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WinPE Black Screen After Boot Logo


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#1 Uneitohr

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Posted 10 March 2016 - 07:36 AM

I have a windows 10 PE, created with the help of this thread http://reboot.pro/to...-x64-usb-drive/

 

The ISO boots fine, I can see the windows 10 logo, but immediately after the logo the screen goes black and stays that way. No cursor, nu background image, nothing. It just stays there, and there's no activity either on my USB device.

 

On some computers it works fine and that's what I do not understand. Those that work have roughly the same configuration as those that do NOT work (x64 CPU, 4GB RAM).

 

What could be the cause of this? 

Thank you


Edited by Alexander Ceed, 10 March 2016 - 07:46 AM.


#2 Uneitohr

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Posted 10 March 2016 - 12:24 PM

Based on my research, I have been able to find this http://www.myitforum...9745-print.aspx

This states that if a machines does not support hardware DEP, then It will halt the boot process.

 

I have used the following code but did not do anything

bcdedit /store "H:\10_WinPE\winpe64\BOOT\BCD" /set {default} nx AlwaysOff

Aside from my original question at post #1, is this the correct way to disable DEP? Is there any better way that you can provide?



#3 Agent47

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Posted 10 March 2016 - 01:46 PM

Hi

 

I would suggest trying "WinPE 4.0" as it has better hardware compatibility than a Win10 based PE - or at least that's my personal experience. While i can boot "WinPE 4.0" on older systems and modern systems alike, i have trouble booting Win10PE on some modern machines. One particular example is Samsung laptops. A Win10 based PE won't boot on most of the Samsung laptops unless the WiFi card is physically removed. It's said to be a compatibility issue between Win10 and Samsung BIOS. There is a still active thread at Microsoft forums discussing it - http://answers.micro...5e9d991d?auth=1

 

On the other hand, my personal experience with "WinPE 4.0" is so far so good. It supports USB 3.0 and SecureBoot so i never had any real reason to prefer Win10PE.  



#4 Uneitohr

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Posted 10 March 2016 - 01:58 PM

I was thinking of trying WinPE 3.0 (Windows 7). I'm thinking it's better for older hardware.

How does it compare to 4.0 (Windows 8, as I understand)?


Edited by Alexander Ceed, 10 March 2016 - 02:03 PM.


#5 Uneitohr

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Posted 11 March 2016 - 12:27 PM

I've tried Windows 7 PE (PE 3.0) and it is the same situation. This time it freezes on the 7 boot logo. 

On one system it works but not on the other. 

 

Why is this happening?



#6 Agent47

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Posted 11 March 2016 - 01:00 PM

 

I've tried Windows 7 PE (PE 3.0) and it is the same situation. This time it freezes on the 7 boot logo. 

On one system it works but not on the other. 

 

Is it a laptop or desktop ?. Have you tried booting a bare born WinPE 3.0 or Windows 7 setup on that system ?.  If Windows setup also hangs at the logo screen, it could be either compatibility issue between the system and Win7  or some hardware problem (ie, RAM or HDD). 

 

Some of the newer laptops are not compatible with "Windows 7". They may either hang at boot logo or display BSOD message. I have also seen laptops which has OS selection option like the one below.

 

IMAG0099_1.jpg

 

The above screenshot is from an Asus laptop. Modern Lenovo laptops also have a similar option in BIOS .Selecting "Windows 7" will cause Windows 8/10 to halt/BSOD and selecting "Windows 8" will prevent "Windows 7" from booting.  Nowadays it's not possible to create a single PE boot disk which will support all Desktop/Laptops out there. My USB stick has two PE boot discs - one is based on WinPE 4.0 and the other is based on WinPE 3.1. As i said earlier, "WinPE 4.0" supports most systems and if it failed to boot, i will try "WinPE 3.1". If both PE discs failes to boot, i would start looking in to possible hardware failures. Most cases, it's the hard drive - that's my personal experience.


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#7 Uneitohr

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Posted 11 March 2016 - 08:54 PM

Have you tried booting a bare born WinPE 3.0 or Windows 7 setup on that system ?.

 

That's the thing, windows 7 setup works fine. Bare PE freezes.

 

Most cases, it's the hard drive - that's my personal experience.

 

I tried it with windows installed, and with all data wiped (no partition drive) and same thing. However, i did not try with another HDD or even without an HDD.

 

I'll also make a 4.0 PE and check it out on Monday. Thanks for the suggestions.



#8 Agent47

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Posted 12 March 2016 - 04:36 AM

 

 

That's the thing, windows 7 setup works fine. Bare PE freezes.

 

 

If "Windows 7" setup works fine, i don't think that there is it's a compatibility or hardware issue with the system. It might be the customization made to the PE which is causing issues. To rule out that, try booting an unmodified vanilla  WinPE 3.1.



#9 Uneitohr

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Posted 12 March 2016 - 11:01 AM

In WinPE 3.0 I've added the following:

dism /image:C:\MOUNT /add-package /PackagePath:"C:\Temp\PE\WinPE_OCs\WinPE-WMI.cab"
dism /image:C:\MOUNT /add-package /PackagePath:"C:\Temp\PE\WinPE_OCs\en-us\WinPE-WMI_en-us.cab"
dism /image:C:\MOUNT /add-package /PackagePath:"C:\Temp\PE\WinPE_OCs\WinPE-Scripting.cab"
dism /image:C:\MOUNT /add-package /PackagePath:"C:\Temp\PE\WinPE_OCs\en-us\WinPE-Scripting_en-us.cab"

Other than that, no modifications. Why would it cause trouble?


Edited by Alexander Ceed, 12 March 2016 - 11:01 AM.


#10 Agent47

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Posted 13 March 2016 - 04:39 AM

Hi

 

Adding scripting and WMI packages to a PE is less likely to cause any issues. If i remember correctly, those packages are included in "boot.wim" of Windows setup as well as the "WinRE.wim". After all, the Boot.wim is a WinPE so it doesn't make any sense to me why Windows setup boot.wim can successfully boot and why a standard WinPE can't. 

 

Btw, have you tried both x86 and x64 versions of WinPE 3.0 ?. 



#11 Uneitohr

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Posted 13 March 2016 - 10:26 AM

Yes, tried both x86 and x64.

To sum up the problem:

  • on PE 3.0, it freezes on the windows 7 logo
  • on PE 10, it freezes immediately after the windows 10 logo, a black screen with no cursor

 

Both PE contain only WinPE-WMI.cab and WinPE-Scripting.cab .

 

I'll try PE 4.0 on Monday. I'll keep this thread updated on my findings.

Thank you.



#12 Uneitohr

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Posted 28 March 2016 - 04:03 PM

I was so busy the last couple of weeks that i could not even make the PE, let alone test it.

Anyway, i tested PE 4.0 today, with the same components from here http://reboot.pro/to...e-40-usb-drive/

It has the same symptoms, works on some laptops but shows a black screen on the others. Can I assume there's something wrong with those laptops?


Edited by Alexander Ceed, 28 March 2016 - 04:05 PM.


#13 Uneitohr

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Posted 29 March 2016 - 07:34 AM

The other laptops that don't work do not have secure boot but have something called Trusted Module Protection (TPM). I'll make some more tests and see what I discover.

It works fine without the HDD. If I plug it back in, it shows the black screen.


Edited by Alexander Ceed, 29 March 2016 - 07:50 AM.


#14 Agent47

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Posted 29 March 2016 - 10:23 AM

 

 

It works fine without the HDD. If I plug it back in, it shows the black screen.

 

As i said earlier, a faulty hdd can prevent WinPE from booting. This may be due to bad sectors causing the file system corruption and hence Windows may stuck at the stage where mounting file systems and assigning drivers to the partitions.

 

However, the same issue should prevent Windows setup from successfully booting - at least that's my personal experience. Usually you won't be able to reach the partition screen if the disk is severely bad. But since you can successfully boot Windows setup and even install Windows, i am lost here.

 

http://reboot.pro/to...go/#entry198355

 

 

That's the thing, windows 7 setup works fine. Bare PE freezes.

 



#15 Uneitohr

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Posted 29 March 2016 - 01:08 PM

However, the same issue should prevent Windows setup from successfully booting - at least that's my personal experience. Usually you won't be able to reach the partition screen if the disk is severely bad. But since you can successfully boot Windows setup and even install Windows, i am lost here.

 

 

At work I have a WDS server which I use to deploy Windows to our machines. PXE WinPE works fine, and also DVD setup works fine. Which is why I am confused. Isn't the setup from the DVD the same as WinPE from WAIK/AIK/ADK?

I guarantee that the HDD is in perfect condition, check SMART table and also did an error Scan.



#16 cdob

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Posted 29 March 2016 - 05:42 PM

I guarantee that the HDD is in perfect condition, check SMART table and also did an error Scan.

Which hardware do you use?

WinPE 1 did freeze at booting given a strange partition layout.

Do you use preinstalled machines? Did the hardware manufacturer partiton and format the hard disk?
MBR or GPT layout?

As for testing: can you zero the MBR? can you zero the first 100 sectors?

#17 Uneitohr

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Posted 29 March 2016 - 08:36 PM

WinPE 1 did freeze at booting given a strange partition layout.

I think all PEs freeze at a strange layout. Tested this a while back on some HP ThinClients.

Do you use preinstalled machines?

Initially, all laptops where preinstalled. But we wiped them all out years ago and manually installed windows.

 

 

Anyway, I have tested the following:

  • wiped HDD with DBAN
  • wiped only the MBR with dd off Grub4DOS
  • loaded up a live windows and manually initialized it in MBR with NTFS format

 

None of these worked.

 

At first I thought it was my old error from here http://reboot.pro/to...s-is-installed/ which was solved by initializing the disk from inside an OS. Nothing worked except that. Never understood that either.


Edited by Alexander Ceed, 29 March 2016 - 08:37 PM.


#18 cdob

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Posted 29 March 2016 - 09:16 PM

Rather curious. A wiped hdd should have worked.

Which laptops do you use? Does exist a BIOS update?

#19 Uneitohr

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Posted 30 March 2016 - 01:11 PM

Which laptops do you use? Does exist a BIOS update? 

DELL Latitude 6320

DELL Latitude 4310

 

They have BIOS updates, I'll update them and will write the outcome here.



#20 Uneitohr

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Posted 11 April 2016 - 05:44 AM

I did not do the BIOS update yet but I've got some news regarding this.

It seems the PE disk boots fine if it is written to a CD. The only that does not work is when I boot the ISO through grub4dos from my USB stick.

 

This is the boot entry used in grub4dos:

iftitle [if exist /iso/winpe_3_x64.iso] WinPE 3.0 x64
map /iso/winpe_3_x64.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)  

Edited by Alexander Ceed, 11 April 2016 - 05:52 AM.


#21 Agent47

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Posted 11 April 2016 - 07:40 AM

Hi

 

Have you tried flat booting the WinPE instead of G4DOS iso ?. I mean, prepare the stick using DISKPART and copying the entire content of ISO to the stick ( as a test ).



#22 Uneitohr

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Posted 11 April 2016 - 07:57 AM

So we know that it works if:

  • the iso is burned to a cd/dvd
  • the iso is applied to USB using Rufus
  • manually extracting iso and preparing the USB using diskpart

 

It does NOT WORK if:

  • it is booted using grub4dos


#23 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 11 April 2016 - 12:51 PM

 

 

It does NOT WORK if:

  • it is booted using grub4dos

 

... IF using the given mounting/mapping method...

(in other words till now there is no proof that the issue is grub4dos, while it may be an issue of the used commands or of the specific grub4dos version or of the combination of those commands with the specific grub4dos version).

 

:duff:

Wonko



#24 Uneitohr

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Posted 11 April 2016 - 01:37 PM

... IF using the given mounting/mapping method...

 

I'm using Grub4DOS 0.4.6a, and have the entry written above.



#25 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 11 April 2016 - 04:44 PM

Good :).

Example questions:

  1. will it work when mapping to --mem? 
  2. or mapping to (0xff) drive instead of (hd32)? 
  3. is there a need (if possible at all) to do some re-mapping or forced mapping of the disk(s) with that particular DELL Bios?
  4. could it be a quirk of the "advanced/latest" GENERIC 0.4.6a series (that counts NUMBERLESS versions)?
  5. would one of the "more conservative" versions of the generic 0.4.5c series work?
  6. other? :w00t:

It is entirely possible (it happened more than once in the past) that a given specific BIOS is not compatible with a specific grub4dos version, which is identified by the "series" AND date, in some cases the reason has been found and the code corrected/changed to allow working, but some more details than "it doesn't work" are needed to (hopefully) find the root cause and find if possible a solution or workaround.

 

:duff:

Wonko






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