Vista Black screen, only mouse at startup. Need to un/reinstall graphics driver

I've been searching the web for a solution for a while now, and although
it seems to be a somewhat common problem none of the solutions work for
me.

So basically I was installing new grahpics drivers from the nvidia
homepage, when the screen suddenly makes like a flicker thingy and then
switches to a black screen with a flashing white underscore.

No problems I think and reboot. But since then all I get when rebooting
is a black screen with only the mouse pointer active. No keyboard
commands work(although the sleep button works) so I can't bring up any
kind of useful window which could take me to the device manager or
something that'd allow me to fix my drivers.

ALSO I GUESS ITS WORTH NOTING THAT I HAVE TWO USERS, BUT THE BLACK
SCREEN COMES UP BEFORE I GET TO CHOSE WHICH ONE TO LOG IN WITH.
I've tried the "fix bios settings"-solution(didnt need fixing), "fix
registry"-solution(didnt need fixing) and pressing f8 and trying all
different kinds of boot options and keyboard commands. *No solutions
have given me any kind of progress.

*Also I've loaded up the Vista recovery disc.
Startup Repair says everything is fine,
I have no restore points,
*I cannot access device manager from Command Prompt ( is there a way?)

So in short:
Black screen, active mouse pointer. Need a way to access device manager
from recovery disk to fix my grahpics driver.
or another way to fix the black screen problem.

You could try going into safe mode ( tap F8 after POST and before
Windows starts loading).

In safe mode, type msconfig into the start search box, and click it
when it pops up.

Dot Selective startup and tick System services. Click the Boot tab and
tick Base video. Apply and ok.

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You should then restart into windows using the onboard graphics card.

I have EXACTLY the same problem. But in my case it didn't happen
installing graphic drivers, it happened when chkdsk "fixed" some weird
problems in my filesystem... in any case, did you get a solution?

Maybe it wasnt clear, but I cannot enter safe mode.
I've tried every possible mode using f8 and I still get the black
screen with only the mouse active.
Keyboard commands like ctrl-shift-esc, ctrl-alt-delete do not work
either.

Sorry, my solution was to copy my important files to another disk and
reinstall windows.

I copied the files using the command prompt in the repair mode(using
the windows vista cd). I opened notedpad by simply writing notepad...

...And then clicking file-> open let me browse to the stuff I wanted to
save, ctrl-c ctrl-v did the rest.

heh, ok, it's a pity that Repair the installation like in XP...

Probably some video files were corrupted

[columbia93]

About a month or so ago, I ran into the same trouble after MS updated and restarted my computer. It started acting up and quickly became an issue where the Welcome Screen was replaced by a black screen and cursor (that moves). After attempting many things in the hopes of fixing this, I gave up and returned my RAM (as I'd been getting a couple of messages regarding memory issues). This put off my fixing the problem for awhile. I finally got the replacement RAM and installed it. Guess what? It wasn't the problem...I still have the black screen instead of the Welcome Screen.

I've been all over the net trying to find out what is going on and find that, while many people seem to have this problem for a variety of reasons - including Windows Updates - there isn't much available for fixes. I can't access MS tech support because it's past 90 days (who ever heard of such a thing as only 90 days of support for a publicly buggy product?) but I did find a piece on their forum where MS admits they are aware of the problem (which has been reported for over a year), that to fix it requires an install of Vista AND that it was fixed with SP1. Well, my build ONLY has had the SP1 version so that's wrong. And I can't reinstall so that is wrong too.

So, does anyone have any idea how to direct me toward fixing this when I can't even get the computer to install from the Vista disk?

i have the sam problem but it take 45min to an hr for my laptop to load to just the black screen, it load to ms win screen for another 45 min, another black screen( sometime never loading past here) but get to the point where i can choose a user proflie and 30 for that to load. i have gotten so many msg wit eorro codes> 0x80070057,0x80070426 are the ones i get the most and windows system fail to connect! im at the point of sitting this thing on the side of the road! HELP ME PLEASE!!!

[rccm112]

I posted on another forum. It fixed my black screen. Maybe it will work for you too.

http://forums.microsoft.com/technet/...&tf=0&pageid=3

In my situation, I had a Dell Latitude E4200 that would boot to a black screen with the cursor visible. Our machines require ctrl-alt-del to logon, and doing so brought up the use agreement that we have configured through policies, but after okaying that screen the black would reappear. The Windows Logon User Interface Host was crashing.

Also in my situation, I was able to enter the GUI safemode. I disabled all services, then re-enabled them in groups to determine which one was causing the problem.

I found out it was the Smart Card service. After disabling that everything works fine. We do not use smart cards so there is no issue for us, so I didn't look any farther into what was actually making the Smart Card service crash the logon host.

I too had the black screen even when booting up in safe mode.

The problem went away when I shutdown, then inserted a USB flash drive into an available USB port, then booted back up in normal mode.

I got the desktop back! No more black screen!

[Katbox]

I have Windows Vista on a Sony Vaio NS series - and I also had this black screen upon login with mouse cursor and could not view my desktop.fortunately, i could still do CTRL ALT DEL and i was able to log in to another User account. thats how i was able to read up on this black screen w/ mouse issue.

What i did to restore my desktop is to shut down the computer using Ctrl alt del, let it sit for about 5 minutes. then as the system booted up, i hit F8 and instead of Safe Mode or Start Windows normally, I selected Last Configuration of successful Windows start up - i think thats what it was..

and thereafter, the desktop was restored.. so this is what worked for me. fyi