u/Mellie-mellow

So I work for an MSP, so I see the infrastructure of many different companies every day.

Well, in the past 7 days, I’ve seen three very similar issues with Windows 11 computers.

Mind you, the three PCs were all different brands: one Dell, one Lenovo, and the last one was an Asus (non-business model, I believe).

They all came from completely different environments, but all were using local users only.

So people call me because they get to the login page, and no matter which user they sign into, they end up with a black screen and only a mouse cursor. No taskbar, and no way to launch explorer.exe because Ctrl+Alt+Delete doesn’t respond, even though the mouse still works. I also tried Win+Ctrl+Shift+B with no success, and Win+R didn’t work either.

I managed to fix the Dell by holding the power button for 15 seconds, then powering it back on after a few seconds. That worked on this one, and the issue never came back.

Now for the Asus, I wasn’t able to do much. I managed to get the user into Safe Mode, but from there I couldn’t do much remotely. I restored the system to a point before the issue, which worked… until the next reboot. That gives me the feeling it may be update-related.

Again, both of these were remote sessions, so I was limited in what I could do without physical access or a working connection on the machine.

I’m supposed to get the Asus tomorrow or something like that.

Now today I have a ThinkCentre doing the exact same thing, except this one doesn’t even reach the login screen, it goes straight to a black screen with a mouse cursor. I’m going to see it tomorrow, but has anyone else been seeing something similar recently?

It feels like an update gone wrong since it’s happening on multiple computers in different environments within a short period of time, but I’m not sure yet.

If you’ve experienced this recently, have you found the cause yet?

Edit: Just in case it’s not too clear, I’m not really looking for help solving this or for suggestions on how to fix it, even though I truly appreciate everyone trying to help. I already understand that the issue is likely rooted in Explorer and/or the graphics driver.

The reason I’m posting is mostly to know if I’m the only one who has seen this issue appear more frequently over the past week. I’m wondering if that could help point toward the actual source of the problem so I can better understand what’s causing it, rather than just applying a quick fix without knowing why it happened in the first place.

Anyway, thank you all for your time <3

So I work for an MSP, so I see the infrastructure of many different companies every day.

Well, in the past 7 days, I’ve seen three very similar issues with Windows 11 computers.

Mind you, the three PCs were all different brands: one Dell, one Lenovo, and the last one was an Asus (non-business model, I believe).

They all came from completely different environments, but all were using local users only.

So people call me because they get to the login page, and no matter which user they sign into, they end up with a black screen and only a mouse cursor. No taskbar, and no way to launch explorer.exe because Ctrl+Alt+Delete doesn’t respond, even though the mouse still works. I also tried Win+Ctrl+Shift+B with no success, and Win+R didn’t work either.

I managed to fix the Dell by holding the power button for 15 seconds, then powering it back on after a few seconds. That worked on this one, and the issue never came back.

Now for the Asus, I wasn’t able to do much. I managed to get the user into Safe Mode, but from there I couldn’t do much remotely. I restored the system to a point before the issue, which worked… until the next reboot. That gives me the feeling it may be update-related.

Again, both of these were remote sessions, so I was limited in what I could do without physical access or a working connection on the machine.

I’m supposed to get the Asus tomorrow or something like that.

Now today I have a ThinkCentre doing the exact same thing, except this one doesn’t even reach the login screen, it goes straight to a black screen with a mouse cursor. I’m going to see it tomorrow, but has anyone else been seeing something similar recently?

It feels like an update gone wrong since it’s happening on multiple computers in different environments within a short period of time, but I’m not sure yet.

If you’ve experienced this recently, have you found the cause yet?

Edit: Just in case it’s not too clear, I’m not really looking for help solving this or for suggestions on how to fix it, even though I truly appreciate everyone trying to help. I already understand that the issue is likely rooted in Explorer and/or the graphics driver.

The reason I’m posting is mostly to know if I’m the only one who has seen this issue appear more frequently over the past week. I’m wondering if that could help point toward the actual source of the problem so I can better understand what’s causing it, rather than just applying a quick fix without knowing why it happened in the first place.

Anyway, thank you all for your time <3