Windows 8.1 only boots in safe mode.

Nanako

Honorable
May 7, 2017
87
2
10,545
Hi All. Hoping this forum can help. I'm running windows 8.1. The contents of my dxdiag can be found here: http://pasteall.org/389341

I've had my computer for many years, gradually upgraded over time. I've had windows 8.1 in it for at least a year without any issues, and there have been no recent changes in hardware or system applications.
Today, as i always do, i set my computer to hibernate before i went out. It usually takes a minute to fall asleep so i don't generally stick around to watch, and this time i didn't notice until i came back, that it had failed. I came home to find the screen grey. Just a single, flat shade of light grey, and the system was unresponsive.

Powered off, back on, and windows won't boot. Bios works fine, It gets just past this screen: http://mytechquest.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Windows-8-RTM-Boot-Screen-for-Windows-7-01.jpg

After it finishes loading there, it goes black and would normally display a welcome, pick account, etc. Instead it just stays black forever, and can't seem to get past that

I've managed to boot the PC in safe mode, and am typing from it now. Everything appears to work just fine in safe mode (with networking). At least, the things that are enabled, it disables lots of stuff as i'm sure you'll know. No GPU, no sound, etc, its hardly optimal. But it does function, which i hope at least rules out catastrophic hardware failure and massive corruption, and means that core components (power, motherboard, memory, cpu) are probably working fine

I've tried the startup repair in the boot menu twice, and it had two different results. The first time, it did a brief diagnostic and then told me that it failed to repair my PC, with no reason or cause given.
The second time, it told me it was scanning my drive for errors and might take an hour. 15 minutes later it completed without any complaints and then attempted to boot normally, which failed as previously described - eternal blackscreen

Lastly, i've tried running sfc /scannow. This finished and turned out an error:
---
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some
of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For
example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Note that logging is currently not
supported in offline servicing scenarios.
---

I've uploaded the contents of that log here: http://pasteall.org/389334

As far as i can tell, the affected files are printer drivers and wouldn't cause my issues, but i'm not 100% certain about it. It's at least a possible cause.

That's as far as i've gotten with troubleshooting so far, and the computer still won't boot if it's not in safe mode.

Can anyone provide additional steps to help diagnose and/or fix my issues?
 
Solution
Hi,

Since it is working in safe mode, the hardware components are working fine. Its sure that its a software issue. As your are not able to restore, I request you to take a data backup and perform OS re-installation.

Nanako

Honorable
May 7, 2017
87
2
10,545
Update: I have also now tried system restore, to no avail. i've dis/reconnected all external devices, no luck there. And ive done the startup repair again, it claimed to find problems, and to be "attempting repairs". As before it finished this without any complaint, then attempted to boot, which still fails exactly as before. So, no progress yet
 

Andrea Mathew

Commendable
Dec 7, 2016
77
0
1,710
Hi,

Since it is working in safe mode, the hardware components are working fine. Its sure that its a software issue. As your are not able to restore, I request you to take a data backup and perform OS re-installation.
 
Solution