Black Screen in Windows Troubleshooting Computer Tips

Starting your computer and seeing the disastrous black screen  means that you definitely need to see these troubleshooting black screen computer tips. I have seen many black screens on computers as I used to repair them. I am grateful that I do not have to do this any more, as I used to have literally piles of computers complaining of the same problem, a black screen problem. Now that I am not fixing computers, I have time to write tutorials and troubleshooting black screen tips for other people to learn by. It is impossible for me to mention every possible cause or solution of a black screen computer, however even if this article helps 50% of the people that read it, I will be happy.

Troubleshooting Black Screen, this could mean a few things:

• You were just about to load Windows and saw the logo screen and then you got a black screen in Windows.
• You saw the usual loading screens but just didn’t quite make it into Windows. You did not see a Windows logo as it appears that you can only see a black screen in Windows.
• You logged into Windows and then saw a black screen.
• You were using the computer and then a black screen in Windows appeared.
• You have logged into Windows to see a black screen with a blinking cursor.

If you see a computer black screen and do not see anything else at all, including the usual loading screens, then your black screen has appeared before Windows has even had a chance to load. As you can see, there are many ways to have a computer black screen and therefore it is very hard to pinpoint your particular problem. Sometimes having this problem

can be easily solved, but at other times it is a nightmare and hopefully these troubleshooting black screen tips will help you.

Start in Safe Mode when Troubleshooting Black Screen Errors

1. If you can start your computer in safe mode you should be able to choose to do a system restore, providing you have not disabled the system restore feature. Below I have a screen shot of the incensed boot options menu that you see when you press the F8 key when starting the computer. In the screen shot below I have chosen safe mode. When I pressed enter the computer will boot to safe mode.

Last known good configuration for troubleshooting black screen problems

2. Restart your computer and press F8 to get to the advanced options menu. Choose to start with the last known good configuration. If you are lucky enough to see a screen full of options, after an error with a black screen in Windows, never choose to start the computer normally. You should always choose a safer option right now. The two best options to try first our last known good configuration and safe mode. In the screen shot below I have selected “last known good configuration” to see if Windows start with the same files it did before the error happened. 

8 More Troubleshooting Black Screen Computer Tips

The following troubleshooting tips for a black screen in Windows are not in any particular order. I probably would recommend that if you can start your computer, always do it in safe mode after a serious error. Also when you have a black screen in Windows, do not rush and try to fix the problem straight away, as you may cause more problems than you realize.

Check all your cables

1. Check to see that or you’re plugs are securely plugged in and there is nothing connected that should not be there. This includes having a small USB flash drive plugged in while you are trying to start the computer. did a cable come loose while you were using your computer? What about the power supply to the computer? These are pretty common causes but can still cause a panic until you find the culprit.

Check for faulty devices

2. Check for bent pins or faulty devices. Unplug printers and external hard drives. Also check the ends of connections to see if there are any bent pins. For example a bent pin on the end of the keyboard cable can cause a black screen. This might not apply to a black screen in Windows unless the pin board device has become faulty while you are using Windows. This troubleshooting black screen computer tip is a difficult one to diagnose manually. It is like

searching for a needle in a hay stack!

Check hardware

3. Check your internal hardware. Check to see if your hard drive and CD drives are plugged in correctly and securely. If you have recently transported your computer from one place to another this could dislodge the CPU all loose certain cables. Also check your computer memory as this is one of the number one reasons for a black screen. If you see a black screen in Windows while you have been using the computer, you may have had a hardware problem. This can be caused by a video card, as mentioned below, or even something as simple as dust on your CPU, causing your computer to overheat. You Can still get a black screen in Windows because your CPU may have just been connecting to the motherboard. Basically hanging on by a thread. 

Enabled low resolution video or enable VGA mode

4. If you are playing a game on your computer and it shut down and when you restart you only have a black screen, you need to restart the computer. When restarting press F8 to go to the advanced options menu, and choose ―enable low- resolution video or ―enable VGA mode. This problem often happens when you are playing a game that your video or graphics card cannot handle. Your computer might overheat from the pressure or it could possibly damage the video card.If you are a gamer you would be familiar with troubleshooting black screen problems as the games just keep getting bigger and bigger!

Connecting a TV or another monitor

 boot up any computer, fix and install Windows easy.

5. If you have recently changed monitors or connected your computer to a TV try restarting and pressing F8 to get the advanced options menu, then choose ―enable low-resolution video‖ or ―enable VGA mode‖. You can also try pressing the Fn key on your keyboard and F5 or F6 at the same time. Back in the old days….Hmm I am not that old. We did not even think about trying to connect your computer to your TV and did not need troubleshooting black screen tips.

On-board video vs install video card

6. If you are just set up your computer when plugged all the cables in, check to see if the monitor is plugged into the on- board video plug when you actually have a PCI or AGP video card installed. Trust me I have done this myself. Simply move the plug to the correct position.

Use a diagnostic POST card

7. You can also try troubleshooting black screen problems and fix boot errors with a diagnostic POST card. This is a PCI card that you can slot into your computer’s motherboard to help diagnose boot errors and sometimes troubleshooting black screen problems.

Use the Windows operating system disc

8. If you have an original Windows operating system disc that came with your computer, then definitely insert it into the CD or DVD drive, and use this discs resources to repair your computer. Even if you are using Windows XP, it also has a recovery console that will help you prepare a black screen. However with Windows Vista and Windows 7 it is even easier to repair a black screen in Windows if you have the original operating system CD. These versions of Windows now have an option to restore your system in the recovery console options.

If you do not have an operating system cd you can buy a repair cd to replace your disc and still boot up your computer. Please note that the you can boot up Any computer, fix & install Windows easy with a boot disc especially made for this error. Of course you can try everything listed above first as you might get lucky! Hope you do

7 Tweaks to Make Your Computer Faster.

 

The speed of the computer you use can have a great deal of impact on how fast your internet is, both negatively and positively. If you need to enjoy faster broadband internet access, aside going with the right ISP it is important that you also have an active and properly optimized computer. This article will be giving you a list of some basic, but important changes you should make that will have a significant impact on your computer and internet speed. 

1. Reduce Desktop Icons: A lot of computers are cluttered and this will not help as it will make the computers slower. Just compare your computer to when you just bought it and you will notice a great difference in speed and effectiveness. If you know you can’t be formatting your hard drive every time it is important to do your best to reduce the number of icons on your desktop to the barest minimum.
2. Uninstall Unnecessary Applications: How many applications do you have installed on your computer? 50? 100? 200? How many do you use on a regular basis? It probably would be less than 20. Just take a look at this and you will see how much you have been losing in terms of speed, effectiveness and productivity by having all those applications on your computer. Every application you install has a great deal of impact on your computer and it also uses memory and space which means there will be less resources for your main applications. Take a look at your computer now, remove every unnecessary applications and you will notice an increase both in computer and internet speed.
3. Take Care of Outdated Software: It is one thing to have your computer system cluttered with unnecessary applications and it is another thing to have your computer filled with outdated software. The downside of a system with many unnecessary applications is waste of memory space but the downside of a system with many outdated software is insecurity and the possibility of being hacked. You will be doing a great deal to protect your computer by ensuring you keep all your software applications updated. 

4. Use a Robust and Latest Antivirus: Just like sickness is to man, virus is the worst enemy of a computer. You won’t be able to get the best from your computer if you’re just using any kind of antivirus that pleases you and it is also important to be updating your antivirus regularly if you’re using the right one because viruses are always developing and a 2005 antivirus won’t be able to prevent your system against a 2011 virus. See out review of virus removal software.
5. Always Shut down your Computer Properly : Aside from your system being Infected by a virus another thing that can have a major effect on your computer is if your system files become corrupt. There are several things that can cause your system files to corrupt but the most common of them all is you not shutting down your computer properly. Always ensure you shut down your computer using the options available in your operating system, it will save you a great deal of time and money on the long run.
6. Have the Latest Hardware: Just like your computer software, having outdated hardware can also make your system vulnerable. If you really want to get the best from your computer you need to ensure you’re always doing your best to make sure you purchase and use the latest hardware components produced by your computer manufacturer.
7. Organize Your Downloads: This is another important thing for internet users, especially for those who download a lot on the internet. Don’t just download applications to your desktop or to any section of your computer you feel like. Always organize your downloads by making sure you create a special folder for any of your internet downloads. In fact you should organize your files on your computer on a regular basis and try to stick to that.

10 THINGS YOU SHOULD DO TO MAINTAIN YOUR COMPUTER

Computer Maintenance Task #1: Scan For Viruses

Your virus scanner tries to catch viruses before they infect your computer, but the people who make anti-virus software can’t detect viruses until the viruses infect somebody’s computer—so even the most secure computer in the world is vulnerable.

The people who make anti-virus software know this, so they give your anti-virus software the ability to scan your disk drive for virus infections. Get in the habit of running a “Full Disk Scan” every month (or more frequently if you use your computer to manage important information or financial accounts).

Also run a full-disk scan if your computer starts acting strangely. Many viruses try to hide themselves in legitimate programs, causing strange behavior. Only a full-disk scan can detect these viruses.

Computer Maintenance Task #2: Clean Your Registry

Programs store important information in the Windows Registry—information like their license key or how many days your free trial has left. But when you remove programs from your computer, this information often gets left behind. That leaves you with a registry full of useless information.

Since almost every program on your computer uses the registry dozens or hundreds of times a day, purging your registry of unneeded information can speed up how fast applications load. It can also help prevent old registry entries from interfering with newer registry entries and the programs that use them.

A quick search on Google for “Registry Cleaner” turns up several registry cleaner programs for every budget. Run one of these programs once a month or once a quarter as part of your regular computer maintenance.

Computer Maintenance Task #3: Create a “Disk Box”

Back when everything—including Windows—came on floppy disks, I created a disk box to store all of my program and driver disks. Keeping everything together saved me from tearing the house apart looking for a lost disk when something went wrong.

Today my “disk box” is really an old CD-R spindle that holds all of my driver and software CD-ROMs. It takes up almost no space, and I haven’t touched the CDs on the bottom of the spindle in years, but I still use it frequently to find some elusive driver or program that can’t be downloaded from the Internet.

If you ever get in trouble on your computer, you don’t want to have to search all over for your old discs. Start keeping a “disk box” today so everything you need is in one place.


Computer Maintenance Task #4: Clear Out Dust

It amazes me how many people who can’t stand three days of dust on their furniture will never even think of clearing out the dust from their computer. With their vents and fans, computers are practically designed to be dust traps—but dust is really bad for computers.

Dust is a highly effective insulator, so it traps heat inside your computer. That heat makes metal and other parts on your computer expand, causing wear and tear on the moving parts—like the tiny ball bearings inside your disk drive. The heat also prevents electrical parts from working the way they were designed.

Cleaning the dust out of your computer is easy, if a bit tedious. Buy a can of compressed air from your local supermarket or office supply store, turn off your computer, open your computer case, cover your eyes and mouth, and spray until all the dust is gone. I suggest you “dust out” your computer once a year, or twice a year if someone in your house smokes.

Computer Maintenance Task #5: Defragment

Imagine you had only five minutes to clean your house before guests arrived. You’d probably do a few quick “hacks” that weren’t really cleaning—like throwing junk into the closet and sweeping dust under the rug. Windows does the same thing every time you save a file—in order to save the file quickly, it doesn’t pay close attention to putting it on the disk drive in a nice, neat way.

That’s why you should defragment your disk drive about once a month. This is one of the easiest computer maintenance tasks on this list: simply start the Defragmentation program from the Windows Control Panel before you go to bed one night and you’ll have a well-ordered disk drive when you wake up the next morning.

Computer Maintenance Task #6: Get S.M.A.R.T.

The Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) checks your disk drive for wear and tear so that it can warn you before your disk drive fails. Not only can this tell you when you need to buy a new disk drive, but it can let you know that you need to make a through backup before it’s too late.

There are numerous programs on the Web which will help you read and interpret S.M.A.R.T. data—just search Google for “S.M.A.R.T. drive test”.

Computer Maintenance Task #7: Trash Duplicate Files

I frequently forget to delete photos from my camera before I take new photos, so when I download the new photos to my computer, the camera also creates duplicate copies of the old photos. Other processes on your computer also create duplicate files, and all of these duplicate files waste your disk space.

Removing duplicate files is another easy computer maintenance task. Search Google for software to “remove duplicate files”. Almost all of this software works the same way: it reads every file on your computer and compares a mathematical representation of each file (called a checksum) to every other file on your computer. The process takes time, but it’s highly accurate, and every duplicate file remover will let you choose which files to remove.

There are some programs that will perform computer maintenance, clean your registry, and remove duplicate files. Captain Optimizer is one example.

Computer Maintenance Task #8: Install Upgrades

Most of the fastest-spreading viruses exploit a flaw in a specific program, whether it’s Windows or an application. The programmers who write these programs usually issue a “patch” for these security flaws as soon as they discover them.
Programmers even issue patches for flaws that haven’t been exploited by viruses yet, so installing the latest patches can help protect your computer and your personal data.

How do you install these security patches? Simply install the upgrades for the programs on your computer. Most important are the programs on your computer that access the Internet or that you use to open files from the Internet. For example: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice, and all multi-player games.

Most programs have an option in Tools or Help to check for updates. I suggest you run the “Check For Updates” option once a month or more frequently as part of your regular computer maintenance.

Computer Maintenance Task #9: Remove Startup Programs

Most new computers startup in 20 to 40 seconds. Most computers over a year old can take 2 minutes or more to startup. What changed? It’s the startup programs.

Many programs today install a startup program that will either make it easier to start the main program by putting an icon in your taskbar or will make the main program start faster by “pre-loading” it. Unfortunately, both of these things mean that your computer will boot up much more slowly. For laptops in particular this can be quite annoying.

In less time than it takes for your computer to boot, you can disable these pesky and unnecessary startup programs. See our previous article for instructions on how to disable startup programs.

Computer Maintenance Task #10: Make A Backup

A backup isn’t strictly part of computer maintenance. It won’t help your computer work better or live longer, but it will absolutely help you survive computer failure with the minimum level of stress.

We’ve written about backups extensively before, so I won’t belabor the point. Please make a backup at least once a month—although more frequently is recommended. See our articles about making easy secure backups for great backup options that won’t even prolong your normal computer maintenance.