Windows 10: Black Screen, cursor, windows is unresponsive

Hi,


I have windows 10 and it has always been slow. Cortana doesn't work. Start menu shows up greyed out the first time of use then second time opens after a few seconds delay. All actions take a good few seconds longer to perform than they should.


I sent the pc back to Acer to check it out and it came back with no noticeable difference. It hasn't been able to correctly install an update since 2019. But we live with the occasional freezing..


Yesterday, it was frozen and I forced a restart. It starts the login password screen but then goes to a black screen with cursor.


CTRL ALT DEL works. But the task manager fails to load. Restarting from this screen while holding Shift works and I can start in safe mode. But when clicking in Start bar it pops up to say the programme is unresponsive, wait or give up. Task manager still does not run.


Rolling back, going back to a previous version, uninstalling updates doesn't work. Wefr


Started with a command prompt and via notepad.exe I can save as to see the file manager. My C drive and D drive with files I need show on the left as does removable drive E when I attach it. I can expand the folders in the left. But 'working on it' shows on the right panel. If I drag the drive to backup the 'prepaeing to copy' pop up shows 0 items discovered.


How can I back up D drive to access files in the short term?


The printer is also set up for network printing through this pc. That took forever to set up so how can i backup those settings so it's easier to reinstall the PC next time.


What steps should I follow to completely reinstall a clean version of Windows? How about accessing the existing windows key etc?


Thanks,

Andy.

:)

 

Windows 10 black screen with cursor (safe mode UNRESPONSIVE/WON'T WORK)

No luck, I tried both suggestions and the same thing. When I go into safe mode the computer acts extremely slow and whenever I try to open a file/app I get "... Is unresponsive", so that basically makes safe mode unusable since I can't open anything and
if I boot normally the screen stays black but I can see my cursor.

 

Black screen after 'Starting Windows' sequence

Sounds like the old... windows black screen of death.

Try this quoted from "VisiHow" article "Repair Windows 7 Black Screen of Death":

They, also, have some other options there, too.
Google search and you will find a lot of the "Windows Black Screen of Death with cursor" fixes.

 

Black screen after Windows update.

Hi Crystel,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

• Were you able to get to the desktop screen after you restarted the system?
  
• When the screen was blank, were you able to see the cursor on the screen?
  
• Did you get any error code or error message?
  

Please get back to us with answers to above questions, for us to suggest the appropriate troubleshooting steps.

Meanwhile, I suggest to try the steps mentioned in the article below and let us know if it helps.

Troubleshoot black screen or blank screen errors

We look forward for your reply.

Thanks,

Peer Samie

Microsoft Community-Moderator