Windows black screen w/ cursor

hey guys, i'm hoping you can help with my problem.

basically i start windows and everything works perfectly up until the point where i am supposed to see a blue welcome screen which then turns into my password protection. instead what happens is i get a black screen with a mouse cursor which i can move. other than this nothing responds (technically the CD trays but they don't count).

i have tried:
- repairing windows off the CD
- use last known good settings that worked
- safe mode

all of which still have not absolved the issue, in fact when i start when i use any form of safe mode, i get the description at the top and "safe mode" in every corner but other than that the problem sticks.

i am pretty sure it's just not running explorer.exe or something along those lines.

please help, it's only a 2 year old computer and i've already re-formatted the hard drive (in fact put in a new one) last month.

Boot in Safe Mode and press Ctrl-Alt-Del launches the Taskmanager | New Task | explorer | OK

ok... i followed everything up until Ctrl+Alt+Delete was supposed to launch the Task Manager

basically the keyboard doesn't seem to do anything (in ANY of the safe modes).

i've also tried swapping the 2 video cards i have in it but that didn't work either. i agree with your diagnosis though, i think it's just failing to run explorer.exe. is there another way to do that manually? i have the windows XP CD, so any solution that utilizes that i would work too.

Boot from the XP CD and try doing an XP repair:
XP Repair Install

Hi, I am new to the forums. I am having the same problem as billybob42.

I have a 1.5 year old Dell Inspiron. It boots to a Windows Splash Screen and then black screen with cursor. The mouse moves the cursor, but there is no keyboard response. C-A-D does not work.

I have tried booting to safe mode. It gives the same black screen with "safe mode" in all 4 corners. I have tried booting to last known good configuration. Same results.

I tried the onboard Dell Diagnostics and all memory tests passed, then all the extended processor and memory tests passed. I called Dell (still under warranty), and was told the only thing I can do is reinstall the OS. I would rather not.

I have tried the XP repair install, and it reboots to the same black screen with cursor.

I have tried chkdsk /r and it says it repaired one or more sectors, but the same result.

Any ideas? I am open to trying anything.

This error indicates that the video driver is corrupt or missing

Have you tried using a different keyboard, or is your keyboard working properly?

Windows black screen w/mouse pointer

Hello All,

I had the same problem 2 days ago.. tried everything I could think of and I failed. So I did it.. I called Dell and paid the $49 bucks as I was out of things to do... in the end I am back up and running.

Here is what they had me do to try to solve it.... keep in mind the thing that worked was a RESTORE which might not be the best case for you.. but I didnt care...I just loaded everything back on...my fault for not having a back up drive!!!

Here are the notes I took while on the phone with them....

Hopefully this helps someone and prevents you from having to pay the $49.

Unplug Power Supply
Hold Power button for 1 minutes ( to relase static electricity )
- he was hoping this was the only problem, not the case... move on -

plug back in and boot up WHILE holding F12
Select BOOT TO UTILITY
Run Express Test
- I got a an error which it says it could not fix -

STILL BLACK SCREEN...

POWER DOWN
POWER UP to black screen....
Try hitting CONTROL/SHIFT/ESC ? Any box come up?
Try hitting Control/Alt/Delete? anything?
try hitting Window button/R? anything?

else...

Put in XP CD
Boot up and hit F12
Select CD ROM
Hit Enter and then ENTER when it prompts you to on the next screen.
( need to make sure you hit enter when it tells you to press any key to continue )

Select Repair
C:\windows
Chkdsk /p

Still no luck for me.....


Power Off
Power Up WHILE HOLDING F11 during Boot up process.
Then select RESTORE options.....

Lost everything but again didnt matter to me... Good luck to ALL and hopefully this helps you out.

Rob