Black screen with cursor when booting windows 10 first time with bootcamp

I recently came into possession of a Late 2012 iMac 27" with 2.9 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core I5 processor, 32GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M 512 MB graphics, and 1TB hard drive running macOS Catalina. I need Windows 10 so I used Boot Camp Assistant and got a Windows 10 ISO from the Microsoft website. I plugged in a 16GB USB and checked all the boxes and I let it do its thing. After about an hour and a half or so it finally finished loading and started to restart into Windows 10. It asked me to choose the language, region, and where I wanted to install Windows on my hard drive. I chose the partition that said "BOOTCAMP" as per Apple's instructions. After I did that Windows goes ahead and goes to the loading screen where it tells you it is getting Windows features and whatnot. Then it says it needs to restart. After restarting, the blue Windows logo appears and there are little white loading dots going in circles beneath it. Then the Windows logo goes away while the loading dots continue for a bit. Then I faintly see the Windows logo again, then a blank screen with cursor. The cursor has a blue loading circle on it for a bit and re-centers to the middle. If I leave it alone the cursor disappears until I move the mouse again. I figured it was still loading in the background so I left it alone for a couple hours. After coming back to it, the screen was exactly the same as I left it. I decided to restart my computer and I pressed alt/option to start back up into Windows and the option is there, but I can't get past the blank screen with disappearing cursor. I thought maybe there was a problem with the install so I removed the Bootcamp Windows partition using Boot Camp Assistant and started the process all over again. I did this about 3 times with the same exact result. I tried booting Windows into safe mode (restarting while booting 3 times in a row), and there was no change. I tried booting into macOS with every keyboard combination possible and then booting into Windows and no change. I tried doing those steps but with a different wired keyboard and mouse and no change. I then thought that it might be a problem with my USB (the same USB I have used to install Bootcamp on other devices), so I used a different 64GB one, same result. I then thought that it might be a problem with my version of macOS so I downgraded all the way to Mountain Lion. That didn't work because Windows 10 was too new for it So I upgraded to High Sierra. Then Boot Camp Assistant said that the USB didn't have enough space on it. After some research I found that I should update my macOS so I upgraded to Mojave. Same result. I then figured that there was an issue with the Windows ISO, so I downloaded an older one (Version 1909) from https://tb.rg-adguard.net/public.php. I went through the whole process again for what seems like the 100th time, and I still get the same result: after Windows installs its features it restarts and I get a blank screen with a cursor that has a little blue loading circle on it (I guess the windows equivalent of the beach ball) and it resets every so often to the middle and disappears when the mouse isn't moved. I have no idea what to do at this point... Control alt delete doesn't work and booting into safe mode doesn't do anything. Now thinking that it is a problem with my iMac, I tried installing Windows with bootcamp on my personal Mid-2012 MacBook Air with 1.7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 processor, 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory, Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB. Sure enough, I get the exact same result. I have spent 4 days trying to make it work with my iMac and reading countless other forums and I haven't gotten anywhere. Please help!

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 16, 2021 10:22 AM

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Posted on Aug 5, 2021 12:23 PM

I solved the problem myself! From MacOS Sierra I manually put together an installer USB with the contents of a Windows 8.1 ISO and the boot camp drivers. Used BCA to just make the partition. Windows 8 booted with no problems and from there I upgraded to Windows 10 using another USB with the media creation tool. So far everything is working fine.

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33 replies

Jul 18, 2021 2:39 PM in response to Loner T

Selecting the orange Windows icon takes me through the Windows installation. After it gets the files ready for installation and installs features and updates, it says it needs to restart and after it restarts it has a Windows logo with spinning whites dots, then the Windows logo goes away, then the white dots go away and it asks me to choose an operating system. Both of them lead to the same blank screen.

Jul 17, 2021 7:59 AM in response to AppleUser2004

The files should in the directory where you currently are. Run


ls -lg


and post the output. It should match one of my earlier posts which has the listing.


ls -lg 
total 1584
drwxr-xr-x  148 staff    4736 Apr 10  2019 Display.Driver
drwxr-xr-x   52 staff    1664 Apr 10  2019 Display.NView
drwxr-xr-x    5 staff     160 Apr 10  2019 Display.Optimus
drwxr-xr-x    4 staff     128 Apr 10  2019 Display.Update
drwxr-xr-x    5 staff     160 Apr 10  2019 DisplayDriverCrashAnalyzer
-rw-r--r--    1 staff   26310 Apr  9  2019 EULA.txt
drwxr-xr-x   70 staff    2240 Apr 10  2019 GFExperience
drwxr-xr-x    8 staff     256 Apr 10  2019 GFExperience.NvStreamSrv
drwxr-xr-x   14 staff     448 Apr 10  2019 HDAudio
-rw-r--r--    1 staff  208683 Apr  9  2019 ListDevices.txt
drwxr-xr-x    6 staff     192 Apr 10  2019 MSVCRT
drwxr-xr-x    7 staff     224 Apr 10  2019 NGXCore
drwxr-xr-x   34 staff    1088 Apr 10  2019 NV3DVision
drwxr-xr-x   10 staff     320 Apr 10  2019 NV3DVisionUSB.Driver
drwxr-xr-x  112 staff    3584 Apr 10  2019 NVI2
drwxr-xr-x    9 staff     288 Apr 10  2019 NVWMI
drwxr-xr-x    6 staff     192 Apr 10  2019 NvAbHub
drwxr-xr-x   10 staff     320 Apr 10  2019 NvBackend
drwxr-xr-x   68 staff    2176 Apr 10  2019 NvCamera
drwxr-xr-x   15 staff     480 Apr 10  2019 NvContainer
drwxr-xr-x   14 staff     448 Apr 10  2019 NvTelemetry
drwxr-xr-x    9 staff     288 Apr 10  2019 NvVAD
drwxr-xr-x    7 staff     224 Apr 10  2019 NvvHCI
drwxr-xr-x    8 staff     256 Apr 10  2019 PPC
drwxr-xr-x    5 staff     160 Apr 10  2019 PhysX
drwxr-xr-x   43 staff    1376 Apr 10  2019 ShadowPlay
drwxr-xr-x   13 staff     416 Apr 10  2019 ShieldWirelessController
drwxr-xr-x    9 staff     288 Apr 10  2019 Update.Core
-rw-r--r--    1 staff   27203 Apr  9  2019 license.txt
drwxr-xr-x   39 staff    1248 Apr 10  2019 nodejs
-rw-r--r--    1 staff   51069 Apr  9  2019 setup.cfg
-rw-r--r--    1 staff  488648 Apr 10  2019 setup.exe

Jul 17, 2021 9:36 AM in response to AppleUser2004

The text file did not exist in the directory, but the picture you have shows the files you need. The contents of the nVidiaTest folder can now replace the contents of Driver -> nVidia -> nVidiaGraphics64 folder on your USB. Once you have them in place try to install Windows and test. You are not replacing the nVidiaGraphics64 folder itself, but it's contents as highlighted.


Jul 17, 2021 11:22 AM in response to AppleUser2004

  • Run BC Assistant and remove the existing partition for Bootcamp.
  • Disconnect all external peripherals, except Keyboard and Mouse/Trackpad.
  • Reset SMC and NVRAM.
  • Connect USB installer and re-run BCA and choose only the Install option, which should bring up the W10 installer.
  • Your installer should be a legacy BIOS installer. If you manually select the installer icon, do not choose EFI Boot. You must use the Windows icon from the USB, which is the BIOS installer.
  • Also, can you check the current EFI version on your iMac? See https://eclecticlight.co/2020/11/16/which-firmware-should-your-mac-be-using-version-5/ for reference.

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Black screen with cursor when booting windows 10 first time with bootcamp

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