Black Screen With Cursor

Since none of all that interacts at all with the steps given in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start which are what work best to fix unbootable Win7, do this now:

Set the Win7 HD first to boot in BIOS setup, trigger the DVD or Repair CD using the one-time BIOS Boot menu key at boot.

Boot into Windows 7 DVD System Recovery Options or Windows 7 System Repair Disk to Mark Win7 or it's 100mb System Reserved Partition (preferred if you have it) Active.

Then run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times until Windows 7 starts and it's boot partition holds the System Active flags.

If this fails when System Reserved partition is marked Active, move the Active flag to Win7 partition itself and then try the 3 repairs again.

@gregrocker. thank you for continuing to monitor this thread.

Here is a little something that I found out just before I read your last comment.
The pc I have this problem with [black screen with cursor] is a laptop.
It has a function key which when held and some f#'s are also pressed do various things.
Things include turn the speaker on/off, turn the sound up/down, turn the brightness of the laptops screen up/down.
Interestingly enough one option is to change were the display is sent.
It can be used to say have display on laptop screen and an external monitor.

Here is the interesting bit...
When I use these keys to change when the display goes I get a visual.
It shows four options, computer [the laptop] only, duplicate, extend and projector only.
If I select projector only, by using the laptop mouse pad to move the cursor [by cursor I mean mouse pointer, happens to be an arrow at the moment] a windows popup appears.

Microsoft windows
Unable to connect to projector
No projector was detected.

Its even got an ok button.

So I will again make the assumption that windows IS loading. Its just to a black screen rather than the login prompt. Why do I assume this ? because the popup is a windows ie os message.
It is not a laptop message. No messages are generated by the laptop when the keyboard functions are used.

Hence the problem I am having with the idea of following the steps outlined in the "windows fails to start".
I assert that windows IS being loaded. Just not being displayed.

bios is set to internal hdd boot. I am and have been able to boot to usb stick containing windows 7 install/repair disc. The windows partition is set to active. there is no windows system reserve partition.

if i boot usb, after selecting language the program searches for operating systems.
it fails to find any. it does offer via a popup to repair stuff. but when i say please repair stuff it gives me a pop us saying failed to save startup options.

i am going to try marking the first partition that is 101mb in size as active and will post the results here.

Well this is interesting, something new.
here is what i did.

boot usb. cmd consol. diskpart. list disk. select disk 0. list partition. select partition 1 [100mb]. detail partition.
at that point partition 1 was hidden and not active.
active.
partition 1 now hidden but active.

reboot hdd.

I now have a blue tessellated background with a window called choose and option on it.
it does not say who made this program or give me an indication if its a dell thing or windows thing.

options are, test memory, test system and exit.
i'll give test system a try.

new thing, not a window, but like one without the top bar appears.
goes after a few moments and gives me a new window called main menu
ooo it has my service tag, that means its a dell thing. interesting.

new options are express test, extended test, custom test and symptom tree.
also now i have a cursor [ie the mouse pointer].

going to give the express test a whirl. watch this space lol.

seems to be a hardware test. it is now doing a hdd test for 'confidence' lol. going to take a while.

That is Dell hardware Diagnostics running from it's (OEM) partition. It's a good thing to run it.

But more likely now your problem is that the 100mb System Reserved partition was not set Active which is how you tell a partition it is to boot the OS. So the repair regimen is to now run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times.

If this fails move the Active flag back to the Win7 partition (determined by its size in diskpart) to run the same repairs.

We'd be able to see what's going on a lot better if you boot into Partition Wizard bootable CD to post back camera snaps of the maximized window. You can then Modify>Set to Active, then highlight Disk to run Partition Wizard Rebuild MBR - Video Help which may preclude the need to run the repairs.

Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums - Windows 7 Forums

Encouraging news. The express test passed without error as did the extended test. now running the memory tests.
Once that is complete i intend to reboot usb and try out the repairs as suggested in the last post.
I'm quite surprised there is anything left of the original dell software on this hdd.

grr it ate my post again.

reboot usb via f12.
select language.
no os appears in box.
popup offers repair and restart.
select repair and restart.
popup advises failed to save startup options.

select use recovery options.
new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

reboot hdd
window appears offering test memory, test system.


The above is what I would expect if the repair does not change which partition is active.

change active partition to where i believe os to be because that is the size windows shows for c drive when windows was booting normally.
change via reboot usb. cmd console.diskpart. list disk. select disk 0. list partition. select partition 2. detail partition. partition hidden:no active:no. active. detail partition. active:yes. exit diskpart.

reboot hdd.
windows boot manager message; windows failed to start. file: \boot\bcd. status: 0xc000000f.

reboot usb via f12.
select language.
no os appears in box.
popup offers repair and restart.
select repair and restart.
popup advises failed to save startup options.

select use recovery options.
new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

reboot hdd.
windows boot manager message; windows failed to start. file: \boot\bcd. status: 0xc000000f.

This is what I would expect if the repair failed to change bcd.
reboot usb via f12.
select language.
no os appears in box.
popup offers repair and restart.
select no.
select use recovery tools.
select command prompt.
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bcdboot c:\windows
message; failure when attempting to copy boot files.
bcdboot c:\windows /s c:
message; boot files successfully created.

reboot hdd
start windows safe mode.
black screen with cursor [mouse pointer, looks like arrow, can move it about]
ctrl+alt+del fails to bring up taskmanager.

This is what I would expect if windows is being loaded properly but failing to display the login prompt.

I suspect that there is something wrong when the display drivers are being loaded.
Either they are being loaded and they are incorrect or they are not being loaded.
I suspect that since I can see the cursor [mouse pointer, looks like arrow, can move it about] that something is being loaded.

btw I have not mentioned this previously, the laptop have 2 graphics cards. the onboard one [intel i think] and the optional nvidia one. the dell tests i ran when the 100mb partition was active did include tests for graphics. i cannot recall specifically if both cards were tested.

Can you default to onboard graphics in BIOS setup to see if it makes a difference.

It sounds like the Win7 is irreparable.

You can try the few remaining steps in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start.

Seeing a Partition Wizard CD drive map screenshot might be revealing.

I have just been chatting with Dell. I had to call them about a different laptop.
Hardware can by checked by;
turning the laptop off.
turn on whilst holding down the fn key.
a dos like hardware check is performed.
both dell and i are happy that hardware is not the issue.

chatted with dell software.
there is charge of approx 70gbp for indepth help.
dell confirmed that there is a known solution for this problem.
however since i am unwilling to pay for a cockup i believe is ms fault i am still here.
lol.

@gregrocker
there is no option to set anything to do with graphics in the bios.

a number of logs are amended each time i try a reboot via hdd.
one of them does show what items are loaded or unable to load.
is it possible to upload files to these posts ?

Yes, you can attach files using the paper clip icon in reply box.

But what I would do is rescue your files and go ahead with the Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7
which will probably take less time overall and leave you with a perfect install better than 90% of what everyone else has, and it will remain perfect as long as you stick with the tools and methods given.