Forum Discussion
Azure Virtual Desktop - Black Screens on logins - What we've tried so far
TLDR - Azure Virtual Desktop Black Screens. Could be 2 Min long, could be much longer. Tried removing stuck profiles, spun up all new VMs to see if that would fix it, finally disabled an application service that was polluting the Event logs constantly with appcrashes. Hoping that maybe the event logs weren't able to keep up so we had a black screen while events caught up. Grasping at straws.
We started getting reports of black screens when users login to one of our AVD Host Pools. Our users are using FSLogix for profiles, but we've also seen the issue when logging via RDP with a local admin account. We tested and saw similar results where you login, FSLogix Prompt goes by, then to Preparing Windows, then black screen.
- In a normal login, this black screen will last 10-20 seconds before desktop comes available and user can begin their session.
- With this issue, we were seeing black screens that just stayed there until you forced a logout of your account.
We saw some profile issues with the VMs in the pool appearing to be stuck on a VM when it should be removed upon logoff with FSLogix and we saw some stuck local_username FSLogix profiles still in the users folder. Instead of finding the needle in a haystack, we spun up a new group of VMs and put the others in drain mode / excluded.
With the new VMs, logins from RD Client were working fine yesterday afternoon, evening and this AM. But later in the morning, we saw some issues with users getting a black screen lasting 90 sec - 2 min before desktop loaded in. I had it happen to me when logging in, but it seemed to go away once I tried a couple more times. I even directly RDPd into the host that I had the 2 min black screen for me and was able to get in quickly. So issue appears to still be showing, but not as bad.
We looked in event logs and saw that one particular application - the Aspen Multicase Web service was polluting the service event logs with appcrash errors every few seconds. So we've disabled that application service on all the VMs in the pool and logins have been normal since. We read event logs that were event 4625 (failed login) but the event said event logs couldn't keep up and needed to stop duplicate events...so we were thinking that this service was constantly writing to event logs, could the slow logins happen when the service is trying to run, failing and writing to event logs. the logs wouldn't be able to write the login info.
But every other change we made things seem fine afterward for a while, but then the black screen will come back for at least 90sec - 2 min.
Any suggestions on things we can try / look at that could be causing this?
Still not fixed for us, going on 5 months and MS support hasn't done much but ask for logs then disappear for several days before giving us an answer they need more logs. Then we were told the February 25 Preview update would have fixes for our state repository database and should fix the issues. It didnt we have applied the new update and the issues with black screens STILL persist on Windows 11. Over 5 MONTHS and nothing new for an answer....that is unacceptable in my book, but MS support doesnt seem to care that much.
We found this issues occuring for us those VM Patched before October. We installed latest November patch and all Okay now.
You can worth try it
Thanks for the reply dit-chris and mgorton but I was not being able to test this because today we find out that Microsoft silently pushed out more information for a possible SSO issue fix. See: https://support.microsoft.com/topic/kb5048864-avd-users-might-experience-extended-time-on-a-black-screen-during-logon-and-sso-failures-7c1bbe77-ab9c-4c9e-80b8-6d6a9a5c8c20?preview=true
They also changed it now to resolved and mention that this is the resolution on this page... https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/status-windows-10-22H2#avd-users-might-experience-extended-black-screen-during-logon-and-sso-failures
So basically they want us to create a new golden image and slipstream the preview patch KB5045594 and then deploy new AVD servers.
We are now testing option 1 on our test server. Please let me know if this is working for you guys?
Option 1: Re-image the affected device
Follow these steps to create a new custom image by using the latest "Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session, Version 22H2" gallery image from the Azure Marketplace:
- Go to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. In the Search Marketplace search bar, type Microsoft Windows 10.
- On the Microsoft Windows 10 page, click Get It Now.
- Sign-in once you are prompted to enter your email address.
- On the Create this app in Azure page, select Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session, version 22H2 from the Software plan drop-down list.
- After selecting the image, click Create to create a new virtual machine.
- Follow these steps on the Create a golden image in Azure page:
- Create an image from an Azure VM to create the custom image.
- Customize your VM and then install the October 24, 2024 Windows Update (KB5045594).
- Take the final snapshot.
- Run sysprep.
- Capture the VM.
- You can now reimage your affected AVD device by using the newly created custom image from Step 6.
NOTE If you want an image that includes the fix KB5045594 for this issue, you will have to wait until November 19, 2024 to reimage your device (to avoid step 6).
we skipped all patches since August, and we are now testing November Patch which looks go so far. November 12, 2024—KB5046613 (OS Builds 19044.5131 and 19045.5131)
Same with us, but we are running VMWare Horizon with FSLogix. Had black screens starting with September CU, rolled back to August CU and have been fine since then. Started testing the November CU yesterday. Have not had any black screens at logon yet. Will be doing some more testing, and then updating a small number of VDI computers and letting them run for a while before updating all machines. Do not want to have to roll them all back again.
We also have a Microsoft ticket open and we notice that after installing the black screen issue fix (KB5045594 Preview) SSO issues and losing network connectivity between Office apps still happening on our customers.
Microsoft provided us the following workaround/fix (see below screenshot) for the SSO issues regarding the AAD Broker plug-in but we are seeing that the policy is not being applied. Do you guys have the same issue?
Workaround/Fix for SSO Failures
- Install the October 22, 2024 update (KB5045594): October 22, 2024—KB5045594 (OS Build 19045.5073) Preview - Microsoft Support
- Reboot the machine.
- Open Group Policy Manager as administrator
4. Navigate to User Configuration > Windows Settings > Scripts (Logon/Logoff) > Logon
5. Click on PowerShell Scripts > Add
6. Type a script name such as “AAD Broker plug-in fix” and on the Script Parameters section add the following command line “Add-AppxPackage -Register -Path "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugincw5n1h2txyewy\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode”
Click Ok.
7. Select Run Windows PowerShell scripts first and then Apply:
8. Reboot the machine and ensure the policy is active for all users.
After doing these steps all users should get the fix applied at logon and the issues described on the previously indicated documentation should seize. If you detect a user that experiences the issue, first ensure that the logon script is being applied, if it isn’t, enforce the logon script to the user and ask them to sign out and sign in.
Check your system logs to see if there are logon script failures.
“Add-AppxPackage -Register -Path "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugincw5n1h2txyewy\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode” is incorrect for us btw.
There's a missing underscore in the path:
"Add-AppxPackage -Register -Path "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode"
Hi All,
We seem to still be having the same issues even though we have installed the new (KB5040525) update, problem we have is the black screen or users make it past the black screen and the OneDrive and Outlook wont sync, its affecting us badly, we have also logged a call with Microsoft support but to date nothing has been received. Anybody else had an update from them?
We also have a Microsoft ticket open, because even after installing the fix we still had problems with the login in connection with the AAD.Broker plugin.
Microsoft has now written me this workaround, which we will implement today:
"""
RCA seems to be understood, we hit the deadlock in auto repair due to a corruption that took place due to the 7D-known-Issue (10D was the resolution for).
One workaround that has brought good result is a combination of:
a.) Redeployment of Hosts with 10D
b.) Run this script as part of the UserLogon
"Add-AppxPackage -Register -Path "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode"
Background information:
When we fall into the Event ID 10 - Scenario, we are in the progress of "AutoRepair" that will try to do additional steps that could lead to the deadlock. By calling this as a "User Logon Script" we avoid the auto repair and should see an improvement.
"""
Let's see if it gets better.
Added to the User-GPO-logon scripts🤞
Just in case anyone else still experiencing the issues, this script fixed our issues, it didn't work immediately, was like some users still had cached issues but now 1 week with no tickets in an environment of 100 users
Does it work for you?
We added the logon script via GPO yesterday for one Pool as testing.
For the moment no problems were reported. Fingers crossed 🙃
Any news? We opened a new ticket at microsoft last week and provided some information and no answer or workaround so far...
- Anyone seeing slowness on their AVD hosts starting last week, mostly on startup in the morning, but also seems to come in waves? We got notified on Wednesday that the Routine Planned Maintenance in Progress for App Service in Canada Central. Since this our users are reporting waves of slowness. I know this is not directly related to the Black screens, Auth for outlook, one drive issues, but I figured it was a attentive AVD support pool that may be able to share if they are seeing this also. I have put in a ticket with MS and am awaiting first contact. Thanks everyone for anything your willing to share.
- I have been having performance issues also on our hosts, and to make do with less headaches we provisioned more hosts and cut down the number of users on each host. I dont know if its related to this black screen thing, but sure the timings add up.
JPlendo
Microsoft have updated their status page on 1st November to say Oct Preview does not 100% fix our issues. And that they are still investigating:
Windows 10, version 22H2 | Microsoft Learn
Quote:November 2024
AVD users might experience extended black screen during logon and SSO failures
Expand table
Status Originating update History
Confirmed OS Build 19045.4717
KB5040525
2024-07-23 Last updated: 2024-11-01, 14:11 PT
Opened: 2024-11-01, 14:11 PT
After installing the July 2024 non-security preview update (KB5040525), released July 23, 2024, or subsequent updates, you might experience an extended black screen that stays between 10 to 30 mins when you login to Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). Additional symptoms you might experience include:Failures related to single sign-on (SSO) experience on Office applications such as Outlook and Teams, which could prevent you from connecting to backend services or synchronizing data.
Office apps display losing network connectivity even though other applications, such as Edge, retain intranet and internet access.
This issue is caused by a deadlock in the interactions between the Azure Active Directory(AAD) broker and the underlying AppX deployment service(AppxSvc) and Background tasks infrastructure service.You are more likely to experience this issue if you are using FSLogix user profile containers on multi-session environments. FSLogix is a Microsoft tool that helps manage and speed up user profiles on computers, especially in virtual environments like remote desktops.Please note that this issue is different from the scenario where the AppX Deployment Service (AppxSvc) was in an invalid state, causing a black screen. That issue was resolved with Windows updates released on October 22, 2024 (KB5045594), and later.
Windows 10 Education edition users and home users of Windows using Home or Pro editions are unlikely to face this issue as Azure Virtual Desktop is more commonly used in enterprise environments.
Next Steps: We are investigating the issue and provide an update where more information is available.
Affected platforms:
Client: Windows 10, version 22H2
Server: NoneFills you with confidence that they have now decided there is also an issue with Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy also originated in July now it's early November... it's as if they went "oh that preview update we issued for the other issue doesn't seem to have stopped back screens at login" maybe we need to consider there is also another issue to look at when we have been reporting that weeks since they issued the KIR!
- From my experience:
KIR disabled, KB5045594 patch installed.
Generally works great.
For some users fslogix profile is corrupted, in event log I see:
Failure to load the application settings for package Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy. Error Code: -2147024893
and then:
Triggered repair of state locations because operation SettingsInitialize against package Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy hit error -2147009096.
looks like repair is successful because next time user logs in no issue with aps inside, like outlook etc.
