I just upgrade to win 8.1 pro from 8.0 pro. After logout and login. Nothing display. I can only use ctrl-alt-del to start the task manager. And found that "c:\windows\explorer.exe" can't work.

There are error message once I try to explorer something, the message is "can't find the program entree point. ?Createlnt@Value@DirectUI@@SAPEAV12@H@Z(in dynamic link program library C:\WINDOWS\system32\explorerframe.dll).

• Changed type Niki HanMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Monday, October 21, 2013 1:53 AM
• Changed type Alex ZhaozxMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Wednesday, November 13, 2013 5:07 AM should be a question

"I just upgrade to win 8.1 pro from 8.0 pro. After logout and login. Nothing display. I can only use ctrl-alt-del to start the task manager."

I have this exact issue after updating 8 to 8.1 Pro x64.  I can also move the mouse cursor.  If I wait 5-6 minutes, it will eventually log in.  This issue occurs after every logout/restart.

**EDIT**

Disabling the "App Readiness" service resolved my issue:

• Run --> msconfig --> Services Tab --> Uncheck "App Readiness" --> Apply/Okay --> Reboot

** I did not have issues running metro apps, as others have mentioned.  This solution only resolves the issue of the black screen while attempting to load the desktop after logging in.

• Edited by dsDoan Thursday, November 28, 2013 3:41 AM Resolution

Disable all power saving features even in bios. If already disabled change one like monitor and save, restart, you should solve the black screen, its from power saving bug.

• Edited by colakid Wednesday, October 23, 2013 9:28 PM

I'll chip in with some additional information and see if that helps, since nobody posted a detailed flow yet.

While I have the same problem as everyone else, I am running on a homebuilt desktop system with a Radeon HD 6850.

In detail, the problem manifests as that the startup proceeds as normal, including loading login screen graphics to past the point where I enter my password. When the prompt changes to "Welcome", the spinning dots animation commences and nothing else happens for about a minute, after which a black screen is loaded. At this point, the mouse pointer still works but not the start button or any normal windows hotkey, except Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Bringing up a Task Manager allows me to start and run programs, but neither starting, shutting down and restarting explorer actually produces any effective result. I can't find any special process running, such as Trouble reporting or similar. IE or desktop programs run fine.

After a few more minutes, maybe three, the desktop or start screen loads as usual, but the start screen is corrupted. Most Modern Apps only display some internal name and no icon, but a few (such as economy and store, for instance) show content in their livetiles. Attempting to start one of the internal name ones, such as mail, yields an error, while starting one with a working livetile opens a blank screen with no possibility to interact. The start screen/Modern UI app problem is persistent.

All desktop applications run as normal.

A few observations and failed troubleshooting attempts:

All available updates were downloaded.

The graphics drivers that were installed with the 8.1 update were 8.13, in other words ancient. Updating to 13.9 or the latest beta 13.11 (both supposedly working with 8.1, and worked fine in the consumer preview) did not help.

Uninstalling the last month of programs did nothing.

The store icon said "Win 8.1 Consumer Preview", but at the actual app page the proper Win 8.1 Pro was displayed.

No other driver conflicts, and no reported logs (Can I log what is happening post-login somehow?).

• Proposed as answer by Kisan Adhikari Tuesday, November 19, 2013 1:54 PM

I been using msdn setup of win 8.1.  When the update of win 8.1 came available, I installed 3 updates from windows update. kb-2898742, kb-2883200, kb-2895219, I got this black screen after one of these updates. I did not get this with msdn upgrade or preview of 8.1

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2895219

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2883200

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2884846

Kb-2883200 may be it

Improvements

This update rollup includes the following performance and reliability improvements: 

• Push-button reset and boot experience:  Stabilizes the boot experience. Fits and finishes changes in push-button reset (PBR) and refresh. (Client and Server)
• In-box apps:  Provides reliability and stabilization fixes for inbox apps, including Camera, Photo, and Video Viewer. Stabilizes SkyDrive integration with inbox apps. (Client)
• Graphics and multimedia platform:   Improves graphics and multimedia reliability and performance, including stabilized visuals across power states. Improves 3D performance. Improves the handling of PlayTo. (Client)
• File server and clustering:  Improves Enterprise Client Sync experience. Resolves reliability issues in continuous availability (CA) and backup scenarios involving failover clustering, Hyper-V, iSCSI and DedDup. (Server)
• Hyper-V:  Provides general virtualization reliability fixes in Hyper-V, Network Virtualization, and Remote Desktop Virtualization for large deployments. (Server)

 

• Edited by colakid Thursday, October 24, 2013 10:08 AM

Gnothe details the issue well.  Windows updates and video drivers are up-to-date, and the issue persists.  Sometimes it takes up to 7 minutes before the black screen transitions to the desktop/start screen.

• Edited by dsDoan Friday, October 25, 2013 6:19 PM

Here is mine CBS log, i had the same problem. Maybe u can find something interesting. https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=3A0A968764FBCDC5!840&authkey=!ALpgU3e0otB4DOY

Installed new components excepting telnet server and did sfc /scannow from escalated cmd. Few minutes and 2 restarts - and bingo! Now i have my desktop and metro panel back

• Edited by Hellchickens Saturday, October 26, 2013 5:25 PM

I've tried a few more things, prompted by some googling.

Updating BIOS and Audio drivers. No luck.

Disabling fast startup. No luck.

sfc /scannow. No luck.

Checkdisk. Nope.

Reboot in safe mode. Fast login. This prompted some more troubleshooting, first disabling all autorun with no success, then disabling all services causing a prompt login. Tried a few unique semi-randomly, but no luck on finding the specific one(s).

Enabled (in msconfig, for the curious) ntbtlog, comparing the results from the safe mode login to the "normal and unusually delayed", finding that there's a few entries of:

BOOTLOG_NOT_LOADED \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\dxgkrnl.sys

and then one of:

BOOTLOG_NOT_LOADED \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\WdFilter.sys

The first is the DirectX-kernel, sounds suspicious, the second has to to with the malware scanner.

Did some more googling on these entries, and it turns out the first is fairly commonly associated with slow startups. One mentioned something which sounds like dxgkrnl trying to boot up multiple times, which seems like what was indicated in the ntbtlog.txt.

Enough for now, but will try to find some time stamps in the bootlog to verify the theory and do a bubble search on the services to try and find the offender.

Note: With the services disabled and no black screen (still a bit delay at the "Welcome"), metro apps were still broken. Seems like some windows Component is broken...

• Edited by Gnothe Tuesday, October 29, 2013 10:37 AM Had written drivers instead of services...

i just upgraded win8 pro to win 8.1 but first few seconds after installation everything was working but suddenly i was signed off and since then i never saw windows 8.1 desktop or metro and i think i made a big mistake upgrading i should have gave more time to win 8.1 and then i needed to upgrade but i left in middle of no where if any1 has found the solution of log in and getting black screen please let me know. VERY DISPOINTED IN Microsoft

• Edited by W8.1 SH8T Friday, November 01, 2013 9:28 PM

Solution----

Had the same problem. Fixed by this.

Open File Explorer somehow by task manager. Enable the "View hidden items" option & uncheck "Hide system files" from view tab. Now go the the drive where the os is installed in my case C drive. You will see a folder named "Windows Activation Technology". Take its ownership and give all its permissions to yourself (user) . Now delete the folder. Run sfc /scannow command again. Reboot. It worked for me!

• Proposed as answer by topeko-yolo Tuesday, November 19, 2013 6:15 AM

I finally solved the last of my issues: that is that the metro apps could not be updated or new installed, and that the ones that were installed were broken.

A summary of successful fixes:

1: Disabling the App readiness service to get rid of the black screen during boot.

2: To take Power over the Control panel and the Store, do this: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/notime/archive/2013/10/18/fix-store-app-in-windows-8-1.aspx

3: Follow this one to be able to repair metro apps: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/error-0x80070005-updating-windows-store-apps

4: Try to start each app from the start screen and select the repair option.

5: Back to normal windows functionality!

If to do an RCA, it seems that during the upgrade process the apps did not get the necessary rights. Why? No idea, but at least it works now.

Edit: Well that was premature. It turns out that the apps are installed using different languages. As opposed to standard OS and some apps (swedish, which is the localization and primary language),  the built in and now repaired apps are in english (for instance swedish news are not available). To spice it up Maps had some east asian measurement unit (can't say which specifically)... you cannot change this anywhere but in the localization, and changing localization and/or reinstalling the apps don't work. Maybe there is a hidden localization setting somewhere.

• Edited by Gnothe Friday, November 22, 2013 9:55 AM Didn't work after all.

I had a similar problem, although I couldn't open task manager. I spent a few hours finding how to fix it. For me the problem was graphics, but not the drivers...

If you're using the Lucid Virtu MVP software, which comes with a large number of motherboads to enable sharing between the integrated graphics and a separate card, then THIS IS THE PROBLEM. It does NOT work with Windows 8.1.
Boot into Safe mode, uninstall Virtu MVP, and problem fixed.
They have released a beta for 8.1 but they want you to pay for it...

All issues fixed, following similarly to Gnothe with a few additions. 

1) For the blackscreen, disable App Readiness (Run msconfig-> Serivces, unbox). Now it boots quick with no blank screen.

2) Several corrupt files were being discovered in sfc /scannow but running it several times but the addition of running DISM (type Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth into cmd.exe) and then rerunning scannow fixed all issues. 

3) To get the apps working run wsrest.exe. This didn't work until the above scannow/DISM processes had fixed itself. This got the windows store working and all apps then worked be clicking and reinstalling each one. 

4) To get various modern UI elements like the refresh options working again, follow the same link Gnothe gave: 

Everything works now!

I had no issues with metro apps or corrupt files, but disabling the App Readiness service eliminated my long desktop load time (aka black screen).

Thanks for the post!

Please use local admin account to login, and see what will happen.

Please check explorer.exe in the Task Manager. If the explorer.exe process is running, please end this process then restart this process.

I have followed below steps to solve my issue,

http://www.vmwareandme.com/2013/10/step-by-step-how-to-solve-windows-81.html

After hours and hours of trying to fix the black screen problem after upgrading to Windows 8.1 I finally discovered that LucidLogix's Virtu MVP was the problem. Once I uninstalled it all was fine.

Virtu MVP was one of the software packages that was bundled with my ASUS motherboard.

I see that Microsoft support is now recommending that both Virtu MVP and something called "StartIsBack" be uninstalled. Good advice.

http://lucidlogix.com/index.html
http://www.asus.com/ROG_ROG/MAXIMUS_V_GENE/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2919176

While the other problems seemed bearable it turned out that certain (normal) windows updates wouldn't install. Modifying so many rights seemed dodgy as well. The best answer turned out to take the slightly dodgy way around of doing a reinstall (straight to windows 8.1). Won't be a solution Microsoft can recommend, endorse, or simplify, but I wish I would've done so sooner.

Conclusion: While Windows 8.1 is fine, the update process is all gone wrong. Take every precaution!