Well the last time i used my computer was last week ago, haven't used it till now because of finals and such, decided to take a break and play some games. I turned on the comp did its usual thing.....and it just booted to a screen with a black screen with a mouse cursor.

So i left my computer on and went back to studying for about 15mins and it was still on that screen (black screen with movable mouse cursor). So i pressed ctrl+alt+del waited a few more seconds and it started to load the vista logo. Fine after that was done my system decided to hang on the desktop forever, it only loaded the task bar, and no icons. But i could still move the mouse. When i click the start button it takes forever to load anything in the start menu.

after that i tried a soft reset, it did the same thing. I went to Google found some interesting information. apparently its called the Black screen of death, theirs some youtube videos that explain the problem that im having.

Then i decided to reformat everything since i have nothing really important besides my PC games. Thought that fixed the problem but nope its still happening. Now im beginning to suspect its a hardware problem.

My system specs are
vista 64bit home prem
intel Q9450
asus p5n-d mobo
1100w topower psu
xfx 9800gt
4GB 800mhz DDr2
500Gb HD

Anyone have any ideas what could be causing the problem. I havnt tried swapping HDs,ram yet going to over friends house and getting a spares to test.
 

1100 watts? Jesus Christ, man - wtf for?! I see a single video card, 1 hard drive and...well that's about it.

Anyway, when you formatted, do you happen to remember if you selected the "Quick Format" option? If so, that's not sufficient for cleaning up a hard drive.
 

no i didnt do a quick format, i made sure i wiped everything

as for the PSU yes i know my PSU is overkill but the power supply was a good buy
 

From what I can tell the Black Screen is caused by anything from missing boot files (Can you acquire a new Vista Installer disk or something?) to driver issues, to whatever.

Found this; http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch..._screen_of.php

Not sure if it'll help you. Can't hurt to try though, just a minor registry change.

If you truly want to do a reformat/reinstall, run DBAN so it wipes the drive first, then install Vista again. If this happens again I'd say it might be a hardware issue. Just a note though; DBAN takes ages, especially on larger drives. So you might set it to wipe while you sleep or while your out for the day -- we're talking hours here.
 

ok, im going to try the registry change but thats if i can wait long enouigh for my comp to load my registry for me, but if that fails it wiping again time but thanks Neo
 

if you have a 1100W PSU and the hardware on your PC do not require such power than it doesn't use it
@op
How many programs you use at system start-up (when you log in to Vista)?

Did you have any issues with HDD?

Did you have any issues with voltage? Blue screens?

@Neo

DBAN wipes out HDD almost perm, so after using that software you need a expensive visit to professional people who recover data, so I would advice a good backup before using that
 

Uhh, that's sorta the point. If there's a rootkit or something else sticking around on his hard drive, then DBAN will literally nuke it out of existence and give him a truly clean slate to install on. I just did this not two-three days ago.

He already mentioned that he reinstalled Vista, and didn't have anything on the computer he'd miss
 

As for the registry change i couldn't even get into my registry it god DAM forever to load the start up bar. So ya its another HDD wipe tonight.

ok i borrowed my friend's rig memory swapped it out and tested it, results are the same as i explain in my first post, ok ram is ruled out. Next thing is the hard drive test but i gotta wait till saturday till i can borrow my other friends spare HD.

At the mean time im going to nuke my harddrive over night since im studying for my last final tmr well see where this will take me. As for backing up stuff there nothing i need to back up on this computer...its sheer gaming goodness

o ya another thing ive only experience blue screen only once, and i recalled that when i was playing L4D. only program i load up during start up is my AVG, sound, usual windows BS. But thats it.
 

Off topic here -- Switch to avast!, I've found AVG to become overly bloated and for some reason it started pausing my system during downloads and updates. Also the annoying "BUY THE PRO VERSION OMG!?!?!?!?" stuff pushed me over the edge.

protip: avast! has voices on by default, so when you update you could get screamed at
 

lol i know what u mean but lately since my comp died i cant really experience the craptacular by pop up now since my comp is down. I cant install AVAST and give it try i heard good things about it.
 

ahhhh shit....i also found huge problem, while trying to fix the other weird slow boot up, i dunno why i didnt check this sooner.

i checked my bois power management readings
12V was fine
5V fine
3.3V <---NOT fine undervoltaging at like 2.5 to 2.7, thats more than the usual +/-5% tolerance.

since i don't usually trust software, i busted out my multimeter and pretty much open the case and measured the +3.3 Rails while it was running in idle mode couldn't even get to the desktop, and it confirmed the under voltaging multimeter reading 2.6V~2.7
Now i always thought that what makes a power supply a good one is stability always keeping constant voltage regardless if its loaded or no load amirite?

Now i went to google searched up all the components that run on the 3.3V line, and i found alot. And this is what i found dunno if this is true but if you can confirm it would be appreciated.

Components that uses the 3.3V Rail
-RAM
-CPU
-SATA
-Logic microchips on mobo
-Graphics card

could this be the cause of my problem to begin with, but im more concern that my PSU hasnt damaged anything on my mobo.
 

You, sir, are a primo troubleshooter. Busted out the multimeter, even. /impressed

No clue on how to answer your question here, but have a friendly *bump*
 

after taking a small 3 month class on electricity maintenance, company wanted our entire staff to take this course that the company paid for. and the teacher ripped me a new one when he said you should never NEVER trust readings from a computer...and i guess this is one of those times