Dark Screen No Cursor Start-Up

Turned the PC on a bit ago without turning on the monitor as I always do, heard the chimes, typed in my password, hit return and went to heat up a cup of coffee. Came back, turned on the monitor, the screen was dark without a cursor as if my monitor wasn't working. I tried to bring up Task Manager but that failed. I noticed the tower wasn't working, the light wasn't blinking, which is not the norm after a boot. I turned off the power, waited a bit and rebooted. I was asked if I wanted to start the computer normally which I did.

My PC seemed to boot correctly except that the volume and internet connectivity icons on my task bar were missing. I had volume and was able to connect to the internet however. I restarted and this time my audio deck icon was missing, something I have seen on occasion before. I restarted again and all seems to be in place.

I've read a little on this issue and will go back and read more but I wanted to ask what you think happened and what is the best course of action. The only thing I've installed recently is Windows Updates, the last being a Defender definition yesterday.

I also want to know if the reinstallation disk that came with my PC also serves as a recovery disk in case I need to boot from a disk in the future.

Thanks as always

VFN

I'd like to blame it on the update but you said your tower wasn't working properly. It could be a minor glitch or perhaps a power suppy issue.

The problem with the icons might be related to the update. Did you reboot after you installed it?

The update last Tuesday was a NET framework and I shutdown my PC every night. I've been turning on my monitor before logging in to see if the issue happens again and today it did but only briefly; the screen was dark for just a few seconds. I've had the dark screen with a cursor problem once or twice before and this dark screen has a different color and textural quality to it.

I've seen that this is not an unknown issue, but I haven't found anyone who's pinpointed a cause or a specific remedy. Clean install is always mentioned as a final measure and I've been thinking about a factory restore. I don't have many files or programs on my PC so it wouldn't be too much of a pain, but I do worry that maybe my hardware somewhere is showing signs of failing.

Like I said, it could be the power supply. I know you explained things thoroughly in your first post but was Windows loaded when you got the last glitch?

BTW, I can't install that update. It keeps failing.

What do you mean by "was Windows loaded?"

Maybe there's an issue with that update?

Thanks.

No problems here

VFN- In your first post, you said the tower wasn't working and you had to shut it down. That could because of the power supply not providing sufficient power to the components. If the red light you're referring to is for hard drive activity, it could be the hard drive or, again, the power supply.

In regards to the monitor, when I boot Windows and after the Microsoft Corporation green thing quits going back and forth left to right, the screen always darkens temporarily before loading continues. I suspect that's because it's loading the graphics card driver. Note that I don't use a log-in password. Maybe this isn't the same thing you're talking about.

Yes, Windows loaded. And now for the last three boots I'm seeing a pattern.

After the welcome screen, as I've said, the screen goes dark and stays that way for a few seconds. Then after the desktop icons appears they flash and seem to re-materialize or re-present themselves. (I'm probably describing this inarticulately but its something that I've seen icons do before--and on other machines though not at boot necessarily.) Then the tower seems to stop working for a few seconds, begins again, the single windows sound happens, and the icons on the bottom right of the task bar begin to appear. (They used to appear almost immediately.) Further, the tower doesn't seem to work as much as it did before; it used to work for several minutes after boot.

While it may not be related because it's been an issue for a while before this one, my sound is often stuttered/interrupted when I'm streaming on the internet and I load other sites, scroll through those sites or scroll through my favorites in my Chrome bookmark drop down window.

And on a graphics note, when I system restored a few weeks ago some of my game shortcuts lost their "run as administrator checks" and their shield icons. I changed their properties back to run as administrator but the shield icons still don't show.

Thanks.

My screen goes dark for up to 5 seconds without the cursor before the Microsoft Windows globe logo appears and the chime sounds, which is prior to the "Welcome" screen. This, to me, is normal. It sounds like Vista loads differently on your system. I hesitate to say anything about why your seems to quit working.

The icons in the notification area should appear as the related programs are started. That's never been immediate on my system. It just depends on how many things are in the Startup programs. I understand what you're saying about how the desktop shortcut icons may sometimes refresh rather than being immediate. I don't know what to do about that. RichC46 put me onto using Soluto so I can see what and when something is being loaded.

You could run msconfig.exe and look at the Services and Startup tabs to see what's going to be running in the background and disable things that aren't necessary.

The icons loading slower than they have before must surely be related to the dark screen. I'm away from my PC for a few days so we'll see when I get back. I hope my PC isn't showing signs of quitting on me.

Well, the PC was shutdown for several days, booted with same issue then downloaded and installed several updates from Windows Update. After restart, instead of purely dark screen the task bar and some of its icons were displayed before the PC fully booted. I realized that my sound wasn't working (I had that issue a few times long ago) so I restarted and the PC started properly, no dark screen, icon delay, etc. Booted today and no issue again. Hopefully, the issue is gone for good.

Thanks again for the responses.

Great.

Technology is wonderful- when it works!