So here is my situation, guys. I occasionally get a black screen after loading windows, I have my windows 7 (pro) installation set to load straight to desk top with no log in screen, in fact, I have no password. (I use the box for gaming, not really anything that needs to be locked up) A quick run-down of my hardware: Core i7 920 (one of the earlier models) 6 gigs of ram in triple-channel configuration 2 GTX 450s in SLI 2 1TB hard drives, no RAID config, one is a barracuda and the other is an older Western Digital "Caviar" 'green' drive. The mobo is an Asus P6T deluxe V2 I was originally installed onto the 'green' drive, and while it had been chunky and slow, it didn't really kill me except for loading times. About a month or so back, I started getting a problem where it would occasionally get the black screen right after the loading screen and would never boot to the desktop. Repair never seemed to actually fix it, but I didn't really mind it since I could just restart and the problem would be solved for the short term, but eventually, I had the issue crop up about half a dozen times in a row (it had never occurred more than once in a row), so when I finally got the boot to work, I burnt an ISO of windows 7 I had from a computer maintenance class I had at a local college (along with a legitimate windows 7 key, this is all on the up and up!), and decided it was time. I moved all my unnecessary files from the Barracuda backup to a plain folder on my C on the 'green' drive, and restarted. I booted to re-install windows, formatted the barracuda, and started a re-install. I was able to boot into that install, installed a video driver, and restarted. I had all sorts of trouble re-installing that I will go into more detail in a bit, but long story short, I now have a functional install. Well, had a functional install. I am now getting the same problem on this install of windows, and have tried booting in safe mode, which did not work, as well as repair, which works once but the problem re-occurs a few days later and has to be dealt with. I ran memtest86+ which said that my memory was fine, I tried plugging the video cable to the other card after the black screen thinking maybe there was an issue there, that did not work. Does anybody have any Idea what might be causing this? I currently have such a fresh install that the only software I have installed is.. AVG2012, Borderlands, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Dungeons of Dreadmor, Google Chrome, Civ 5, TF2, and uTorrent. Is it possible that some hardware is going out? Maybe the MOBO? I have searched online and found people with similar problems, but solutions that did not work for me, such as http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprohardware/thread/2ba675b9-5e79-48ab-b618-6a70155b1042, but their solution of system restore does not work, atleast not from the repair tool.

You are using a version of Windows that is not Genuine, that's why you get the Black Screen probably. Google query: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=black+screen+windows+7+genuine+site:microsoft.com Your most likely answers are found here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/why-is-my-screen-black-when-i-start-windows-7 Unlikely fixes: (But hey, if you say it's Genuine now, just change your desktop settings) http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en/genuinewindows7/thread/4ae9af96-0253-44cc-a67a-73c1d9f4e1bc How can I tell? (Genuine Check) http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/howtotell/default.aspx - You did not receive a COA, nor did you use a legitimate retail/subscriber Windows-disc nor a corresponding license key. License keys for Educational/Subscriber/Volume License purposes, can not be combined with Retail ISO's and vice versa. What could you try to make sure? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2008385 http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en/genuinewindows7/thread/4ae9af96-0253-44cc-a67a-73c1d9f4e1bc If you do not wish to obtain a Online Purchased Genuine Advantage Kit - Contact your local retailer for a license/product DVD/genuine kit. You ought to pay between 80,- and 300,-. What you did till now was effectively abusing your college license. They probably work with KMS or such there, and you don't have that at home. :)

I think you are misunderstanding. I am not getting a black desktop, I am getting a totally black screen. Explorer doesn't even seem to load. I was not aware that I was breaking any rules, but I am not getting any errors related to windows genuine. If I right click my computer and look at properties, it even says windows is activated. If I need to get a legitimate key (I was under the impression that I was good using this for personal use, but it seems I was wrong), I'll do that, but it seems odd that it would tell me it was genuine, allow me to occasionally boot, but sometimes give me a totally black hanging screen with no explorer or error message in order to try to get me to get a legitimate copy. I am looking through the http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/why-is-my-screen-black-when-i-start-windows-7 you linked me to, and will run through that stuff, though.

Sorry then, I totaly misunderstood in that case. After POST, Winlogo -> to desktop, before you can login no screen? It's like in Sleep Mode? Or just off? Have you tried pressing F8 with bootup en selecting recovery options? Like Safe-mode to check you videodriver Are you not even seeing POST/Bios/UEFI - then I'm afraid some hardware is malfunctioning. But you could check the cords, just to be sure. Have you tried without SLI ? What are the results with a single graphics adapter?Certified: MCP 2.0 & MCTS

It is exactly like sleep mode, which, I just learned, my regular mouse and keyboard do not wake the computer from. For some reason. So I plugged a regular Microsoft keyboard in, and it woke from sleep mode, so I will try to 'wake' it with that keyboard when I have it occur next. I have tried the F8 boot recovery options, safe mode has the same problem, my saving grace for a while there was last known good, but that started failing on me, I let it go through the recovery service again, which usually fixes it in the short term, but it will crop up again, and sometimes it doesn't even fix it. I do get BIOS, POST, all that jazz, I am not exactly sure was UEFI would look like, but I get all the way to the windows logo, it loads, and then I get a black screen. I have my computer set to not show the log in screen and boot straight to desktop, and it goes black before the desktop shows up. I also looked over all the stuff on that link in your first post, and re-installing my video driver did not help, my registry was exactly as it said it should be, and I have restored a few times. To even get it past the black screen this morning, last known good did not work, so I just let it do its restore, and it now boots perfectly fine. The thing is, this has happened a couple of times, where I restore, it boots fine for a day or so, then goes back to booting to black screen. I can't really test those options you gave me till it black screens again, but I will and I will respond with whatever results I get. Thanks for helping, by the way. :D

Does your computer contain a large enought PowerSupply that gives enough power to run the two display adapters and other components in your system? Id go for testing a larger powersupply. Check out the power calculator at http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp and see how much power it recommends to your system VS. what you have. -Bjarni