I got this problem earlier today and it bugged me all day. The screen
went black with only the mouse cursor visible. I wasnt able to get the
taskmanager to display. My fix was somewhat easy. I pressed F8 during
the bootup and went into safemode with command prompt. Although the
desktop never showed up the command prompt did. I typed msconfig into
the command prompt and the window popped up. I was then able to choose
selective startup. Uncheck system services and startup items. Original
Boot Configuration should remain checked. The computer restarted a
couple of times and I finally saw my desktop again. I uninstalled my
nvidia drivers while I was in there since I had recently let Microsoft
update them. I also uninstalled anything else I had installed in the
past couple of days. I checked normal startup and everything was back to
normal the next time I rebooted. Hope this helps someone.

My solution and its not the same for everyone I'm sure.

This solved it for me. Mine actually started with a missing or corrupt
winload.exe. After repairing that. I had the black screen with a
moveable cursor nothing else worked. chkdsk /r fixes all kinds of XP
probs so I tried it. Went through a LOAD of screens, took a couple
hours. After this ran is when the blank screen issue started. I could
see my hard drive going like crazy when I would get to that point so I
knew it was TRYING at least.

Solution for me.
I loaded vista onto another drive I had then booted up and took a look
at the other drive. When I double clicked it I had no permissions. I
right clicked, when into security and took ownership of everything then
I went into the permissions and added the everyone group with full
permissions and let it run. Took about 30 mins or so but I have 240 gigs
of stuff on there. After that unplugged the new drive, restarted and
viola. HOpe that helps someone. If you need help with permissions etc
that should be easy enough to google. If you think it's dumb to require
some additional hardware then you haven't worked on computers enough.
Having a spare hard drive, ram etc is the same as having a screwdriver
and hammer around the house.

I don't remember how does Vista DVD work but if it's something simila
to XP, just insert the DVD, boot from it and fix the system (Repai
System) maybe one of your files was corrupted by shuting down th
computer suddenly

I've been wrestling with the exact same problem on a Dell Studio 153
running Vista Home Premium Sp1 for 2 days now and have finally fixed it
Well...kinda....

Searching around the net shows that its not a single issue that i
causing this problem for everyone so if what I found doesn't help yo
try some of the other solutions

Like most of you, this laptop loads up fine, and after you login th
Welcome screen comes up for a few seconds as per normal then
completely black screen comes up....the mouse cursor is there bu
nothing else comes up. On this laptop the HD was going bat**** for
while as well but no matter how long you leave it for it never gets t
the desktop. No combination of key pressing, windows keys works
Ctrl-Alt-Delete takes you back to that familar screen but selecting tas
manager doesn't do anything

System Restore does not work. Start up repair says everything is A-OK

After much mucking around I finally got into the system by doing a Saf
Mode with Command Prompt startup. At the prompt I disabled all startu
and services using MSCONFIG. Upon reboot the system booted up fine. Man
hours later I had the system back up and running with all services an
startup items....all except for the Windows Event Log. As soon as yo
enable that - BINGO! Black Screen after login

I did try resetting my ATI graphics back to VGA. The various registr
checks and fixes - all to no avail

So at the moment, the laptop is bootable and usable....just the Even
Log is disabled.....until I can work out whats going on there

Hope that helps somebody ;

I am having the same problem... you can see my thread 'here'
([url down]).

In addition, here are some links I found regarding this black screen of
death...
1) 'When you start a Windows Vista-based computer, the system may stop
responding (hang) at a black screen'
([url down])

We have been running into lots of these KSOD's (blacK Screen Of Death).
It has to do with the RPCSS key in the registry. Last known good, saf
mode, and system restore generally don't fix it. Here is how to fi
it:
http://www.logicitc.com/blog/?p=10

We have been running into lots of these KSOD's (blacK Screen Of Death).
It has to do with the RPCSS key in the registry. Last known good, safe
mode, and system restore generally don't fix it. Here is how to fix it:
'How to fix the Vista KSOD (blacK Screen Of Death) | LogBlog'
([url down]) :cool: