Windows 8.1 Black Screen

[Jawed]

Start again from scratch.

1. Corrupt O/S? Is this even possible?

Seriously, you have a new PC that you've done nothing with. Start again. W8 install only takes about 20 minutes. If this fails in the same way, then you've got something physical that's broken. RMA that shit. Sounds like the graphics card, could be system RAM though.

Don't you have an old graphics card you can swap in?

Try one stick of RAM at a time.

Should I do a clean format? If so, doesn't that degrade my SSD?

Degrade your SSD? No. Windows Setup will ask you where you want to install and you can do a quick format of the partition you used last time.

You may also want to futz with turning off W8 desktop composition:

http://superuser.com/questions/581673/disable-desktop-composition-in-windows-8-force-it

But I see that as nothing more than a debugging step, it's not an answer.

 

[snarfbot]

when I installed 8.1 I had a similar problem, when I tried to install catalyst the screen went blank as if initializing a new screen mode, then the monitor went to sleep. I couldn't figure out what was up, ctrl alt delete wouldn't work, so I hard reset. for some reason, now even the bios wouldnt display. I had the monitor connected to a receiver and the receiver connected to the pc all via hdmi at this point. the pc was outputting from the gfx card and all was working well until the catalyst install. restarted a few times, reseated the gfx card, nothing. so I started messing with the cables. lol, and eventually I found that by connecting the pc to the monitor from the integrated out on the mobo that I could get to the bios. I decided to disable the integrated graphics in bios and restart, this proved to be a mistake. at that point nothing would work. so I reset the bios and got back to windows still over integrated (on a vga cable fwiw). then I tried installing catalyst again, same problem black screen. hard reset followed by some fruitless fiddling with cables and I was back in windows at the same point. this time I right clicked the desktop to see if I could even change the resolution without a blackscreen. it was still in 800x600 mode. for some reason windows had some kind of crazy retarded multimonitor setup going, the thing is I cant be sure whether that was because I had all these cables dangling off the back of the pc from every output or for some other unexplained reason. anyway I disabled all the other displays and rebooted.

then I installed catalyst, the screen went blank for a few seconds, came back on, then went blank again although much more briefly this time, and I was in business.

I turned the computer off, hooked it back up to the receiver over hdmi and turned it on and everything worked fine, even the bios screen.

so check windows screen properties or whatever, its possibly the source of the problem.

 

[overclocked_enthusiasm]

Here is my update...up and stable...I know my issue is not hardware related unless my video card is the issue and not the drivers. My problem is display driver related. My initial OS install had Windows Update on AUTO and when the display driver installed with everything else...black screen

After I identified the AUTO setting on Windows Update was the issue, I turned it off, and manually loaded each update until I found the issue...again it was the display driver in Windows Update...black screen

I kept setting progressively more stable restore points until I was able to get all Windows Updates installed (NO DRIVERS) and all Mobo chipset/LAN/etc drivers installed..each time trying display driver last...each time black screen

Flashed GPU BIOS per ASUS recommendation via ATIWinFlash....success. Installed recommended display driver from ASUS site...black screen

Tried AMD latest Catalyst suite with display driver...black screen

Tried AMD beta display driver only...black screen

Tried ASUS CD that came with video card...SUCCESS!!

Soooooo...I am sitting with everything stable, RAM checks out in CPUz and BIOS correctly, and I am 100% stable. Here is my current display driver info:

Driver Packaging Version 13.101-130604a-161593C-Asus
Provider Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1317
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/Class/{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}/0000
Direct3D Version 9.14.10.0972
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.12337
AMD Catalyst Control Center Version 2013.0604.1838.31590

I will set another restore point and try the DDU listed aboove. My gut tells me my video card doesn't like the current driver but I'll give it a shot.

 

[overclocked_enthusiasm]

Ran DDU...in SafeMode...uninstalled everything

Installed latest drivers from AMD site...black screen

I will contact AMD on Monday to let them know there is a conflict with this ASUS card and the latest drivers. I don't think it is a hardware issue with my card...feels like a driver issue to me.

 

[Grall]

You should try to eliminate possibilities by trying your card in another PC, if at all possible. Jumping to wrong conclusions can lead to a lot of wasted time and energy.