Sometimes for no apparent reason Windows 8 will only load so far and there will be a black screen sometimes with a cursor, this is also know as KSOD

Scenario

• You get a black screen when you boot normally
• you also get the blackscreen when you boot with safe-mode and the other variants of startup.
• The PC seems to load almost until the login screen
• Also, when you run system restore form the 'recovery console'/dart tools you get an error saying it caannot do a restore because a file is in use. I have tried several restore points.

From the Recovery Console

• chkdsk - issues found
• sfc /scannow - issues found
• I ran the system restore again which still did not work
• subinacl does not run in the console

Followup

All the information points to it being an issue with anitvirus and that you should disable this or remove it. This would be ok but i cannot even access windows in safe mode to disable/remove the AV. I will considering manually deleting/moving the av folder in program files.

I am convinced it is a KSOD style issue and is a permmissions thing.

Resetting Permissions

icacls

icacls * /T /Q /C /RESET   (this is present in the windows 8 recovery console)

• 1/3 were processed but 2/3 failed, kept on saying file not found or access denied
• windows will not boot
• this wipes the system restore points

secedit

Try restoring the permissions using:

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db

does not exist in the recovery console

Try this !!

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
pause
sfc /scannow
pause

You can apparently use DSIM to restore system files when SFC will not work. I have not used it.

Search the KB for 'Issue with Dism/Online/Cleanup-Image/RestoreHealth (instead of sfc)'

Process Overview

So far I have not found a resolution to this issue.