Windows 8.1 Pro Seems To Lock When Idle - Black Screen
May 3, 2014
I am running Windows 8.1 Pro on a Desktop PC.
My issue is this:
My PC is on 24/7 previously on every version of Windows when I walk away, the screen turns off after 30mins of inactivity, the PC stays on and when I return, I simply moved the mouse and within 2 - 3 seconds the monitor was back on, and I was where I left it.
On Windows 8.1 that sometimes happens, but 90% of the time what is happening, when I return to my PC, I move the mouse and nothing happens, anything I press on keyboard etc, monitor stays off on black screen, if I turn the monitor off by the button and back on, it just stays black, the only way I can get back to my Desktop is to restart the PC!!
I changed several power settings around, disabled password on idle setting, googled many things and tried and its still doing it. The PC is still on fans etc, but doesn't respond.
Weird thing is, it did it today when I was watching a movie on my PC connected media server downstairs (app is PS3 Media Server used with a WDTV Live Hub) I came to use the PC and it was black screen, I went back downstairs and could still access all my files on the media server, so the PC is still up and fully running when it does this, but I just can't get the monitor to display anything other than black screen, again on a reboot everything is fine again.
To summarise, I have power setting to turn off display after 30mins, usually a nudge of the mouse brings the monitor to life, this is not happening, I can only get back to desktop via hard PC reboot.
When I turn on or restart my computer after the teal windows logo with the spinning wheel the screen will flash off quickly then come back on black and then 10 seconds later show the lock screen.
I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro. Everytime or almost everytime I click on an app or go to the desktop and try to get on IE 10 (desktop version), my screen flashes and goes black for a few seconds then returns me to the screen with the space needle, then I click on it and it signs me back in. When I try to use Google Chrome, the websites freeze up on me. I don't want to have to reinstall/reformat as I paid $40 for this for one, and secondly, I don't want to have to repurchase Office 2010 as my licenses ran out. I ran every update that comes up and restart, but this doesn't change this issue. . why it does this and any way to fix it without reformatting?
I am running Windows 8.1 and have been experiencing an issue as of late, without any hardware or software changes. About every 4 hours, the OS will lock up, start stuttering any audio, and then the screen goes black and it reboots. This has happened while playing a game, watching Netflix, just browsing the web, seems about anything (oncej ust launching Google Chrome).
I have checked the event logs and don't see anything (only thing is the Critical under system and it says your system did not shut down properly, no errors before it).
My laptop is a Sony Vaio - Model: SVE141R11L Product name: SVE14135CXB Pre-loaded with Windows 8 x64 Intel(R) Core i5-3230M CPU @ 2.60GHz 6GB RAM w/ 900GB HDD space Purchased in Navy Exchange last year (around July 2013)
I have dropped it once or twice from at most a 3ft fall inside a padded case. I mostly use my computer for school work, some gaming, extensive video/photo editing, internet browsing. I've installed some debatable programs but have been installed long ago. Most of my programs included Microsoft Office, Adobe suite, Steam, iTunes, uTorrent, McAfee VirusScan Enterprise, Winrar, VLC, etc. But are now gone due to the refresh I had just done last week for prior problems, but still experience problems.
I recently been having issues with my computer where it just won't respond at all. Like today, I had it working for a few hours, but then went out and left my laptop on the lock screen, and came back to it being completely stuck. Completely stuck as in, no keys or clicks would unlock the screen to the login prompt. However, my cursor was fully able to move around the screen, and my caps/num lock buttons work as they display the lights enabling/disabling them. The time when it was stuck was 8:03pm, but the clock was stuck on 7:55. But on the bottom of the front of the laptop, the HDD orange light is not lit up at all, which I believe suggest that the HDD is not reading/properly reading. Oddly enough, when I unplugged the power cord, the HDD light flickered a little then disappeared, still no response - could be related to the PSU I suppose?
Another problem I faced before was the Windows 8.1 update failure, resulting in reverted changes, etc. I also had problems in the first few months of owning this, but found it was the incompatibility of an old antivirus that I guess didn't work too well with Windows 8 causing me to have to do a full wipe before. That was long ago. Moreover, the problems I have been experiencing have been unresponsiveness, from what I believe, are the fast boot Win 8 provides (but I turned that off), issues with Windows 8 not being able to load drivers from sleep mode upon opening the laptop (turned off automatic sleep), and now with the lock screen being stuck. I know my problems aren't detailed, but maybe these problems are linked to a bigger similar problem that people have been facing? My last bet would be to do a full factory restore/ repair, although I don't have a Windows 8 boot CD.
I've upgraded to Windows 8 RTM this weekend and I'm having this problem: Every time I boot the PC (shutdown or restart), the Num Lock key is off. Since my password uses numbers, and I'm pretty used to type it with Num Lock, I'd like to keep it always on. It was fine on Windows 7. Now, I've searched for it, and there is the "InitialKeyboardIndicators" key on regedit. I have changed values for all of them to "2", and it didn't work. My BIOS say to keep it always on.
Every time I Restart my Laptop, the Lock Screen does not show the Welcome Screen and skips directly to the User Account login screen. Actually, it shows a darkish blue screen for a couple of seconds and then jumps to the user account login.
When I use the logout function or the shutdown (and I power it back on) everything works normally.
I have ran SFC / Scannow in windows (8.1 by the way).
I recently installed Office 2007 onto my Vaio. It said it was successful and needed a reboot, so I rebooted. Upon reboot, it simply won't let me get to the lock screen (where I enter my pass/PIN). I have control of the keyboard (I think) because I can still adjust the brightness. The track-pad won't register my click to get into the lock-screen.
I tried to get into safe mode, which I've read is done by holding Shift and pressing F8 repeatedly at bootup. No go on safe mode.
Is there some alternative way to get into safe mode or somehow get into the lock screen?
How do I lock my windows 8 desktop? I leave my computer unattended at times so I usually lock the screen so that no one can access it while I'm gone, So how to do it in Windows 8?
Why Microsoft Have made it so difficult to use this OS.
I recently installed windows 8.1 pro x64 on my laptop which is acer 5755g.but i've a very strange problem with that. When I want to go afk before leaving laptop i press windows + l key and go to lock screen everything is ok now but when I'm coming back in few hours laptop is freezes and must shut it down from power button.
I tried: installed windows again updated all of drivers using coolpad
If I change the lockscreen to a different picture as the default ones, one of these default pictures goes away in the PC Settings Panel. Is there a way to restore them back so that only the default ones are there?
This morning I woke up to find that I could not log in to my windows 8 computer. The first 'lockscreen' would appear, but the when I clicked to go to the next screen to log in, all I see is text in the bottom right hand corner telling me about windows updates that will automatically update in two days (I have already installed most of the newest WUs).... Having issues with the latest WU?
Pc was running fine last night, woke up this morning and powered on pc. Windows 8 boot to the start/lock screen and does nothing more.
Some info keyboard and mouse don't work, keyboard num lock lights up but you can't turn off. Only change to pc was done 4 days ago when i brought 2 samsung 830 ssd drives and I installed a fresh copy of windows 8.
When pressing the power button pc boots down as it should (i dont have to hold the power button for a forced shutdown)
I've having an issue that I think some ppl had, windows 8 crashing going to blue screen of death or blank black screen and then it restarts by itself, also I have noticed that it says repairing disk in D:/
I have one SSD 120gb in the C:/ which it host the operating system and some minnor programs, in a HDD which is my D:/ drive there I have my games.
ASRock 990FX Extreme 9 AMD FX 8350 Kingston Hyper X 120GB SSD WD black 500GB HDGB HDD Corsair Vengeance 8gb Ram 2133Hz Windows 8
i installed windows 8.1 RTM BUT when i start download anything using IDM few seconds windows show my lock screen although i adjust my power options to never (Turn off display or put computer to sleep). What is the cause of this problem?
I've just bought a new laptop with Windows 8.1 and have been playing around with the settings etc. and have a question regarding the Lock screen.
I have personalised the lock screen with my own picture but have decided that I don't like it and would just prefer to use one of the default pictures, but there doesn't seem to be anyway of deleting the picture I have added.
I've tried searching for the picture on the laptop but have had no success finding it. How delete this picture?
I have The Weather app permissions set to allow it to display the weather on the lock screen. This has been working fine for some time -- up until now.
I installed Windows 8 early to setup everything up so when it comes out in October I can just buy it and activate it. Then I got tired of not being able to customize anything so I found where Windows stores various images and here they are.
Note: After each one you may have to restart explorer.exe (cmd> tskill explorer)
Tools:Take Ownership registry edit- [URL] ....
User Account Picture:
-Go to C: Drive
-In the ribbon go to "View" Tab and choose "Options"> In the new windows go to "View"> choose to Show Hidden files
-Back in the explorer go to "ProgramData" since it is not hidden anymore
-Then Microsoft> then User Account Pictures
-The images you want to change are user.bmp, user.png, user-40.png, user-200.png (You may not see the .png or .bmp)
Now in Photoshop (or any other image editing software) make 4 images of the image you want using these settings:
This took me a while as it was harder then I thought, but here is a simplified version of what I did.
1. Download and install the takeown script to registry (This will save you a lot of time and trouble)
2. Go to "C:WindowsWebScreen" and replace img100.jpg with the image you want (make sure you have the same name)
3)Go to "C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindows" and right click the "SystemData" folder and choose "Take Ownership" now you can enter the folder by pressing continue
4) Now go to S-1-5-18>ReadOnly>LockScreen_Z and replace the image with the same image you replaced in step 2, but remember to change your images file name to the one of the image your replacing. For example in step 2 it was called "img100" and this one the same image is now called "LockScreen___1920_1080" for me.
5) Now for the last one is in "C:WindowsWinSxS"
6) You will see tons of folders just use the search and search for 'img100" and when you find the correct image open the folder (right click>open file location) and replace img100 with your lockscreen image (once again make sure you keep the same file name so make sure your new lock screen says img100)
It seems like a lot to change the lock screen, but I had to change all of them to change that one setting
Start Screen: [URL] ......
Look at the bottom of this post under, "Programs to do these process for you", if you want a easier way.
3) Wait a second for it to popup and select your color
4) Alt+tab out or just press ctrl+shift+esc to bring up task manager
5) Kill msoobe.exe (it may be under Background Processes)
6) Restart explorer (cmd (or win+r)> tskill explorer)
Programs to do these process for you:I personally prefer to do manual edits, but I know some people do not or have a harder time so here are two programs I found that will change account picture and start screen. Then as a bonus it will also remove the activate water marks.
[URL]
Note: It did change the color (a simple registry edit), but it failed to change the start screen for me.
bought a new pc with windows 8 this week. set it up yesterday all worked fine, was on it again today - i uninstalled the crappy free trial anti-virus software that came with the computer and turned on windows defender. i was prompted to update software which i did. i turned the computer off and came back to it later.
when i turn the computer on now, it gets stuck at the lock screen. the mouse and keyboard do not work. the light is initially on the keyboard for a split second when first turn the computer on, then it goes away. the mouse is lit up but does not move. i have tried adding a second keyboard, or replacing the keyboard completely. also tried using a different mouse, it still gets stuck at the lock screen.
i have also tried pressing F8 when computer is booting up but it does not register it. i have tried to put in the windows 8 recovery CD - but this does not load.
i have obviously tried to reboot the computer several times etc.
I can't seem to find any way to lock my start screen once I get my apps organized and just the way I want them. Is there no way to lock your apps so that they can't be rearranged by someone? If not then that seems like a glaring omission. I spend a great deal of time arranging it and then my three year old comes along and messes it all up. I would like to prevent this. I know I can create a user password and just not let any use on it.
Since upgrading to 8.1 I have started going directly to the Start Screen from the Lock Screen. Before in Windows 8, I went to Desktop. I have my taskbar at the bottom of Desktop which contains all the icons I want to access and it means now I am going back to Desktop from the Start. How can I organize my laptop that I don't directly to Start Screen from Lock Screen but go to Desktop?
Today I changed my language options and happened to come across a BSOD. When I restarted, I found out that the input language for my password has also been changed, and my usual key combination for changing languages does not work. Thus, I cannot enter my password to change my language back to English. find a way to change the input language on the login screen?.
Is there a way to change the default lock screen settings so that it displays on all monitors? For example, I have a triple monitor setup. When I hit Win + L, the lock screen only shows on the middle screen... I'd love for it to show on all three screens if possible.
I have followed this tutorial to have my account lock after 15 minutes, and it does not work. The account stays open for as long as the computer is on, which is extremely frustrating. This is the biggest thing I hate about Windows 8. Why has this important security/privacy feature been overlooked?
Just had this new laptop running windows 8 and its an Acer.When I select the photos tile on the screen it goes to another screen which is black with a blue square icon and underneath it tells me that there are no files or folders in this view.There are photos in my picture folder as I just put then in.But if I go to the other method and select the My picture folder the photos are there.
I have recently installed windows updates and after restart the black screen occurred after I typed my password. About five days before that I have reinstalled my Mobile Intel 4 series driver and now in Device manager it shows 3 grayed out monitors which were installed when I have reinstalled the Video driver. The monitor driver that Is currently loaded was installed when I installed the OS itself.
