OptiPlex 7050, Windows 10, after login, black screen with mouse cursor

Here is an old thread from the tenforums.com. Maybe something in there will apply to yours and fix it. I notice one thing is to disable fast startup. 

https://www.tenforums.com/windows-updates-activation/44612-black-screen-cursor.html

We are also experiencing this exact same issue. We have a case open with Microsoft but getting no where. It has to be an issue with the latest Dell OEM Windows 10 image, just like HP had the issue with their OEM image back in September/October 2017.

I doubt that its the Dell "OEM" OS version.  In the link I provided to the tenforums.com and the problem one of the users had an older Gateway with the free, direct from Microsoft, Win 10 upgrade.  

Did you find a solution as I am having the same problem on the same brand of PCs, Dell Optiplex 7050 Windows 10 64-bit

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@mjh_smileitwrote:

Hoping someone here has run into the same issue. I have installed 3 OptiPlex 7050's this week and have run into the same issue on all of them.

 

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Strange.

As a favor to a client, we just installed two workstations consisting of OptiPlex-5050-SFF and Ultra-Sharp 24in monitors (via DP).
- Ethernet LAN (behind a nice but really just a residential-class router)
- with AT&T Uverse fiber broadband
- Peer-to-Peer Workgroup (no server). They mainly use the Cloud.
- Local Accounts (a single password-protected one as Admin)
- Network printers (with fixed IPs)
- Fast-Startup left on.

We just un-boxed them onsite, uninstalled old-machines, setup network stuff, migrated some local data-files, and ran Windows-Update.

The only issues we had were:
- Finding, Installing, and Activating the  Dell-purchased Office-2016 licenses was a little weird (requires a Microsoft Account)
- WSD Printer Service sometimes installed wrong driver for giant Xerox 7835 (but we found a work-around).
The customer was only vaguely made aware of these issues and we just kinda worked through it as normal.

They love them and everything has been working smooth. With the Intel-i5/8gb/PCIe-SSD they are quiet and crazy fast.
One is shut-down every evening and the other mostly stays On and just wakes/sleeps.
We have other work sessions scheduled over the coming weeks to tackle other network changes.
How is this different from what you did? Is there an actual Windows Server at your site?

Note: You can't access the sight of the desktop icons, taskbar or other system inner boxes due to the black screen. Only disabling  App Readiness fixed this for me.  Setting App Readiness to manual or either Automatic mode did  not help.  In the run box type msconfig.
Go to Services tab and disable App Readiness. (uncheck all except App Readiness and then tap disable button)

So first, you need to get rid of such blind situation. Here's how to make it:

Step 1. Press shortcut keys Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the Task Manager.

Step 2. Click the File menu and select the Run new task.

Step 3. Type Explorer.exe into the box.

Step 4. Check the Create this task with administrative privileges option.

Step 5. Hit the Enter key.

If you still fail to access to the desktop, try entering the Safe Mode

Step 1. Shut down by hold the power button and then repeat this over 3 times until you see the Recovery screen.

Step 2. Click the buttons See advanced repair options> Troubleshoot> Advanced options> Windows Startup Settings> Restart.

Step 3. Press F4/F5 to Enter Safe Mode (with Networking).

Now you may see the desktop screen on your computer.
Then follow the workarounds below to fix the black screen with cursor problem.

If you still fail to see the desktop screen then try this method to bring back the display and fix the black screen with cursor .

Step 1. Use shortcuts Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.

Step 2. Go to the Services tab.

Step 3. Right-click the AppReadiness service and select Stop.

Step 4. If the black screen disappears and the desktop shows up, then open your browser Edge, IE, Chrome, etc.) and search proper patches from your computer brand official site.

Step 5. Install the patch and reboot the computer.

Step 6. Launch Run and type into services.msc.

Step 7. Double-click the App Readiness service.

Step 8. Select the Manual from the drop-down menu of Startup type.

Step 9. Click the Start button and click the Apply button and the OK button.

Step 10. Restart the computer

The registry for each user account and administrator account can be set up to start a user-specific shell. There are three keys that must be set up. The first two are generic for all users. There are "Key1," "Key2," and "Key3" for simplicity.

Key1 is a string value. When Windows starts, Key1 is called and the default Windows shell is started. However, if the default value is changed to USR:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon, Windows looks in the HKEY_Current_User key to start a specific shell for the user logging on. If the specific user shell is not found, Key2 is called and a default shell is started.

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\system.ini\boot\Shell

Type: REG_SZ

Value: SYS:Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Key2 provides a default shell if the user shell application cannot be found. When you select a shell component for a Microsoft Windows configuration, Key 2 is set up to the shell application as the default shell.

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell

Type: REG_SZ

Value: Explorer.exe (or this can be a different default application)

Key3 sets up a shell for the current user or logged-on user. Thus, the only way to change a particular user's shell is to log on to the user account and create this registry entry.

Key: HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell

Type: REG_SZ

Value: **c:\windows\system32\**account shell.exe, where account shell.exe is the name of the application

How It Works

When the user logs on, Windows uses Key1 to determine which key holds the shell information. Normally, Windows uses Key2 next. However, if the value of Key1 is changed to USR:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon, Windows will use Key3 for the user logging on to start the user's specific shell.

Changing the registry key values in a system with a registry already set up is fairly straightforward. The challenge is how to do this in Windows XP Embedded, where the registry is set up during the First Boot Agent (FBA) process.

HKLM keys can be set up in Target Designer because they are computer specific. Setting up the HKCU keys, however, is impossible in Target Designer because the accounts will not be created until after FBA runs. The user account and administrator account components create only the accounts, user names, and passwords. These components cannot be used to set up a specific shell.

The trick to making different shells for different users in Windows is in the setup. There are a few components that need to be part of the configuration so that Key3 can be set up for the user's account:

• Windows Logon. Because different accounts will be part of the image, Windows Logon (Standard) is a required component for the configuration. Windows Logon supports the ability to log on to different accounts locally and remotely. By contrast, the Minlogon component supports only logon to a single administrator account.
• Two User Account components. Two computer accounts are required at a minimum; at least one account must be an administrator account. The User Account component can be set up to be an administrator account through the Extended Properties page. When a user account is set up as an administrator account, it replaces the generic "Administrator" account, just as in other versions of Windows. Because of the elimination of the administrator account, you may want to consider using two instances of the User Account component. You can set up one component as an administrator (which will have the administrator shell), and you can set up the other component as a regular user (which will have the system shell).
• Automatic Logon. Most original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) want their systems to start directly in the application. The Automatic Logon component can be added to the configuration to start directly in the user account, whose shell will be the system's application.
• Default Shell. Windows comes with several shells: Explorer, Task Manager, and Command. You can also create a custom shell. A shell component is required in the configuration. When you select a shell component for the configuration, the shell will be the default shell for the Windows image.

Nope, just re-installing Windows 10 from Microsoft (not the Dell image) and that seems to fix the issue. Not a good solution at all.

Tesla1856 -- in our experience this is happening only when there's an actual server and the new PC is joined to the Active Directory domain and then logged in with a domain user. Again, across various domains (someone without anything custom, etc.) so this isn't just an issue with a certain domain policy, etc. causing the problem.

Re-installing Windows 10 from Microsoft's image (instead of Dell's) and then following the exact same process of joining it to the same domain and logging in with a domain user no longer has the issue. So it has to be something in the Dell OEM Windows 10 image.

Disabling or setting App Readiness to manual doesn't solve the issue. That causes other issues with Windows 10 apps/store not working.

I'm not sure what the part about the Windows shell has to do with the issue, can you give us further details on how that relates?

Hi,

I tend to agree here as this issue was also reported on the HP forums and there was a bit of a spat between MS and HP as to who was to blame for the issue. In the HP case, installing from MS media and not the OEM image resolved the issue for them as well. This leads me to think there is something with the OEM issue that is causing this issue... be it the mentioned registry keys etc who knows.

Thanks,

Matt

Hi All,

Thanks for all your input and suggestions on this issue. For us the black screen behaviour after login only occurs when the machines are NOT joined to a domain. It only happens with local profiles. I have not tested with Microsoft accounts. All domain joined machines are working as expected.

CTRL+ALT+DEL does bring up the task manager but killing and starting explorer does not resolve the issue. The only fix/workaround is disabling the App Readiness Service to get past this issue however that causes all sorts of issues with the users profile such as any inbuilt apps (which all rely on the store) to no longer function, eg calculator no longer works. Starting the service once the user is logged in is fine but when they shutdown or reboot the issue happens again and all the user sees is a black desktop with the mouse cursor.

Something else I have noticed but this seems to be with all new machines (laptops, desktops, surface pro etc) is the initial offline account creation when you first setup the machine always works. Subsequent local accounts take a long time to login for the first time with the message stating: "Its taking longer than expected..." not sure if this is due to the latest version of Windows 10 but I was wondering if there was some correlaton with App Readiness causing the delay.

I have ensured the machines are fully up to date with all patches installed (Patches that are supposed to fix this issue) but this has not resolved the problem.

I have not reinstalled windows from scratch on any of the machines we have had issues with as of yet as we have gotten users up and running and they are able to work. I have not reached out to Dell directly about the issue, figured I would try the community for a fix as we are the ones working on these machines day-to-day.

Regards,

Matt

Matt,

I agree with that. This seems to be almost identical to the reported HP issues with their OEM image from around September 2017. Microsoft finally said that it was an issue with HP's OEM image creating "incorrect registry keys" that conflicted with the App Readiness service.

It doesn't seem to be the same registry keys with Dell though...I looked through every article and post I could find about the HP issue and most of the registry keys mentioned don't exist on our PCs with Dell's OEM image.

All signs point to Dell's OEM image. I have a case open with Microsoft's Windows 10 engineering team and Dell ProSupport. Dell ProSupport verified they aren't aware of any issues and beyond that recommended re-installing Windows, but no real troubleshooting from them. Microsoft has collected a lot of logs and traces, but so far hasn't come back with any solution.

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@rrosati-totalsolutions.comwrote:

1. Tesla1856 -- in our experience this is happening only when there's an actual server and the new PC is joined to the Active Directory domain and then logged in with a domain user. Again, across various domains (someone without anything custom, etc.) so this isn't just an issue with a certain domain policy, etc. causing the problem.

2. Re-installing Windows 10 from Microsoft's image (instead of Dell's) and then following the exact same process of joining it to the same domain and logging in with a domain user no longer has the issue. So it has to be something in the Dell OEM Windows 10 image.

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1. Right, no Domain Server at this office. Only one Local User Account was ever setup. Also, I don't use Dell Command. I tend to go light and lean on Dell drivers. 

2. Well. sounds like you have a handle on it.Luckily it only takes a short while to reinstall with SSD. Remember, you might also be shedding some other (I think un-necessary) Dell pre-loaded stuff.

We took one of their old Win-7 OptiPlex-9020. Upgraded to SSD, and clean-installed Windows-10 Pro (64bit) and it's previously assigned Office-2013. No Dell drivers. Runs great (better than when it was new 5 years ago). The guys took it back today and installed it as a new station for the Temps.

The office women again told them ... they LOVE their new OptiPlex-5050 SFF's and UltraSharps. Really no problems or weird stuff since we installed them (hope I'm not jinx-ing it) :Indifferent: :Smile:

I have encountered the exact same set of circumstances with a pair of Optiplex 3050 systems. Slow to create a new user profile, and periodically (although infrequently) black screen with a cursor after logging into Windows. Sometimes stopping the app readiness services snaps the PC out of it and lets the explorer start but more often then not it doesn't. I'm guessing there's still no official word on this one?

Hi All,

Another update on this issue. I deployed 10 new machines for a client this week, OptiPlex 7050's again (standard desktop we deploy for all clients, specs vary). I went through the normal setup steps and created a local admin account when turning on the machine for the first time and updated windows fully, ran Dell Command Update and installed all available updates. Installed Office 2016 and basic software under the local admin account. A couple of reboots through the initial setup phase and all working well.

Next step was to join the machine(s) to AzureAD, this went as expected but I did notice the delay in creating the new user account with the usual message This is taking longer than expected... it does login as the user after about 10 min and you can work as normal. However, if you reboot then the next login = Black screen with mouse cursor. If you wait for about 20 - 30 minutes the desktop eventually appears... The only way to get the desktop to appear quickly is to stop the App Readiness service... this gets the user into the account but the built in windows apps do not work (no calculator etc).

This issue is getting to be a real problem!!! No official word from Dell and no fixes. Apparently this should have been resolved by a MS patch but I can say this it has not been resolved at all. HP has a patch that solves the issue for their OEM image but no such solution from Dell. The registry keys mentioned in the HP fix are not present (HP fix is to delete the keys) so thats not much help anyways.

This issue is due to the Dell OEM image and issues with Microsoft / Patching. I can say this wiyth certaintity as I downloaded Windows 10 from Microsoft and created a USB and installed WIndows 10 from scratch and went through the same setup process and we have not run into the issue with the black screen with cursor.

I have not had this issue so far on any Latitudes... I say so far because I have only installed 2 laptops recently and they have not had this issue but EVERY 7050 has had this issue.

SOLUTION

1. Browse to https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows10

2. Download the media creation tool and create a USB

3. Go to dell.com and go to the support section, browse by product and select OptiPlex 7050. Download all drivers and applications and save these to the USB in s sub folder.

4. Boot the OptiPlex and press F2 to go into the BIOS

• Go to System Configuration and change SATA operation to AHCI (Default is RAID, if you dont do this then when you boot into the setup you wont be able to detect the drive)
• Turn off Secure Boot
• Save and reboot

5. Press F12 to get to the boot menu

6. Boot from your USB key

7. Follow the process of installing Windows, select Custom and delete all existing partitions

8. Install Windows 10 and go through initial setup

9. Copy the drivers folder to the machine and install all drivers

10. Install all available windows updates

11. Create additional accounts / join domain / join AzureAD

Its a pity you have to do a fresh install on the machines but with SSD this only takes 15 min or so, just an extra step you have to plan for.

Hope the above steps help anyone out there who has run into the issue. **bleep** if you have already spent time setting up a machine when you run into the issue though.

Matt