Hello, My Dell Studio 1535 runs its start up and then goes to a black screen with only a cursor. I have tried shift, control alt delete, and also reloading the OS, only to find out I cannot see anything to reload being that it is a black screen! HELP!
I would suggest you to try the following steps:
Disconnect all the external devices (printers, scanner, USB (universal serial bus) drives, etc...) Except mouse and the keyboard and then boot up.
If this corrects the issue then add the devices back one at a time until you discover the piece of hardware causing the issue. Then get any updated drivers\software for the device.
At the black screen press Ctrl+Alt+Delete or Ctrl+shift+Esc keys on the keyboard.
Are you able to see a Vista screen with several options? If so Log-off the user, if you have any other accounts on this computer log them in, are you experiencing the same under those conditions?
On the black screen with a cursor
press CTRL+ALT+DEL again
Select task manager
On the task manager window, click on file >new task.
In the new task box, type in explorer.exe
Click OK
