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    Black screen with movable cursor

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by 974230, Jun 17, 2011.

  1. 974230

    974230 Newbie

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    So I'm in a bit of a dilemma. Last week, I spontaneously thought I should update my graphics driver. I did so through the Sony support website and selected whatever recommended driver it was to install. A little more than midway through the installation, my screen turned black and unresponsive. I waited a bit, but eventually opted to force shut down and reboot. After rebooting, startup on both normal and safe mode led to a black screen with a movable cursor that doesn't really do anything. None of my keys work, either. A couple of things I think I overlooked was uninstalling the old driver first and then installing the new one in safe mode. Having gone through a massive number of solutions through Google the last few days, I know this issue is not uncommon. However, with none of the solutions being applicable to my own problem, I figure mine might be a unique case.

    My laptop model is the Sony Vaio VPC-Z1190X and the graphics was set to Speed (nVidia GeForce 330m). I've tried virtually every boot option available, all resulting in the same black screen with movable cursor. The furthest I can get is tapping F8 at boot -> Repair Your Computer -> Diagnostics/Mem Diagostics/Command Prompt. All of the diagnostics say my laptop is fine. I'm guessing my current available actions are limited to what I can boot from CD/DVD and what I can input on the command prompt. If any additional information is needed, I'd be happy to provide them. Any help at this point would definitely be appreciated. Thanks!
     
    974230, Jun 17, 2011
    #1
  2. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

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    Try go into safe mode and use System Restore to restore the computer before the time you tried changing the drivers.
     
    namaiki, Jun 17, 2011
    #2
  3. ceffect

    ceffect Notebook Consultant

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    Since your keys don't work, try plugging in an external keyboard. See if that allows you to use keys. When you get to that black screen, try CTRL+ALT+DEL and go to task manager. We want to make a new task, Applications >> New Task >> "explorer.exe".

    Try a restore point with the CD if that doesn't work.

    If you can't get a CD/DVD to read then this is from another forum:
     
    ceffect, Jun 18, 2011
    #3
  4. arth1

    arth1 a҉r҉t҉h

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    His problem isn't caused by an invalid WinLogon Shell entry for explorer, but by replacing the Sony-modified graphics driver with a generic one which WILL NOT WORK ON THE Z.
     
    arth1, Jun 20, 2011
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