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Didn't know where to post this. Black screen of nothing?


Userlevel 2
A few times when I tried to start up my PC I got a black screen with a cursor in the middle instead of my log in screen. The third time this happened I started pressing buttons on my keyboard. While I was fiddling with the F buttons, mainly F1 to F4, and the print screen, scroll lock, and pause/break buttons, my PC started working again, Why?
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Best answer by JimM 28 May 2013, 17:17

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Userlevel 7
Cloud, this might fit into the "techie" category, but I am not sure.  If the mods question the placement they will move it :)
 
As for the actual issue... I have not seen this before.  I have seen a blinking cursor on failed bootup located at the upper left corner, but not in the middle.  I do wonder what version of Windows is on the computer?  Knowing that might help one of the others here give you a bit of an answer.. I will be watching too as I am quite curious on this one!
Userlevel 2
My cursor didn't blink. It was just the mouse pointer. And 7 is the OS.
Userlevel 7
Badge +36
Do you have MBAM installed?
Userlevel 2
Yes, why?
Userlevel 7
Badge +36
A few weeks ago MBAM had a FP that rendered countless PC's unusable. Could be a by product. I had it affect 2 machines. Check out MBAM user forums.............................tried to paste a link here but it will not accept it!?
 
 
 
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
A few weeks ago MBAM had a FP that rendered countless PC's unusable. Could be a by product. I had it affect 2 machines. Ceck out MBAM user forums.............................tried to paste a link here but it will not accept it!?
 
 
Lyle, 
 
You might send the link over to him by PM...  :)
Userlevel 7
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Thank you!
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
Thank you!
Anytime 🙂
hello, can you boot to safe mode by pressing F8 ? or are u back up and running ?
Userlevel 7
Hello mendo, and welcome to the Webroot Community!  Good question!
my pleasure. my first ever forum/community that i registered on. i am fellow Geek Squad agent, hope i can help out :)
for some reason i suspect rootkit virus in his case, lots of those latelly
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Hello mendo and Welcome to the Webroot Community Forums.
 
Cheers,
 
TH
 
 
Userlevel 7
Hello mendo, Welcome to the Webroot Community Forum. 😃
Userlevel 2
I'm back up and running. I just don't know why it happened. 1) What's an FP? Also since I'm wondering about PC problems 1) Where IS that phishing filter in internet explorer? Webroot keeps asking me to get it fixed. 2) What is a memory leak and why does Firefox sometimes have one and sometimes not?
Userlevel 2
And what should I do about this potential root kit virus?
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
I'm back up and running. I just don't know why it happened. 1) What's an FP? Also since I'm wondering about PC problems 1) Where IS that phishing filter in internet explorer? Webroot keeps asking me to get it fixed. 2) What is a memory leak and why does Firefox sometimes have one and sometimes not?
Cloud, lots of very good questions, and I will try my best to give answers.  Hopefully someone else will review this and give corrections as needed!
 
1) FP = False Positive.  Sometimes when security software is set to maximum settings, it will cause it to report some non malware files as being potentially dangerous.  The default settings for Webroot has several of the settings set a bit below maximum for this reason.  My own experience with Webroot has been that even with all settings set to maximum I still do not have problems with False Positives.
 
2) Phising Filter settings in IE are usually in the Tools drop down, but as I run an older system I do not have IE 10.  I am not sure where to locate it on that version.
 
3) Memory Leak is where a program fails to correctly clear and release memory used when no longer needed.  This causes  the RAM usage to grow much higher than what it should be, and can slow down computer performance.  Do you remember the 'old days' of Windows 98 in which after a few hours of heavy computer usage it often would slow down to the point that it was hard to use, and it could be fixed by simply rebooting the computer?  That was caused by memory leak.  Several of us on here have found that the Webroot System Analyzer does detect memory leaks in our browser (IE on my system gives that warning in Webroot).  It is not anything you have to worry about though, it will not hurt the computer.
 
4) As for that possible rootkit, chances are if you had one Webroot would have detected it.  You can get help double checking though.  If your copy is Best Buy Subscription Software, call them as Mendo suggested.  If you purchased a non Best Buy version, your support comes directly from Webroot and you can Submit A Trouble Ticket for help.
 
Hope all of this helps.. have a great day and let us know if you have any problems!
Userlevel 7
Badge +36
The problem was that webroot did not detect it because it was indeed a FP, (Many FP's) to be exact, and PC's would not boot due to BSOD. Some would not even boot into safe mode. This occured with an April 15th update of MBAM and is still causing problems to date for many users.
 
I'm not saying this caused a problem for "Cloud" but is a good possibility! We will have to wait and see if it continues?
Userlevel 7
cloud is being helped through the support system and has been communicating with one of our support technicians. Please notify them that you think you may have a root-kit and one of our threat engineers can take a closer look.
Userlevel 7
Badge +36
??????
Userlevel 2
Did this ever get fixed?
Userlevel 7
Cloud, I looked up your case. It looks like the agent who was fielding it asked you to call in. If you check your email, do you see an unread message from Webroot? It might be in your junk mail possibly.

Looking over the logs myself, I see errors consistent with a video card problem, which would explain the intermittent black screen, particularly at bootup. You're getting a lot of errors like this one:

The AODDriver4.2 service failed to start due to the following error: ^^%%2

That driver is your ATI video card's driver.

I don't see anything bad jumping out at me from the logs. This looks like a video card issue to me. The agent possibly may have had something else in mind or thought you might appreciate a remote session, but it looks like from the conversation, he didn't see anything malicious either.

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