Windows Black screen with cursor and ctrl+alt+del after log in

The problem is pretty much explained in the title, but I'll explain it a little more.

I had the problem a few weeks ago, but it seemed to fix when I did a system restore. Now it has come back, and a system restore does nothing. I've tried a lot of stuff suggested on forums, but it seems no-ones problems that are similar to mine arent exactly the same.

I log in, to see a black screen. I can move my cursor fine, just there's no desktop or taskbar. I can ctrl+alt+del to access the Task Manager, but I cant start any new tasks, just view whats going on.

When I restart my computer, I press F2, then F8 to get to the boot manager. I click Repair your computer (or the like), and it gives me the options after loading. I can detect problems, restore, memory diagnostic etc fine. When I try to restore my computer, I get the message that it has restored successfully, and it restarts. Its a cycle of restoring, restarting and restoring. I have a complete back up of my C drive and program files on my D drive, but cannot log on properly to restore them from the back up.

I have been suggested to make a new account as administrator. I can not do that as I cant log on. Anything you have to use the control panel to do cannot be done as I can not log in.

I have been told that I should re-install windows, but it is an expense I cant afford until the end of the month. I am prepared to do it, but would rather not, if you get what I mean.

All my program files, documents etc that I could install on D drive (a 500GB HDD), are on there, so the only thing that's on C drive is the OS, and the anti virus.

Sometimes some fixes work, and some don't. If I do happen to suddenly fix it, the next time I log in I get the black screen again.

Any fixes, or even suggestions would be great as I'm sure you can understand, problems like this are very infuriating!

EDIT: I went back to a System Image, and it seemed to have worked. Last time I tried this, when I later restarted my computer I had the black screen problem again.

I have fixed this problem. My back up told me it had not backed up some of my user files, such as the desktop because they were corrupt. I then wandered if creating a new user would fix it, and it has.

EDIT2: I now think I have a virus. It worked fine last night, but when I turned it on this morning, I had the black screen. I cant see why that would happen on its own when it was working. I'm going to find my Norton 360 2012 disc I got with my laptop and blast my computer.