Help! Laptop at startup gets black screen with mouse when my charger is plugged in!

(Sorry not sure where to post this.)

Hey guys, i really need help with my laptop. Recently, i reinstalled windows 7 cleanly and everything was working fine. Except for the fact that when i chose to shut down, restart, or hibernate, from the computer, it would log off my windows, and all but it would just stop on a black screen with the computer turned on. So i would have to manually hold the power button for it to shut down. (Any idea whats wrong please help) However, everything else was working fine.

(MAIN PROBLEM) Except though, when i unplugged my AC Adapter from the computer for about an hour max, and plugged it back in, my computer froze. So i restarted it, with the charger plugged in, and logged back in, it said that i was running on battery, and that it cannot recognize this AC Adapter, even though its the one dell shipped with my laptop. So i digged through the internet, and tried cleaning out my registry, Power draining, system restore, virus scans, but this only lead to the same problem. Now, my laptop(with charger plugged in) will only get to the windows loading screen,(the one with windows colours forming the flag) and it would just go to a black screen with a mouse in the middle, which i cannot move. It just stays like that forever.

Funny thing is, my laptop will still get charged, when my laptop is turned off and the Charger is plugged in, so my battery will go to 100%. Also, if i don't plug in my charger and start the laptop, it will work perfectly fine(until the battery dies). Everything runs well, except when i plug in my charger, then the screen will just freeze and do nothing, in which i have to hold down the power button to shut it down. I'm pretty sure its not my charger that is faulty, because my friend's m17x can be started and charged fine with my charger. It might have been that i did not install the proper drivers or not all the needed drivers that is causing this problem, however I have no idea what to do. It seems that the only time my laptop isn't working is when my AC adapter is plugged in and my laptop is started.

I have no idea what is wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks guys.

 

M17x R2
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Intel® Core™ i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5870
17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)
4GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 2GB DDR3)
500GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD
Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Intel® Ultimate N WiFi Link 6300 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology

 

Did you try reimaging Windows again? You also could have bad memory/bad hard drive. I would check it in at your local repair shop if it's still under warranty.

 

It seems that when i run it in any 3 of the safe modes, everything seems fine even with the AC adapter plugged in. Maybe its screen resolution?

 

I had a Toshiba I fixed about 2 weeks ago who had the same symptoms you are having. I fixed it by reimaging it from the recovery partition.

 

would reimaging destroy all my files yes?
And how would i reimage it my recovery partition ?

 

Yes it will format the current partition and reinstall the OS.

Alienware should either be Ctrl + F11 IMMEDIATELY after POST or F8 and repair my computer and the restore options should be somewhere in there (same as Dell because Dell owns Alienware)

That is IF the recovery partition isn't hosed (on occasion it is). Then you will need your recovery discs or you can order them through Alienware.

 

okay, i will try to do this. Do you know by any chance why this happened? Is it because after i reinstalled windows 7, i didn't download drivers properly?

 

Your data will get wiped out if you re-install your OS.

 

Possibly. If you are updating Windows and you shutdown improperly. If you power off your computer improperly alot it will corrupt Windows. Who knows? You can go into the Event view in safe mode and view all crashes/errors.

 

You think if i reinstall OS it would fix my problem?
When i was downloading drivers, i could not find Desktop System Software (DSS) or Notebook System Software (NSS) on my alienware resources CD, so i just skipped to Chipset and etc.
Could that be a reason why my windows would not shut down, causing me to manually shut it down, which in turn corrupted my system and this problem is occurring?
But then why would it run perfectly fine if the AC adapter is not plugged in?

 

Who knows, but reimaging a computer to factory settings usually fixes things like what you are having, UNLESS you are having a hardware issue.

 

okay, i just did a re-imaging and my charger problem is gone, but however, after installing the Video card drivers, my computer won't restart or shutdown properly. It will logg off, and says shut down, but it will just stay at a black screen with the computer still running. Any ideas?

 

Did you do a clean install or from the recovery partition? Could mean alot of things.

 

It seems like you're doing a clean install but not installing all the drivers, or, you are installing them in the wrong order. You may also be installing incorrect drivers too (I've seen this happen).

The order is different for each manufacturer and maybe even different for a specific line of models.

By your decription, I'm guessing the specific power management driver is not installed properly, or - Windows Updates over-wrote the proper/specific driver with a generic one (and hence the issues).

Hope this helps you track something down soon.

 

For certain brands, you must use THEIR video drivers. I've seen countless laptops with discreet nVidia and ATi GPUs will not accept officially branded drivers from nVidia/ATi and they had to use manufacturers ancient drivers. However if you do a clean install from an OEM disc, depending on your GPU the chance of it accepting official drivers increases. Using a manufacturer branded disc lowers this chance.

There's also a chance you could still be having a hardware issue. After all that reinstalling an OS may not do the trick, if it's under warranty I would check it in for service at a repair shop.

 

Most warranties do not cover software nightmares.

 

Correction.

And if it's a hardware issue (which in this case this might be) that is covered.

 

What has been posted that indicates a possible hardware issue?

 

In one word: Maybe.

 

The fact it goes to a black screen. We've sent plenty of unit outs for warranty repair with that same issue and it turns out to be a bad motherboard. All really depends.

 

Given that it is fine in Safe Mode, I would rule out hardware as a possible culprit.

Back to a rogue, incompatible, wrong, corrupt or not installed power management driver, imo.