Possible KSOD (blacK Screen Of Death) Solution for Windows Vista
A few days ago, my Windows Vista on my notebook started to have the KSOD (blacK Screen Of Death) syndrome. This syndrome is that after typing your username and password on the login screen, you are presented with a black screen and a mouse, nothing else. When searching on the internet for solutions I found out that quite a few people experienced the same issue with all kinds of different solutions. I tried some suggestions like System Restore, file system check, registry changes etc etc, but nothing was working for me.
When you are presented with a KSOD, you can try to press the left SHIFT button a few times to trigger the sticky keys feature of windows. This will popup a window that contains a link. You can then click this link and from there you are able to launch different applications. Of course, if you disabled sticky keys, you are out of luck…
After wasting almost a whole day on trying everything I could think of, I stumbled upon a blog where they said that it might be related to the eventlog. To test this, I wanted to disable the eventlog. Unfortunately you cannot disable the eventlog from a running Windows because some other services are relying on it. I booted into “safe mode with command prompt”, because normal safe mode would also give me the KSOD. I disabled the eventlog and rebooted the machine and to my surprise everything worked 
The next step was to delete all eventlog files from C:\Windows\System32\Winevt\logs, switch on the eventlog again, reboot and everything was again working
Rowedahelicon said,
Wrote on May 18, 2009 @ 12:01 am
I posted this on the logitec blog 2 months ago =D
But I’m glad it worked. Your welcome lol.
Andrew from NY said,
Wrote on May 18, 2009 @ 7:53 pm
Worked for me…
All operating modes gave me the KSOD. I had to:
1)Go to recovery mode(press f8 at startup)
2)Choose comand prompt from the list
3)Type in c:
4)Then type in Regedit
5)Clicked “File>Import”
6)Clicked to show “all files” at the bottom
7)Surfed to C:\Windows\System32\Winevt\logs
8)Deleted all event logs one bye one.
closed all windows, clicked on restart and was done. I am operating on a Dell Studio with Windows Vista.
Thanks Guys!
Trevor Easytech associate said,
Wrote on June 19, 2009 @ 2:10 pm
Rowedahelicon, i saw that post of yours several months ago and so far its worked on ever KSoD case ive had. In return ive been re-posting your original to spread the word about it. In general its reletivly simple but unless you know what your doing it can be confusing. When ever i get one in i try other methods besides the sticky keys solution (incase i get one where its turned off). Only other method i have is to boot into SLAX (lynux on a jump drive) and navigate your way to the log files in system 32 and delete them. If the bios doesn’t support usb booting you can also hook up the hard drive as a slave on a stable system and do the same. I understand that not everyone has access to this but it works none the less. Thank you for your original solution!
Marc Gregoire said,
Wrote on June 19, 2009 @ 7:20 pm
I’m glad it works for you
Note that I’m not taking credits for this solution. I just found it myself after searching the net a few hours, the link is in my post. Since it took me so long to find the solution I thought it would be nice to also post it on my blog to increase likelihood for others to find it
Paul Melidosian said,
Wrote on July 3, 2009 @ 5:05 pm
This did not work for me and i’m pulling my hair out! I followed the instructions and deleted all the log files but the back screen still apears. The sticky key while enabled on my computer it dose nothing but beep at me when activated.. oh, The “RPC running under LocalSystem” fix did not work as well.
Paul
Duncan said,
Wrote on July 6, 2009 @ 3:08 pm
Paul i feel your pain man i tried everything and nothing works if somebody got a other solution il be happy to hear it then mail me duncan.douma@quicknet.nl
Chayo T. said,
Wrote on August 19, 2009 @ 3:49 pm
Wow! It worked like a magic. Thanks for your great solution!
After I used Regedit to remove the log files, I restarted my notebook (Windows Vista) and it came back to life again.
M. Bakir said,
Wrote on September 16, 2009 @ 10:21 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.
if it worked for you join my network
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mbakir
Paula said,
Wrote on September 25, 2009 @ 7:30 am
When I turn on my laptop instead of seeing the screen
Where I type in my password, it’s a completly blank
Screen, no light, no cursor, it’s like the computer is off.
I’ve typed in my password without being able to see
And it logs me in, but the screen is still blank.
I know I’m logged in because it makes the little welcome sound.
Otherwise it’s completely blnk and I’ve tried every possible thing that
I’ve found online.
Please help.
Marc Gregoire said,
Wrote on September 25, 2009 @ 8:49 am
Do you see anything on your screen? Do you see the Windows boot logo? Do you see your BIOS messages?
If not, it might be your screen that is broken…
fred said,
Wrote on October 3, 2009 @ 12:44 am
THANKS to Marc for this blogthread!
Currently bashing a client’s notebook with VIsta KSOD bad bad
No combination of recovery disk or boot sequence “fixer” works,
can get command line in safemode, but have no rights to delete things.
Best I could do there was msconfig to lean up startup.
Have now booted the latest Mepis live disk and been able to delete any and every i choose,
now THAT’s FREEDOM, as in free software.
It’s rebooting now… hang on….
fred said,
Wrote on October 3, 2009 @ 12:47 am
no such luck, back to KSOD.
will now use the HP install image thing, and move on.
It was worth a try, but did not work for the HP pavilion dv6000 that got a bad update on top of tons of leechware.
Thanks anyway guys.
Next time!
fred flintstone
Hynes said,
Wrote on October 6, 2009 @ 10:43 am
Hi everybody, after trying so many options which i must say should have solved the ever so famous KSOD, i discovered hitting the enter key(softly) at a reasonably speed for a number of times cos the the windows(in my case windows 7) to load. wasn’t sure if it sorted the problem but after a restart it works fine!. you could try that! hope it helps!
Jazz said,
Wrote on November 3, 2009 @ 1:49 pm
I tryed al of this and i didnt see a link when i pressed shift 5 times.
And when u pressed enter hyens the login screen popped up or after the restart ?
Marc Gregoire said,
Wrote on November 3, 2009 @ 6:35 pm
The pressing SHIFT key 5 times is a feature called Sticky Keys in Windows. If you have disabled the Sticky Keys feature in Windows you cannot use this method. Unfortunately, I don’t know of another way.
Gus said,
Wrote on November 4, 2009 @ 3:22 pm
It worked guys!!!!!
the solution of M.Bakir saved me
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Barue said,
Wrote on December 2, 2009 @ 2:21 am
Thanks Mark Gregoire after trying many solutions I stumbled across this and it actually worked! Kudos on re-blogging this I encourage anyone experiencing KSOD to try this fix.
Only difference I tried in my case is renaming Logs to Logs.old and creating new Logs folder.
UBCD4WIN also helps a good deal for any unfamiliar with command line.
michael ventura said,
Wrote on December 2, 2009 @ 5:30 pm
I fixed my black screen problem by realising that the bios boot section had moved my usb drive to the main boot drive. the only way to get around this is to disconnect all usb devices (leave keyboard attached) boot the comp 1 – 5 secs go into your bios make sure that the main boot device is the hard drive with windows on it, save and boot again and it should load windows (7) in my case, if not then boot and 1 – 5secs in press F8 and manually choose your hard drive to boot from, I realise that differnt motherboards have different keys to press, but they all should allow you to choose which hard drive to boot from manually. After you get into windows create a back up and then fix the comp with windows repair and it should successfully rewrite the boot commands again. I hope this helps.
G Skooks said,
Wrote on December 2, 2009 @ 8:10 pm
I don’t have the KSOD-problem, but if you accidently disabled SHIFT sticky key, then there might be one other way to explore your computer… Press control+alt+delete and enter task manager. Once you did this, click on the butten ‘New Task’ and typ in ‘C:\Windows\explorer.exe’. Now you can explorer your computer and edit everything they sad here, but, like I sad, I don’t have the problem and I don’t know if you have any acces to the task manager.
Skooks
Marc Gregoire said,
Wrote on December 3, 2009 @ 12:50 am
Unfortunately, pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del to get to the taskmanager didn’t work in my case. If I had disabled the SHIFT sticky keys, I don’t know what I would have done…
Ponyboy Lebowski said,
Wrote on December 3, 2009 @ 6:23 pm
None of the usual tricks worked for me. Here’s what worked for me (caveat that I’m glossing over steps here):
(1) Boot from your installation CD and choose Recovery Console.
(2) Use the “listsvc” command to list all services.
(3) I started with AVG antivirus, disabled about 6-8 services related to it using their names from the “listsvc” command and using the “disable XXXX-service-name” command for services, then rebooted to see what happened.
(4) Reboot worked fine, no KSOD, so I uninstalled AVG, and then re-installed another antivirus.
In my case, it looks like the users had older AVG installations that were EOL’d (plus they’d just installed new versions over old versions over the years). Hope this is useful to someone else because when Safe Boot doesn’t work, well, you’re left with very few options. And I’m too much of a geek to just reinstall without learning what is really happening.
mike said,
Wrote on December 14, 2009 @ 10:10 pm
my issue turned out to be malware, it destryed my AV and my system when it was removed I needed to completely reinstall vista. Thank God I retained my files upon reinstall! I spent 12 hours 3 of which with a Mcafee tech trying to solve this problem I ended up having to reinstall from the OS disk. I feel bad for anyone else that has this issue!
Chris said,
Wrote on January 16, 2010 @ 2:37 am
I have to reboot my PC up to 6-7 times before Vista starts up. I can’t delete the files in :\Windows\System32\Winevt\logs. Every time I try that Vista tells me the action can’t be completed before the file is open in another program. Via cmd I can’t get access to \Winevt which is strange.
Marc Gregoire said,
Wrote on January 19, 2010 @ 9:45 am
You cannot delete those files as long as the event log service is running. So try to disable the event log service as described in this blog post.
Taimoc said,
Wrote on February 1, 2010 @ 12:16 am
How do you disable the event log?
Marc Gregoire said,
Wrote on February 1, 2010 @ 9:32 am
As mentioned in my post you cannot disable it from a normal running windows.
You need to do it from safe mode with command prompt.
The command line to disable it is:
net stop eventlog
valio said,
Wrote on February 6, 2010 @ 3:37 pm
m. bakir’s solution works. /thank you
ann said,
Wrote on February 7, 2010 @ 5:43 am
In my case…nothing seemed to work.
I couldn’t get to any version of SAFE MODE…
======
I found a couple or three blogs which mentioned three files.
c:\windows\EXPLORER.exe
c:\windows\system32\TASKMGR.exe
c:\windows\system32\WINLOGON.exe.
I did not have a VISTA CD available & found a VISTA recovery
program on the web. It gave me screens & allowed me to run
SYSTEM RESTORE & run a DOS prompt.
I found another computer running VISTA & made copies
of the three files above.
======
I ran the RECOVERY disk & went to a dos prompt.
I made a renamed the first file (something like explorer.old).
Then copied the version that I took from the working computer.
I noticed that the two files were not the same size.
When I rebooted the system, some things started to work but it was
still not working properly.
I ran the RECOVERY disk again & renamed the second & third files.
Then copied the files that I took from the working machine.
The third file was a different size.
TASKMGR.exe was the same size & when I ran a file compare
(FC firstfile secondfile), they were identical.
This time when I rebooted, the system came up.
Subsequently, the system was operating nominally.
In my opinion, I found two files that became corrupted.
In my case, I thought that this was the case because the computer
was experiencing power problems. The laptop’s battery was dead & the
AC supply had an extremely bad connection. So it was quite likely
that the computer was going on & off at random.
Boboland said,
Wrote on March 24, 2010 @ 7:18 pm
Hi,
Thank you Bakir. It works for me. I used the file RegBackup/SOFTWARE. SOFTWARE_previous was not present for me.
Thanks a lot.
Bobo
Manas George said,
Wrote on August 30, 2010 @ 7:37 am
Hey ! I have Ubuntu Lucid Lynx installed on a separate partition. Will this work if i delete the logs from Ubuntu? I cannot boot into safe mode with command line, and there is no link on the sticky keys dialog.
Thanks !
Marc Gregoire said,
Wrote on August 30, 2010 @ 10:01 am
If you can access your Windows partition from Ubuntu and if you can access the required folder, then yes, it should work.
living on a prayer said,
Wrote on September 4, 2010 @ 6:57 pm
Amazing … was dead in water with this nightmare and then did the finger tap …. new tango dance
…. tapped shift key 5 times and up opened a window asking if I wanted to implement sticky yes. Said yes and the screen is back. Will update when I reboot later.
living on a prayer said,
Wrote on September 7, 2010 @ 9:16 pm
Forget it. Did not work. Took comp back to original settings and still have the problem although mine is a little different. I have a black screen but when I hit the sleep button I can see the screen for 3 seconds before it goes black again. I think it may be a power issue.
Nick67 said,
Wrote on September 17, 2010 @ 12:21 am
Hi.
As this site is the number two Google hit for “KSOD,” I will post my successful resolution of a KSOD here. I hope that you can edit your original post to reflect some of the evolution of the KSOD since you first encountered it.
I had two machines with KSOD. One occurred before the login, the other after login. The one that had the ‘early KSOD’ gave me no joy. I mounted up the drive in a second system.
I ran chkdsk /f — no joy.
The winlogon value was explorer.exe — no joy
The RpsSc value was the correct network one — no joy
No restore points were available.
Safe mode was not available
Msconfig cannot be run from the recovery environment
Sticky Keys and CTRL-ALT-DEL -> taskmanager do not work.
I reworked the registry from the RegBack directory.
I renamed the winevt logs.
No Joy.
I copied off the important data and reformatted.
If there is a cure for ‘early KSOD’ I don’t know it.
Neither does MS Product Support, who I called for only the third time in a decade as an IT professional.
The ‘late KSOD’ unit is a different and more joyful outcome.
CTRL-ALT-DEL -> taskmanager DOES work.
Safe mode worked.
Then things got tough.
SFC wouldn’t run
Explorer wouldn’t run
msconfig wouldn’t run.
But cmd would run
AND Regedit would!
Disable UAC -> regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Key EnableLUA give it a value of 0
Enable the administrator account.
You might have to reboot after disabling UAC to get a cmd prompt that will work (sufficient permissions)
At the cmd prompt –> net user administrator /Active:yes
Now we’re starting to cook with gas.
Boot up into normal mode.
Try logging on as administrator.
My first attempt didn’t play…BUT
Logging into safe mode ->msconfig ->diagnostic start
got things going.
Log in to administrator in Normal Mode
Now run cmd -> sfc /scannow.
Lots of errors it says. Check C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
Searched for ‘failed’
Lots of files!
Almost all in c:\windows\softwaredistribution
Bingo!
That’s the windowsupdate files.
I am in diagnostic mode, so I can rename SoftwareDistribution to SoftwareDistributionOld.
For good measure I rename C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs to LogsOld and create a new Logs folder.
Boot up in normal mode.
WindowsUpdate won’t play
Error 80072EFD — firewall issues
But Windows Firewall is off…hmm
cmd -> netsh winhttp reset proxy.
Windows Update now works.
So does IE
This unit was only SP1 — so I downloaded the full SP2 package.
Installed it
And then every other myriad update it didn’t have.
Turn on UAC
Turned off the administrator
cmd -> net user administrator /active:no
Logged into the original profile
Installed Flash 10.1
All good.
Call to MS Product Support — $59 (waived as a Windows Update issue)
Fixing a KSOD — priceless
Nick67
Kirby D said,
Wrote on September 27, 2010 @ 12:12 am
I just needed to post here to praise M. Bakir!!!
You’re an angel.
CJM said,
Wrote on November 11, 2010 @ 2:31 pm
My Dell XPS M1530 had a ‘semi-KSOD’ where it loitered on the black screen for ~15 mins and then booted normally. I found it booted just fine if the computer was stone-cold but would not re-boot after it had warmed up (any ideas?). I reflashed the BIOS and it works fine now.
PaulB said,
Wrote on November 17, 2010 @ 9:39 am
This blog post isnt working for me, neither are the replies. Any other ideas
I’m sad.
Dylan said,
Wrote on November 18, 2010 @ 2:23 pm
MBakir! Thank you ! It works
Used the command prompt from recovery console to rename windows/system32/config/software_previous to software. Works great. Thanks
Jeremy V said,
Wrote on December 9, 2010 @ 6:38 pm
Hello all,
Maybe I’m doing something incorrectly, but I’ve tried a few of these without success. The same symptoms persist:
Black screen after logging in, can access task manager, can access safe mode, dont’ have explorer.exe running, etc….
I deleted my event log, and MBakir’s suggestion was to rename Software_previous to software and rename Software to Software_corrupt….except I only have one Software in Windows/system32/config, so i don’t know where to go with that one.
I also did Nick67′s idea only to find my BLACK screen of death had changed into a Pale BLUE screen of death with the same symptoms (not the old school blue SOD with the error message displayed). And when I get to the step “sfc /scannow” it won’t let me.
So what now?
Jeremy
Dan T said,
Wrote on December 16, 2010 @ 9:40 pm
Thanks, Nick67, your steps worked. I just recovered TWO Dell M1330′s which both KSOD’s nearly simultaneously.
Jeremy V – I will retrace my steps so you can try this solution:
1. Right-click Taskbar (or CTRL-ALT-DEL) and select Task Manager
2. File > New Task (Run) > Regedit
3. Disable UAC
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Key EnableLUA set value = 0
4. Enable the administrator account.
File > New Task (Run) > cmd > net user administrator /Active:yes
5. Diagnostics Mode
File > New Task (Run) > msconfig > select Diagnostic Startup > Ok > Reboot
6. Logon as Administrator
7. Rename c:\windows\softwaredistribution to softwaredistributionold and create new softwaredistribution
8. Rename c:\windows\system32\winevt\logs to logsold and create new logs
9. Boot up in normal mode
10. Run WindowsUpdate
11. Turn on UAC
12. Turned off the administrator
cmd > net user administrator /active:no
Done.
Semi Bald from pulling hair out said,
Wrote on January 20, 2011 @ 5:35 pm
I am sorry to sound like a novice, but my Systemax (asus 5gpc MB) Running Vista will not let me past the dreaded “Loading windows files” screen. My Bios screen pops up, but I cannot even get it to recognize a boot request from CD (I only have drivers, pre-installed Vista). All requests (safe mode, etc.) lead to Loading Windows Files, then NADA! Ctrl/Alt/Del gives nothing but “Loading windows files screen. I cannot access hardware, safe start, and have no Vista disc for reinstall. Tried ultimate boot CD, but it would not recognize CD drive for boot. Can anybody help?
Marc Gregoire said,
Wrote on January 20, 2011 @ 6:49 pm
If your machine does not recognize the CD drive for booting, it probably means something is wrongly configured in the BIOS. Try to enter you BIOS. This is usually done by pressing DEL or some other key right at the beginning when the PC starts. Then you should try to browse the BIOS settings and find somewhere something called boot sequence. There you should be able to add your CD-Rom to the boot sequence.
Danielle said,
Wrote on January 29, 2011 @ 7:40 pm
KSOD for two days now and going insane
Here is the info, if anyone has any suggestions I would be so greatful!
HP Pavilion laptop (dv4), originally Vista 32bit. Had been upgraded to 7 through the upgrade program. Came to me with a Win7 repair disc (not recovery discs)
Needed to get back to Vista and did not yet know there was an HP tool for this, so stupidly followed these directions found all over the web (legit but turns out NOT for use with upgraded units, only clean installs I believe – since there is no “full” Vista OS to revert to)
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-downgrade-from-windows-7-to-vista-step-by-step-guide/
C:
Md Win7
Move Windows Win7\Windows
Move “Program Files” “Win7\Program Files”
Move Users Win7\Users
Attrib –h –s –r ProgramData
Move ProgramData Win7\ProgramData
Rd “Documents and Settings”
move /y c:\Windows.old\Windows c:\
move /y “c:\Windows.old\Program Files” c:\
move /y c:\Windows.old\ProgramData c:\
move /y c:\Windows.old\Users c:\
move /y “c:\Windows.old\Documents and Settings” c:\
D:\boot\bootsect /nt60 c:
First section went fine. Second section was fine except for the Program Data and Users – both came up with “not found”. Googled this, and other people w the same tutorial said to just keep going if that happened. Also, I mistakenly put in D: as the text lists, not E which is my dvd drive.
Now – the laptop boots up, I see the XP logo, Windows logo with the bar going left to right…but then goes to ALL black with a cursor and that’s where it stays. Cursor is movable, but nothing else. CT alt Del and shift 5x does not work. Same thing with safe mode, sm with CP or NW. After a few minutes, I see the default screen saver come up, and occasionally a second of the four corner text in safe mode comes up but then goes away.
I put in the repair disc and can view that fine – screen is normal.
Memory check comes up fine, and the repair option says “no errors” Restore has no point to go back to, and image recovery – no image found/have none saved or on disc.
Command prompt, which is where I entered the stuff to begin with that messed this up, is the only option left really I can work with. I did get
into the regedit menu as people here suggested and followed those directions, but this did not work either. Don’t know what else to do with regedit so leaving it alone for now. HP doesn’t carry the 32bit recovery discs and all I have here is a set of 64bit ones.
Also, not sure if this matters, but when running the repair disc, it finds two entries for windows – windows 7 and windows 7 home premiums. Both identical partition size and on C:local disc. First option must be Vista as choosing that gives “this version of system recovery options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to repair” However, it still saying Windows 7 means I messed something big up, I suppose! It does have a “load drivers” button that seems to work.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
kristaps12 said,
Wrote on March 1, 2011 @ 8:00 am
M.Bakir’s solution worked flawlessly. Thanks man!
P.S. HP Pavilion dv6500 Vista Home Premium 32bit
miafora said,
Wrote on March 3, 2011 @ 3:29 am
Thanx MBakir! Your solution worked fine for me.
Rename windows/system32/config/software_previous to software.
miafora said,
Wrote on March 3, 2011 @ 3:30 am
Forgot to say that i refer to vista.
Troy said,
Wrote on March 5, 2011 @ 11:24 pm
M. Bakir had the answer to my KSOD problem this time as well. I had this once before, but can’t quite remember what the solution was. I think it was the clearing of the log files, since I had a folder named Logs_bad in addition to the Logs folder. Of course I tried that solution this time without success, so it may just have been from a failed attempt. I didn’t use the previous_software file since it was dated 2006. I found a folder created by System Mechanic which backs up my registry and had a software file dated 9/2010 which is probably pretty close to when the pesky KSOD reared its ugly head this time around. Mind you, it didn’t take me that long to fix the problem, I just gave up for awhile and used my backup PC. Every now and again, I would take another crack at fixing it. I’m now in the process of updating software and running System Mechinic to get another good backup of my registry. Many thanks to all who persevere, especially M. Bakir.
Gary said,
Wrote on March 15, 2011 @ 4:42 am
I finally found a way to get the desktop to show after login on Vista.
1.Go to Start –> Run –> Regedit
2.Find the following key:
HKEY_ LOCAL_ MACHINE, SOFTWARE, Microsoft, Windows NT, CurrentVersion, Winlogin
3.On the right hand pane, find Shell and double click it to edit its value. Its value should be explorer.exe only.
Mine had the explorer exe and winlogin exe or something. I deleted the winlogin one, leaving only explorer.exe and it worked. Thanks goes to Duno http://www.technize.com/my-documents-folder-opens-at-windows-startup/comment-page-1/#comment-73588
joy-p said,
Wrote on April 4, 2011 @ 5:00 pm
Mine looks overcomplicated than the problems u guys got. Avg antivirus captured some system files including winlogon. I used winxp boot disk to repair the captured files. During repair, with 2 mins remaining, there is power failure and i had to restart the repair process again. Thinking that the power is okay, i tried again and with 25mins remaining, power failure occurs. Not risking another power failure, i powered up my generating set and tried the repair again from beginning. After the repair consule has copied the files it needs to use for repair, system reboots, windows xp loads and then the blacK screen with only cursor shows, preventing the repair. Tried every idea u guys have posted but nothing. I dont wanna format cos of important family photos and videos. HELPPPPPPPPPP
Marc Gregoire said,
Wrote on April 4, 2011 @ 5:27 pm
You should at least be able to access your files throught the windows recovery console.
Or maybe you can connect the drive to another working machine to copy all data from the drive.
NOTE: you should *always* have offline backups of your data. Never trust a harddisk.
amanda said,
Wrote on June 21, 2011 @ 5:42 pm
NONE of these have worked. I have repaired the registry using a program, done all the fixes listed here… I do not have or cannot find my disc and I do not have any recovery points.
A little more info..
I have Windows Vista Home Premium.
The kid had an annoying popup so he used my admin password, then the black screen… dang kid
Found and removed a virus, which is why I started with the registry repair first.
check disc, malwarebytes, and spybot come back clean
Tried all the fixes above, logs are changed, softwaredistribution is changed, etc. nada
any other ideas folks? Thanks in advance!!
whatalongsearchoninternet said,
Wrote on September 14, 2011 @ 12:42 am
Hi,
changing the software_previous to software worked for me
I was a bit confuse if it was in regedit or directly in directory (tried many linux livecd)
Finallly I changed the files in the directory [C:/]windows/system32/config (which is not necessarily accessed via a regedit software)
Bactrack 5 worked for me using the commend prompt:
fdisk -l (to check if C or system disk is an NTFS disk and its name)
mkdir /mnt/windows (create a “shortcut” folder into which mouting the disk)
mount -t ntfs /dev/sda2 /mnt/windows (to mount the disk: for me, C: is named /dev/sda2 accoring to fdisk -l)
then in /mnt/windows i had the same directories software and software_privious that Mr. Bakir, so i did the same and it worked!
For the Linux commands explanation in backtrack, check this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsGlnhF7JbE
Good luck
whatalongsearchoninternet said,
Wrote on September 14, 2011 @ 12:44 am
of course, i’ve used standard linux commands:
mv (to rename a file)
jAH said,
Wrote on October 5, 2011 @ 1:10 pm
Where are the damn recovery points when you really need them?
Jay said,
Wrote on December 25, 2011 @ 2:07 am
M. Bakir said,
Wrote on September 16, 2009 @ 10:21 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.
if it worked for you join my network
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mbakir
WORKED FOR ME
DELL XPS M1330, WIndows Vista: KSOD after security update
Voshi said,
Wrote on February 18, 2012 @ 11:21 am
M. Bakir solution worked just rename software_previous to software
))))))) big thx
Baltoeric said,
Wrote on April 22, 2012 @ 6:30 am
After spending 2 days trying to fix this issue for a friend of mine’s Vista 32 bit laptop, M. Bakir’s solution worked like a champ! Instead of software.previous, I had to use software.bak. Still worked perfectly.
Thank you SO much!!!