Windows 7: Restarts with black screen/white cursor (non-blinking), SAFEmode works

I have a Dell Inspiron, not always but sometimes on start up it restarts to a black screen with a white cursor. Safe mode does work. I don't know why it sometimes does this or what makes it stop. I have tried just letting it try to load up for as long as an hour with no change, sometimes restarting has fixed it but sometimes (like now, it has done nothing no matter how many times I've tried).

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Any input would help

Hi Josh,

Sounds like the Operating System is corrupt. You could try a System Restore from within Safe Mode and see if that helps. Otherwise I think that your in for a fresh installation of Windows.

Kind Regards,

Davo

Hi Mr. Davo,

Thanks for the feedback.

Just wondering, would a system restore delete my saved files on the computer, like a complete reset? Or is it a "return to last best settings" kinda thing?

Thanks for your help

Hi Josh
I am a new member of the forum.
We had a similiar problem with Server 2008 Foundation in last week.
We could not even get into safe mode. The shared files on the network was accessable its just that we couldn't see anything to log in and make changes.
We end up running commands after commands and still no success.
To my understanding this is common in Windows Vista and Server 2008 which runs on the same kernal as Windows 7.
We used a docking station to copy the data of the drive and even tried cloning the drive with Clonezilla.
Later we had no choice but to reload the machine with Server 2008 R2 Std and restored the data.
So if you are able to log into the machine I suggest you copy what's important to you and reload.
We have even tried check disc and made some small changes in the registry.
This issue is called black screen of death.
Hope this info helps.

You could also try a System Restore I would say if the issue only started recently.