11 Fixes: Windows 10 Black Screen with Cursor after Login

User case:  Windows black screen with cursor after login

Sometimes Windows may display a black screen with cursor after login, which is also known as BSOD (black screen of death). It's quite frustrating because no error message or code will be provided. But don't worry too much, we've complied some possible causes in the following article.

Generally speaking, BSOD may be caused by outdate or incompatible driver, corrupted system files, corrupted user profile, hardware conflicts, virus attack, etc. Thus, the solutions will be given based on different causes.

How to fix Windows 10 black screen with cursor

You can try following fixes one by one to fix BSOD. But please note, except for the basic troubleshooting, other solutions require you to enter safe mode or recovery environment at first.

👉 Fix black screen with blinking cursor in Windows 10 with 4 basic troubleshootings🔥
👉 Fix my computer turns on but the screen is black with a clean boot
👉 Fix windows black screen with cursor after login by uninstalling quality updates
👉 Fix black screen with blinking cursor by disabling fast startup
👉 Fix black screen with blinking cursor by uninstalling the graphic drivers
👉 Fix black screen with blinking cursor by system file checker
👉 Fix Windows black screen with cursor after login using System Restore
👉 Reset your computer to completely fix the black screen of death error👍

◉ How to access recovery environment in Windows 10:

• Press and hold the Power button for 10s, this will shutdown your computer.
• Turn on your computer, and turn off it when you see the Windows log during the start process.
• Repeat these steps twice, then your computer will start Automatic Repair automatically. Just wait untill the process completes.
• Cick Advanced options to access the Windows Recovery environment if it does not repair this problem.

◉ How to access safe mode in Windows 10: 

• Access the recovery environment in Windows 10.
• In the Choose an option window, select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart
• In the Startup Settings window, press 4 or F4 to enable safe mode. 

Fix black screen with blinking cursor in Windows 10 with 4 basic troubleshootings

To fix the black screen with blinking cursor error, you need to try some basic troubleshoting in order to avoid further problems, such as, computer fails to boot. Then, let's get started.

Remove all your external devices

The hardware conflicts can be the one of the most common reasons for black screen. To check it, you need to remove all the external devices. 

Step 1.  Turn off your computer.

Step 2. Remove USB, external hard drive, headset and microphone including the charger cable. If your computer is a laptop, you still need to remove the battery.

Step 3. Press and hold the power button for 30s and release.

Step 4. Put back the charger cable (and battery), restart your computer and see if the problem is solved.

Note: If you installed the external graphic card, you need to  remove it before restarting computer.

Restart Windows Explorer

Step 1. Press Ctrl + Shift + ESC or  Ctrl + Alt + Del to open task manager. 

Step 2. Click File > Run new task. 

Step 3. In the Create new task window, type Explorer.exe and tick Create this task with Administrative privileges. Then, click OK.

Disable AppReadiness service

Step 1. Open task manager in the black screen window. Then, click File > Run new task. 

Step 2. In the Create new task window, type services.msc and click OK.

Step 3. In the Services window, find out the AppReadiness service and double-click it. Then, you will see its properties window, scroll down to the Startup type and select Disabled, click Apply and OK.

Step 4. Go back to the task manager, run new task with adminitrative privileges, Type shutdown /s /f and hit OK. It will turn off your computer.

Step 5. Restart your computer to see if there is any problem.

Create a new user account 

Corrupted user profile can be a cause for this issue. To fix it, you can create a new user account within command prompt. To do so, you could try the following steps. 

Step 1. Open task manager and click File > Run new task at the upper left corner.

Step 2.  In the Create new task window, type cmd and tick Create this task with administrator privileges.

Step 3. In the command prompt window, type the following commands and hit Enter.

• net user /add [username] [password]  (without [ ])

• net localgroup administrators [username] /add  (without [ ])

Step 4. Go to the old account's folder and copy files to the new account. Please remember not to copy the “ntuser” files in the old account.

Fix my computer turns on but the screen is black with a clean boot 

Usually, when your computer starts, it will start a bunch of services, drivers, and applications in the background, if they works properly, your computer will start normally. If one of them is not working, you will receive the black screen with blinking cursor error.

In this case, you can choose to perform a clean boot in safe mode, with a minimal set of drivers and startup programs, so as to avoids software conflicts. The steps are:

Step 1. Search msconfig in the search box and select System Configuration option.

Step 2. Click the Services tab. Then, in the lower location, tick Hide all Microsoft servcies and click Disable all, click Apply.

Step 3. Click the Startup tab and then the Open Task Manager option.

Step 4. In the Task Manager window, click the Startup tab. Then, select each app and click Disable. 

Step 5. Close the Task Manager. 

Step 6. Go back to the System Configuration window, click OK. 

Step 7. Restart your computer.

If you can start your computer normally after a clean boot, you still need to check the problem was caused by which items. To make it, follow the steps below.

Step 1. Open the System Configuration window and go to the Services tab.

Step 2. In the lower location, tick Hide all Microsoft services and select one of the services, click Apply and OK. 

Step 3. Restart your computer.

Step 4. If the selected service is not the casuse of the problem, repeat the steps until you find the problematic item.

Fix windows black screen with cursor after login by uninstalling quality updates 

Recently quality update can be a cause for windows black screen with cursor after login error, because it may rollout bugs and compatibility issues. In order to uninstall it, you can do with the following steps in safe mode.

Step 1. Search for Control Panel and select it in the result list.

Step 2. Select Program > Program and Features > View installed updates, then you will see all the recent update.

Step 3. Select the most recent update and click Uninstall.

Step 4. Restart your computer. 

Fix black screen with blinking cursor by disabling fast startup 

Fast startup is a feature in some installations with specific hardware configuration, and it allows a device to boot faster. Sometimes it may cause the black screen error, so you need to disable it in safe mode. In order to do so, do as instructed.

Step 1. Open Control Panel. Then, select System and Security  and Power options in order.

Step 2. In the Power Options window, select the Choose what the power button do option.

Step 3. Select the Change settings that are currently unavailable option. 

Step 4. Uncheck Turn on fast startup (recommended) option and click Save changes button.

Step 5. Restart your computer.

Fix black screen with blinking cursor by uninstalling the graphic drivers

Incompatible drivers can also cause this black screen error, to fix it, you need to uninstall installed graphic drivers in safe mode. To do so, use the following steps. 

Step 1. Press Win + X and select Device Manager. 

Step 2. In the Device Manager window, expand Displayed Adapters. Then, right-click the installed display adapter and choose Uninstall device.

Step 3. Here you will see the Uninstall Device window, be sure the option Delete driver software for this device is checked and click Uninstall again. 

Step 4. Restart your computer.

Once the device restarts, your computer will try to reinstall the graphics driver automatically to solve this error.

If this problem still exists, you can try to roll back the graphic drivers by the following steps.

Step 1. Go to the Device Manager and expand Displayed Adapters.

Step 2. Right-click the installed display adapter and select Properties. 

Step 3. In the Properties window, click the Driver tab. Then, Scroll down to the Roll Back Driver and select it. 

Step 4. In the Driver Package rollback window, select any reason and click Yes. 

Step 5. Restart your computer.

Note: If your computer is Windows 7, you can try to access the Advanced boot options and enable low-resolution video(640*480) to fix this error. It's saide to be a working solution.

Fix black screen with blinking cursor by system file checker 

System file error is also a cause for the black screen with blinking cursor error. To check it, you can try SFC or DISM command in safe mode. The steps are below. 

Step 1. Type cmd in the search box, select it and run as administrator.

Step 2. In the command prompt window, type sfc /scannow and hit Enter.

Step 3. If it does not fix the problem, type DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and hit Enter.

Step 4. Restart your computer.

Fix Windows black screen with cursor after login using System Restore

Step 1. Type recovery in the search box and select it. 

Step 2. In the pop-up window, select Open System Restore.

Step 3. In the System Restore window, click Next.

Step 4. Select a working restore point and click Next.

Step 5. Confirm the restore point and click Finish to restore computer to an earlier date. 

Reset your computer to completely fix the black screen of death error

If you are not able to access the safe mode, you can go to the Windows recovery environment and try to troubleshoot your computer with given recovery tools, such as, Startup Repair, System Restore, System Image Recovery, Command Prompt, Reset this PC. 

Reset this pc can be the last resort if you cannot fix the black screen error. It allows you to reset this pc and keep files in Windows 10, but apps and settings will be removed thoroughly.  Having said that, some users still say they lose their important files during the process. Thus, please take it seriously before use. It's a wise choice to backup important files or system. 

To do so, you need a professional yet free backup software like AOMEI Backupper Standard. It supports backup files, system, disk or specific partitions per your needs or directly creates a cloud backup, and provides more useful features to continuously protect your data, such as daily/weekly/monthly schedule backup, incremental or differential backup,  etc. You can download it to explore it yourself. 

Here I'll take file backup as an example to show you the entire process, you could follow the steps below. As you cannot access your computer, you need to create bootable USB on another working computer and boot from it.

Step 1. Connect the bootable USB, change boot priority of it and boot from it. Then, after loading, you will see  the main page of AOMEI Backupper, click Backup >File Backup in order.

Step 2. Click Add File or Add Folder and select files you want to backup.

If you want to backup files with a certain file extension, you can click the funnel shape at the right side of the selected folder and set the specific file extention. Note this feature is available on the professional version, you can upgrade to it if needed. 

Step 3. Click the folder shapped button to select the backup destination. If it's an external hard drive, you need to connect it to the computer having problem. 

Step 4. Confirm the items you select and click Start Backup. 

One single backup will only backup data at that point, which will not include the changes made later. Thus, if necessary, it is suggested to create a schedule backup so as to continously protect data.

To make it, click Schedule and select any of backup settings you like. Then, click OK to save the chanages.  

Then, let's get started to reset your computer with the last resort.

Step 1. Access the Windows recovery environment. Then, in the Choose an option window, select Troubleshoot > Reset this PC. 

Step 2. Here you will asked to reset this pc while keep files or remove everything, select Keep my files.

Step 3. In the Ready to reset this PC window, It will tell you that the apps or settings does not come along with this PC will be removed. Confirm it and click Reset to start the process. 

Step 4. Wait until the installation process completes, set your preference settings and install apps or settings you will need. 

Prevention better than troubleshooting 

The Windows black screen with cursor after login error is just one of problem during the use of computer, you can try to search for solutions when it occurs and fix it. But there is a possibility that you cannot fix it, the only chance is to reset your PC from scratch. 

Thus, it's suggested to backup important files, system or disk with a free backup software before something bad happens. To keep track of all the changes, you need to create a continuous backup by backing up them regularly, such as, daily, weekly, monthly.