I just got my new PC today, and in my excitement, I did something really silly. I changed my lock screen to an unstable image, thinking it would work, but now I'm stuck! When I logged out to see my new lock screen, all I got was a black screen with a loading cursor. I've tried rebooting it several times, but the screen remains black. Is there any way to fix this?
6 Answers
As a system admin, I’d say to first power down the PC completely by unplugging it. Then plug it back in and power it on, holding the power button until the circle spins. Do this three times and watch for 'preparing automatic repair'. After that, when you see the blue screen, choose troubleshoot and reset your PC. If you don’t need any files, choose to remove everything and go for a cloud download.
Honestly, maybe just consider returning the PC for a full refund. Not everyone should be handling computers, you know? Just stick to simpler devices like iPads.
Can you start your PC in safe mode? That might let you bypass the black screen issue and fix the lock screen image.
Have you thought about using system restore? If you're not sure how, I can help you out. You may need to get into recovery mode through BIOS if system restore isn’t accessible from where you're at.
I couldn’t access system restore as I get taken to the black screen immediately. What’s recovery mode anyway?
So here’s the deal: it sounds like the image you set is causing a known issue where Windows is stuck trying to load it. You’ll want to boot into recovery mode and then into safe mode so you can change that lock screen back. To get into safe mode, try interrupting your boot sequence three times to trigger recovery mode.
I don’t know how to get to recovery mode if I can't see anything except a loading cursor.
Oh man, that’s a bummer. If you can, try pressing a key to bring up the password input and see if you can log in that way. If you do get in, just switch your lock screen back to a default one.
I tried that but still just got a black screen and the loading cursor after entering my password.
I can't figure out how to get into safe mode with just a black screen.