Windows 10 and laptop screen of death

[Oswyntail]

Techie help needed!
We have a Dell Inspiron laptop, that we upgraded from Windows 7 to 10. It worked fine for a month or so, then, after a forced upgrade, it has stopped. Turn on, Windows flash screen with whirling dots, then.......a totally blank screen
Googling any combination of the hardware/software/symptoms brings up a plethora of solutions, ranging from upgrading the bios to turning the thing on without the battery, all claiming to fix the problem, but none does. Particularly useless are those that start "Open Task Manager..." (Hint - blank screen = no Windows available). I suspect the experts are baffled.
I can get into Windows in "Safe" mode, but with very limited connectivity or ability to do much - not that I would have much idea what I should be doing at that stage.
Any ideas? Helpful if possible, and none along the lines of "Ubuntu would save you the trouble". We are where we are. Thanks

 

[trainmania100]

Hi
Load up safe mode with command prompt and run sfc/scannow as administrator
before running chkdsk on C:/ partition
Would you be able to post a picture of what happens after the blue windows logo ? Is there any text at all?
How long have you left it on just a blank screen?
if its bsod (Blue Screen Of Death) there is usually some meaningful text at the top
Any further info would be useful

 

[Nym]

Don't upgrade to Windows 10...

I know, not helpful.

You can always go back to Windows 7, it works.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

How old is the laptop? Does Windows 10 log the reason for system crashes? If it does maybe the graphics card or drivers is playing up

 

[trainmania100]

Yeah if you can go in to device manager under administrative settings and right click on video card and click update device driver software
And do the check disk thing

 

[rdeez]

Failing everything else, you can 'refresh' Windows or roll back to a restore point created before the troublesome update using the same 'Advanced start up' screen that you get into Safe Mode with.

If there's a system restore point you can use, try that first. If that fails, you can 'refresh' Windows - which will delete all of your programs, settings and drivers but will NOT remove your personal files (careful though - there's another option on the same menu that will also delete personal files).

 

[Johnuk123]

Don't upgrade to Windows 10...

I know, not helpful.

You can always go back to Windows 7, it works.

Nothing wrong with windows 10, best operating system windows have produced as long as you remember to cancel all the snooping bits.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

With these problems the first thing I'd try is.
Start up in safe mode, and use System Restore for the date when it worked.

 

[Crossover]

Don't upgrade to Windows 10...

I know, not helpful.

You can always go back to Windows 7, it works.

Only within 30 days I think. After that, the old folders get wiped
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Nothing wrong with windows 10, best operating system windows have produced as long as you remember to cancel all the snooping bits.

Care to share which bits should be disabled? Could come in useful for other members

 

[najaB]

Apparently, there's a problem with some AMD video drivers. If you can get into Safe Mode try updating the drivers. http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/soft...03760/how-to-fix-the-windows-10-slow-boot-bug

 

[rdeez]

Care to share which bits should be disabled? Could come in useful for other members

May I suggest this helpful article.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/07/30/windows-10-privacy-settings/

Windows 10 is spying on you: Here's how to stop it
Windows 10‘s privacy settings very much need to be frowned at. Essentially: unless you pay close attention to the fluffy options offered when you first install Microsoft’s new operating system, it’s going to quietly track your behaviour and use it to fire targeted ads at you, as well as keeping tabs on your location history, data from messages, calendars, contacts and God knows what else. It is a bit scary, despite coming off the back of Microsoft’s own pledge to offer ‘real transparency’. You may or may not be OK with this yourself, but in any event at least some of this stuff can be turned off after the fact.

 

[Tetchytyke]

If you can get into safe mode it's probably the graphics driver, there's a known problem where it decides that you're using two monitors and gives you a blank screen (the other screen is missing). Use system restore back to the last point that it worked.

A similar thing happened to me but that was a hard disk failure, so whilst you're in safe mode it might be worth copying anything important on to a USB stick.

 

[Crossover]

Ah, that's a point. Try Windows Key + P a couple of times, then Enter. This changes the screen from laptop only to include second screens in Duplicate/Extend formats and finally secondary monitor only. If this has got hashed up and stuck on secondary only it would explain not getting a display on the laptop screen.

If you have a screen you can connect to the laptop video output (even most TV's have the ability now) it may help the situation

EDIT: See here: http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media...rogressive,q_80,w_800/1362034511633258051.jpg
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

May I suggest this helpful article.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/07/30/windows-10-privacy-settings/

Thanks. I'll have a look at that later

 

[Oswyntail]

First, thanks for your advice. Some things I had already done, disc and motherboard checks all worked.
To bring you up to date....
One set of possible solutions suggested the video card was at the centre of things, possibly arising from conflict if there were two cards. A suggestion was to hook up to the TV as an external monitor. So I found an HDMI cable, linked up and, sure enough, a correct image appeared on the TV screen (but not on the laptop screen). I checked device manager, and there is only the one device, so no conflict there. Checked drivers and BIOS, and they were all up to date, but not updated recently. I was running out of ideas again, so shut down and thought. A little later, I opened it up to have another investigate, connected via HDMI, and......images appeared on both screens. More in hope than expectation, I shut it down, restarted it without connecting to the TV - and it worked. It continued to work properly, with reboots and all for a day or so until.....
Today is Thursday, aka update day, and there was an update session when we turned the laptop off. Just to test, I rebooted, and, sure enough, the black screen appeared. So I restarted with the TV connected, rebooted again and Voila, it all works again. So I appear to have what looks like a pretty convoluted work round at least.
Any thoughts? I suspect that there is something that is automatically updated through plug and play when i connect the TV, but beyond that I have no idea.

 

[GaryMcEwan]

You haven't managed somehow to project second screen only on the laptop have you?

Depending on your laptop,if you press FN+F4, it should come up with options like this.

 

[Crossover]

You haven't managed somehow to project second screen only on the laptop have you?

Depending on your laptop,if you press FN+F4, it should come up with options like this.

I would use my suggestion of Win Key and P - the Fn ones change on virtually every laptop, whereas the Windows version is a constant

You can also look on the screen options in Control Panel to see what monitors are being detected and what they are doing

 

[najaB]

Any thoughts? I suspect that there is something that is automatically updated through plug and play when i connect the TV, but beyond that I have no idea.

With the TV connected, change the option to 'Extend' rather than 'Duplicate' then right-click on the desktop, select 'Display Settings' and make sure that the laptop display is the one that has 'Make this my main display' ticked. That way the login screen will always appear on the laptop.

 

[yorksrob]

What's the general consensus on Windows ten then ?

I've put off the upgrade for about as long as I can and think I have to make a decision !

 

[Johnuk123]

Perfectly ok, been on it since it came out and never had a problem.

 

[DaleCooper]

What's the general consensus on Windows ten then ?

I've put off the upgrade for about as long as I can and think I have to make a decision !

I'm not planning to go to Windows 10, my current plan is that if I get a new pc or for some some reason need to reload the operating system I'm going to try Linux. My son uses Linux and swears by it.

 

[yorksrob]

I'm not planning to go to Windows 10, my current plan is that if I get a new pc or for some some reason need to reload the operating system I'm going to try Linux. My son uses Linux and swears by it.

Ah fair enough.

To be honest, I'm reasonably happy with 8 at the moment.

 

[Busaholic]

I'm still on XP but I fear it is going to cease to function very soon - all upgrades finally stopped about five months ago, having been threatened for months before that, but it's getting too problematic now, particularly for a non-techie like me. A brand new computer is out of the question, so which system should I go for in a reconditioned one?

 

[Nym]

Depends on how much you want to spend and what you want to use it for. Oh and what you already have that you can re-use

 

[headshot119]

I'm still on XP but I fear it is going to cease to function very soon - all upgrades finally stopped about five months ago, having been threatened for months before that, but it's getting too problematic now, particularly for a non-techie like me. A brand new computer is out of the question, so which system should I go for in a reconditioned one?

As Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft I would urge you to upgrade to a supported OS. Your computer is not secure if you are using Windows XP.

 

[Oswyntail]

In general - apart from the problem in this thread - I have found W10 to be more efficient than previous versions, quicker to load, and intuitive to use. To date I have had no other problems or failures. (Oh why did I say that? Doom is now inevitable). However, if you are using a laptop of the unspecifiable* type that is affected by my problem it is a right pain and you will receive no help from MS or your laptop maker
*Because no one really knows what is going on there

 

[yorksrob]

Hmm. I might cancel and stick with 8.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

My good lady wife of some 74 years vintage, being a creature of habit and a lover of the better quality Toshiba laptops (unlike my delight in the top of the range HP Pavilion desktop models) never liked Windows 8 and always preferred Windows 7 to it.

She saw Windows 10 on a laptop of one of her friends in Ashbourne and for some reason, took an instant dislike to it.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Hmm. I might cancel and stick with 8.

My good lady wife of some 74 years vintage, being a creature of habit and a lover of the better quality Toshiba laptops (unlike my delight in the top of the range HP Pavilion desktop models) never liked Windows 8 and always preferred Windows 7 to it.

She saw Windows 10 on a laptop of one of her friends in Ashbourne and for some reason, took an instant dislike to it.

The two of you might want to change your windows update settings so that downloads all updates but you choose which ones it installs. I read somewhere that Windows 10 might be made a recommended update at some point

 

[DaleCooper]

You should also ask yourselves why Microsoft is giving away 100 million copies of a potentially valuable product. I have my suspicions as to the reason.

 

[furnessvale]

As Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft I would urge you to upgrade to a supported OS. Your computer is not secure if you are using Windows XP.

I have 2 computers. This one is connected to the internet, obviously, and runs on Linux, no problems.

My old one, I reformatted the hard drive, installed a clean copy of XP and my various programs, and threw away the cable that links to the phone!

It goes like lightning and I can play with my photos etc to my hearts content.