Black logon screen! HELP!

[Guest shollar]

Hi, I am running windows server 2003r2 x64 - all updates have been applied.

 

The server suddenly began presenting the logon screen with black text on

black background - does anyone have an idea how to resolve this?

 

The behavior does NOT occur on the screen saver unlock screen - it DOES

happen in terminal server logon screens too.

 

TIA to anyone that can help!

[Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Re: Black logon screen! HELP!

 

 

"shollar" <shollar@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:C649E271-6861-4E38-8F94-18EF3574E71C@microsoft.com...

> Hi, I am running windows server 2003r2 x64 - all updates have been

> applied.

>

> The server suddenly began presenting the logon screen with black text on

> black background - does anyone have an idea how to resolve this?

>

> The behavior does NOT occur on the screen saver unlock screen - it DOES

> happen in terminal server logon screens too.

>

> TIA to anyone that can help!

>

>

>

 

I would try a different monitor.

[Guest shollar]

Re: Black logon screen! HELP!

 

 

 

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

 

> I would try a different monitor.

>

>

>

 

not the monitor.

 

This also happens remotely when logging in to terminal services

[Guest shollar]

Re: Black logon screen! HELP!

 

 

 

"shollar" wrote:

>

>

> "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

>

>

> > I would try a different monitor.

> >

> >

> >

>

> not the monitor.

>

> This also happens remotely when logging in to terminal services

 

To clarify:

 

Once logged in, everything looks fine - I am able to log in because I know

the last username and can simply type the password - I can even see the logon

screens windows banner, but the background and all of the text fields are

black. I can login through TS if I prefill the username/password or if I

simply type them blind.

 

I have tried restoring the theme and desktop settings, but they only impact

the desktop.

 

Again, the unlock screen has the normal blue background.

 

Does anyone know how to change the background color for the login screen?

[Guest shollar]

RE: Black logon screen! HELP!

 

 

 

OK I found and fixed the problem!

 

I copied HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors from a working system

 

In the afflicted system, all values were set to 0

 

Try it if you ever want to blind the logon screen.

[Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Re: Black logon screen! HELP!

 

 

"shollar" <shollar@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:E8629AE5-2E98-4502-8EA7-A1C66A81A485@microsoft.com...

>

>

> OK I found and fixed the problem!

>

> I copied HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors from a working system

>

> In the afflicted system, all values were set to 0

>

> Try it if you ever want to blind the logon screen.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I now wonder how this could

have happened. Malware?

[Guest shollar]

Re: Black logon screen! HELP!

 

> Thanks for the feedback. I now wonder how this could

> have happened. Malware?

>

>

 

Well, there is some more background - but I can't imagine how it's related.

 

The problem began while repairing the domain. Our only AD controller

crashed and burned. The weird logon screen happened to the terminal server.

 

To recover, we created a new directory, using the terminal server as the

PDC. After rebuilding the original DC, we demoted the TS system to a backup.

Shortly after demoting the system I noticed the black logon screen.

 

These details didn't seem to apply to resolving the problem, but I imagine

there might have been some impact between promoting the stand-alone server to

PDC then downgrading it right away.

 

Oh yeah, there was also a directory sync failure somewhere in there along

with a DNS issue. I believe the demotion happened before the DNS issue was

fixed.

 

Of course, none of that SHOULD have damaged the default color settings, but

it's the only possibility I can think of.

 

Anyway - thanks for your help. Believe it or not, your monitor question and

my response made me think in a different direction. I was stuck on this

thing for over 2 months now.

[Guest Simone]

RE: Black logon screen! HELP!

 

Yeah i had this issue aswell and solved it using the same article.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=906510

 

"shollar" wrote:

>

>

> OK I found and fixed the problem!

>

> I copied HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors from a working system

>

> In the afflicted system, all values were set to 0

>

> Try it if you ever want to blind the logon screen.