Black screen on desktop

I’m running into a bit of a snag here. My HPG62 laptop was working perfectly fine just a little while ago, but now I’ve hit a wall. Everything seems to be running in the background—I can hear the startup sounds and the usual notification pings once the icons load—but the desktop itself is just a total black screen. It’s like the system is awake, but I’m staring at nothing. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this, I’d really appreciate the help!

So everything seems to be running fine, except there's no wallpaper, just a black screen? I guess... is your Windows actually activated?

Jack James65 said:So everything seems to be working fine, it just doesn't have a wallpaper—like, the screen is just solid black? Is your Windows activated?

I hear the startup sound when I log into the desktop, but everything is totally black. No icons, nothing at all... I restarted it a few times and then things seemed okay. Then, while I was on a Skype call with my girlfriend, a massive network window popped up on my laptop and then the screen went black again. I had to restart once more, and now it’s behaving.
If you guys have any ideas, please let me know. Do you think it might help if I ran a system cleanup? The last time I did one was back in June.

http://http//i60.tinypic.com/j7amnr.jpg
Here’s a screenshot from HW Monitor. Let me know if you see anything in here that looks worrying.

Arthur Ramirez20 said:http://i60.tinypic.com/j7amnr.jpg
Here's a screenshot from HW Monitor, so just let me know if anything looks actually concerning here.

Nah, those temperatures are pretty standard for a laptop. I guess I have the exact same processor in my machine too. :3

Arthur Ramirez20 said:I hear this weird sound when I boot up to the desktop, but then everything just goes black. No icons, nothing... I tried restarting it a few times and it seemed fine for a bit, but then I was on Skype with my girlfriend and suddenly a massive network window popped up on my laptop before the screen went dark again. Had to reboot once more, and now it’s acting okay...
If you have any ideas, let me know.. You think maybe running some cleanup software would help? It hasn't been touched since June.

Try pulling the battery out of the laptop and unplugging it from the wall. Hold down the power button for like 30 to 60 seconds, then put the battery back in and try booting it up again.

I actually pulled my battery out a long time ago since it finally reached the end of its life, so I honestly doubt that's going to make any difference at this point.

So, I just tried playing a video series on YouTube, and everything was fine for a few minutes until this weird grid pattern suddenly flashed across my desktop. The whole thing just froze up, and my laptop started making this strange buzzing sound. I had to do a hard restart just to get things moving again. My amateur guess? It might be an issue with the graphics card. Then again, I’m definitely no expert when it comes to troubleshooting laptop hardware.

Arthur Ramirez20 said:So I just started watching a series on YouTube, right? It worked for a few minutes and then this weird grid pattern appeared over my desktop, everything froze up, and my laptop started making this strange buzzing noise. I pretty much had to force a restart... My amateur guess is maybe it’s the graphics card. Then again, I'm probably not an expert when it comes to troubleshooting laptop issues.

Hmm. Could be... or maybe it's just a driver issue. What kind of sounds were we talking about, and what did this "grid" look like?

So, I tried disabling the integrated graphics and then toggled it back on, and suddenly everything seems fine again... hmmm, weird as hell, honestly.
Anyway, he's heading in for a professional cleaning and a fresh install of Windows soon.

What am I even supposed to make of this message?
http://i61.tinypic.com/spdceh.jpg
And here is what popped up on my screen last night

Maybe try doing a clean reinstall of your NVIDIA High-Definition Graphics driver.

Man, if I could just figure out which graphics card I'm actually running and which specific drivers I need, things would be a whole lot easier 🙂
Anyway, let me know if you have a moment to help me out 😁

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...=4221409#N1260

Just download the driver.
NVIDIA High-Definition Graphics driver

Should I go ahead and uninstall the current version before doing that?

That’s right—just head into your Control Panel, go to "Uninstall a Program," and find those ATI graphics drivers to wipe them out. Make sure you give your laptop a full restart afterward, too. Once that's done, just follow the link Noah Miller6 shared with you, download the installer, and you should be all set...

So, I went ahead and installed everything just like you all suggested, and honestly, it’s running smoothly so far without any hiccups. Thanks so much for the help!