Desktop is black/unresponsive after logging in, but I can access Task Manager...

[xSparrow]

The screen flickers or goes black when the system boots and the system is generally unresponsive, although you can use Task Manager to execute commands.This happened after a system update.

Two system restores failed and afterwards Windows said the file system is corrupted. The hard drive passed a check but Windows has stated it needs repair multiple times. There is potentially a hard drive issue. It could also be that the real issue is corrupting the disk. However, from my work (below) I generally believe this is *not* a hard drive issue at this time.

I traced the failure itself down to the shell infrastructure host (sihost.exe). Restarting this process gives an “Unknown hard error” message. If you fail to click OK on this error message the flickering stops.

From what I read online, one cause of the issue could be a bad USB connection. I removed all USB software, but the problem could be a hardware one. I also tried logging in with a different profile, but that did not help. It might not be a USB issue.

I ran the DISM tool to clean the windows image but it said the source files were not found. I tried this twice.

Any thoughts?

 

[Jwpanz]

Interesting. My first thought is that this is a graphics driver issue.

 

[rgd1101]

backup your data, download windows 10 iso and do a repair with the iso.

 

[gardenman]

Hi, in order to get DISM working with the Source parameter, you need a Windows 10 setup disc/flash drive that is the same exact version of your current Windows 10 (Run Winver.exe to see what version you have). Then you point DISM to that disc/drive. Example:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:WIM:E:\sources\install.wim:1 /LimitAccess

Replace the drive letter E in the command above with the drive letter of where your Windows 10 Setup disc/drive is. That's how I eventually got it working [on my system].

After you have DISM working, run SFC /scannow. If you get errors, you may need to run it a few times.

I don't know if these steps will help with your problem or not but it's worth a try. If you're having disk problems, also look up the CHKDSK /f command. Good luck.