s files and selected which ever files I wanted to COPY onto the external hard drive. )
9) I Double Clicked on C: drive > double clicked on users > double clicked on the user under which my files are located
10) I then located which files I wanted to copy. I right clicked on the file, selected copy.
11) I then clicked on Computer on the left panel and then double clicked on my hard drive ( Mines was listed as the E: drive ). This should be located under Hard disk drives.
12) Upon entering the hard drive, right click anywhere on the white part of the main box. Then select paste. I would give it some time to make the copy since the Estimated Time box doesn’t appear, just to make sure the files is being copied properly.
I did this for all the documents that I needed ASAP and also for some family pictures. I still can’t come across a solution to fixing the “KSOD”. I tried many many “solutions” but none of them worked. I think I might just as well do a reinstallation of VISTA since I got everything that I needed from the laptop.
Be patient, optimistic, and keep persevering. Hope this helps. GOOD LUCK!
March 17, 2009 at 7:50 am
I am up the same creek as Daniel and others. My system is not set to localservice… I have tried a few of the resore points from before the machine failed and none of them get me operational…. Any other ideas on how to fix this junk!
April 17, 2009 at 2:17 pm
I’m having the black screen of death problem. I’ve spent 2.5 hours on the phone with Dell who told me to contact Microsoft who I chatted with for another 2.5 hours before they told me they would have to escalate my problem to an expert. Still waiting for that phone call back.
I’ve tried regedit solutions in this link:
http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com/2007/12/vista-black-screen-after-login.html
But I can’t get to the control panel to do some of the other solutions. Whether I boot up normal, from the DVD, or in SafeMode, I still just get a black screen after I log in. I’m about to give up and reinstall (YUCK).
June 24, 2009 at 4:45 am
Hey when you get a screen of startup then there is an option of easy access turn that on and log in after that press shift key 5 times and the a screen will pop up and you can access control panel
April 26, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Only fix that works for the Black Screen of Death problem, if your Vista boot disk can’t recognize any issues with your Vista installation, is to boot your computer to other OS, you have to install or have to have and put your Vista hard drive totally shared for the network and for users.
This helps you to get rid of the permission problem that is causing your Vista to lock up. (You can maybe unplug your cord from the network just to make sure nobody will hack into your system, while you are applying this fix).
Next step is to Boot into your newly opened Vista installation and run Regedit. You can see there many HKEY_XXX_XXX folders that contain your registry information, choose CLASSES_ROOT folder and click Edit from the toolbar, from there choose Permissions. Give “Creator Owner”, “System”, “Administrators” and “Users” Full Control, If you can see your own account name there, delete it. Go trough rest of the 4 HKEY_ folders Editing permissions and giving Full Control to all accounts except “Everyone”. After giving permissions, exit and reboot your computer. Now you can put your Vista installation HD private again by right clicking the hard drive icon, properties and uncheking shared options.
Now you should have everything back without having to install Vista and all programs all over again!
May 15, 2009 at 5:45 pm
[...] Boot windows to black screen and cursor…out of ideas Fix for Windows Vista Black Screen of Death, aka KSOD the back room tech See what Kemical recommends first, highly technical article….. __________________ [...]
June 10, 2009 at 7:26 pm
This problem began to occur within the past few weeks on a laptop computer. I found that Fn-F8(CRT/LCD) brings the screen back to life. You may have to press it a few times because it cycles between having an active display and output to a video projector. This is not a cure, but at least it gets me a working computer.
June 24, 2009 at 8:23 pm
After installing vista service pack 2 My acer notebook when the computer booted up it went to a black screen after the initial loading progress bar. I tryed to boot into safe mode but my keyboard didn’t work. Finally I did the following to get my notebook to work:
1.) Booted up repeatedly pressing F5
2.) Pressed F8 for more options
3.) choose the default “Repair Computer”
4.) Logged in
5.) Choose Restore – I choose a point a day before the Service Pack 2 install.
6.) After restore – Restarted and it worked
7.) TURNED OFF ALL AUTOMATIC UPDATES
I think I’ll wait for Service Pack 3
June 25, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Sorry about the bad information concerning Service Pack 2. At the same time I had loaded ActiveSync for my Motorola Q 9c Phone. It turns out that this application was causing the problem. I used the procedure above to Restore my acer laptop to a time before all the phone drivers were loaded. Then instead of using the disk supplied with the phone, I let Vista find the drivers. Everything works good now. Including Service Pack 2 and all the updates. There appears to be a problem with ActiveSync and Vista on an acer laptop.
July 15, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Use CCleaner to clean your registery.
http://www.ccleaner.com/
It worked for me.
July 16, 2009 at 7:10 am
tried everything for the blackscreen event eventually pressed left alt +F 10 which takes ur computer back to day1 U will lose everything on ur c drive but end result a working computer hope this helps btw my computer had preinstalled windows
August 12, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Windows Vista black screen … before windows login … there’re few ways to resolve this problem … but I think the best one is this:
If you can run Windows under safe mode … then just go C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\soqwx32.sys
JUST DELETE THIS FILE! soqwx32.sys
PERM DEL (Shit + Del) or empty recycle bin after deleting
After that, restart and try to run windows normal mode and if everything’s ok, windows will ask u for windows activation (product) key … just enter your product key and everything should be ok.
GOOD LUCK!
P.S. If u don’t have that file or u can’t resolve ur problem write me and e-mail … we gonna try something else
August 30, 2009 at 2:58 am
I do not have that file. Any more ideas at all?
September 10, 2009 at 8:34 pm
hi read your post and dont have th esoqwx32.sys file.. at least not found via command prompt.. only way I could navigate into that directory as os would NOT load.. BSOD and all.. any ideas.. have tried every other friggin idea out there. Mac time..???
September 9, 2009 at 8:06 am
My friend suggested to scan my laptop with these three:
AVAST! Home Edition,
CCleaner and
Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware.
After removing/deleting ALL the infected/malicious files/registry, the KSOD was gone. I no longer see the black screen with the white mouse pointer. I hope this helps.
September 10, 2009 at 8:28 pm
OK KSOD fans.. HAVE tried all. nothing worked. pressing shift key 5 times and attempting to open explorer, gui tries to open and hangs.. nothing. restore points dont work, rpcSs (NT Authority) has correct value.. doesnt work. I had this problem a bit ago and ended up re installing vista.. now 30 days later problem is back.!! ARRGGHH.. ideas..?
September 16, 2009 at 5:19 pm
here is a new solution for the Black screen of Death.
Using the ultimate boot disk tools, used explorer to access the registery directory at C:|windows\system32\config\ found two registery files “software” and “software_previous” I renamed the “software” file into “software_corrupt” and the “software_previous” to “software”.
Guess what! it worked.
link to me if you want to say thanks
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mbakir
September 29, 2009 at 8:32 pm
I tried that. It failed, as all others ideas have.
September 25, 2009 at 9:21 am
Me too I have tried everything .. Do we reallythink that it is a ploy from Microsoft to make it a pain in the ass for users who have pirated their software?
September 25, 2009 at 9:38 am
I have tried everything listed here nothing works at all … I still have the black screen of death! Surely someone out there must have a fix .. PLEASE PLEASE HELP
September 25, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Well non of the things on here worked….. I’m seriously starting to consider other options for a computer.
September 27, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I booted with dell media but there is no “next” to choose from. So, I can’t go any further with this. Any help people?
October 5, 2009 at 4:06 pm
I have the problem of a KSOD on booting into safe mode and when trying to reinstall.
On booting into windows vista I get a message about windows failing to start due to recent hardware change.
All this due to an update from windows! I don’t even know how to fix it without being able to reinstall….
October 6, 2009 at 11:35 am
Hi, I’ve the same problem too but I don’t even have a cursor – just the black screen. It started happening when I purchased Uniblu Registry Booster. Every morning I have just the black screen, then I re-boot and it’s fine.
October 7, 2009 at 1:37 am
I had a similar problem but I had a black screen with NO CURSOR. The problem kind of resolved itself through system being heated up. Can vista hard disk repair itself during boot time??
http://annoyances-resolved.blogspot.com/2009/09/laptop-wont-boot-and-shows-blank-screen.html
October 17, 2009 at 10:38 am
Also have this problem (with Windows 7 RTM 64 bit). A good workaround for me is pressing the source button on my LCD to switch to the other input channel and then press source again to switch back. It looks like windows has a problem detecting the display when it goes to the login screen and then decides to blank it or only show a mouse arrow. Seems like a bug to me. There are some “Display is not active” errors from the atikmdag source in the event logs that might be or not be related to this. I’ve recently updated my drivers (for an ATI 4600 series card), but that did not solve the issue.
October 20, 2009 at 4:21 am
Hi All
I have compiled a simple guide to help fix the Vista Black Screen of Death here:
http://www.lanarkshireitservices.co.uk/vista-black-screen-of-death-fix.html
Please comment on any success / failures you with my methods.
Regards
November 7, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Hi there,
after reading on different forums for several hours and trying different things, I did a system restore using Norton Ghost. It recreated my system to the state it was prior to the problem. It took about 3 hours. It didn’t work.
Then I just removed and put the battery back in. It took about 1 min and it worked.
Hope it will help someone.
November 8, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Dude…..you people ain’t gotta go through all this cuz when you get to system32\config you will prob notice that when you attempt to open “system” it won’t let you because it is still being used by the computer…I tried to terminate it from task manager but it just wouldn’t go away!! So I did the following:
I booted to the empty screen where there was nothing,
hit control + alt + del
got to the task manager
went to the Applications tab in the task manager dialog box
clicked the New Task… button
in the create new task window typed “cmd”
from the command prompt I just typed “explorer” and it didn’t work for the first time, but the second time, IT DID…After typing “explorer” the task bar appeared, and the background and all…SO try that before you do the more advanced technique explained in this website!!
Good bye you geeks!!! just kidding I’m one too!!