Black Screen of Death during boot, before login screen

While attempting to restore a previous backup of my system (with Norton Ghost 15), I got an error, and the system rebooted. Upon reboot, I get the black screen of death with just the cursor instead of the usual login screen. I have tried the following thus far:

• These all give me the black screen of death with movable cursor:
  • boot in safe mode
  • boot in safe mode with networking
  • boot in safe mode with command prompt
  • last known good configuration

• I did an initial system startup repair which went through and said it repaired it, rebooted, but no change.
• I did a pre-boot diagnostic test - nothing
• memory test - nothing
• tried restoring from restore point, but it says I don't have any (LIES! BLASPHEMY!)
• tried restoring from restore point on external disk - seemed okay, then failed.
• chkdsk - found some stuff, fixed it, no change.
• tried ctrl+alt+del on black screen of death - nothing
  
  
  Now, I know that the hard drive itself is alright, that is, the information is still all there still. While I can't give you exact specs, I can tell you that I am on a Dell Studio XPS running Win7 home premium 64 bit. I'm at a loss as to what else to do. Despite being a black screen, with just a movable cursor, the system still appears to be running, as every few minutes, it will show the "thinking" cursor, where it shows the little circle next to the arrow. If anyone has any tips or suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated.
  
  hugs and kisses,
  Amplitude

hi,

Known issue some users have it others don't did you try Why is my screen black when I start Windows 7? or this mentions a "black screen of death" fix but i would be verry carefull running executable files from unknown sources

Windows 7 Black Screen Of Death Fix

also this http://www.everything-microsoft.com/2009/12/01/windows-7-bsod-black-screen-of-death-freeze-and-potential-fix/

but it also points to external sources microsoft should fix the issue or that *.exe should be authenticode signed so you have a way to verify it's trustworthy.
http://www.everything-microsoft.com...ack-screen-of-death-freeze-and-potential-fix/

Erikbe said:

hi,

Known issue some users have it others don't did you try Why is my screen black when I start Windows 7? or this mentions a "black screen of death" fix but i would be verry carefull running executable files from unknown sources

Windows 7 Black Screen Of Death Fix

also this Windows 7 BSOD: 'Black Screen Of Death' Freeze And How To Fix

but it also points to external sources microsoft should fix the issue or that *.exe should be authenticode signed so you have a way to verify it's trustworthy.

Click to expand...

thank you for your response. I looked at the links you provided, and they didn't help me at all, since they say in step two that you need to login first. Even if I try the ctrl+alt+del method without logging in (while being connected to the internet), it still has no effect, as noted above. The above fix i think is designed for when you get the KSOD after you are able to login, rather than before. My issue still persists, and I am still unable to find a solution, but will continue to try to find a fix. Once again, any and all help is appreciated

Although this does not pertain to you exactly, it may be worth looking into and attempting: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139576-startup-repair-infinite-loop-recovery.html

I have the same issue now (on an Acer Laptop).

I get the black screen with a cursor (that I can NOT move) before the log in regardless of which mode I boot in (normal, safe, etc...).
I have a system disk, but the repair tool seems to have no effect either.

Any solution for this?

p.s. I did try the above mentioned "infinite loop recovery" as well, and though everything went as it should with the process, there has been no change with my problem