I have Vista installed on a computer that I normally have running 24/7. The power went out for a few minutes the other night, and when the computer restarted, I logged in as was greeted with only a black screen and a mouse cursor.
I can CTRL+ALT+DEL to get to the screen where you can change users, shut down the computer or enter the task manager. I chose to enter the task manager, but it doesn't even show up. Still only a black screen.
However, I can boot into safe mode with networking and I can see my desktop just fine and use the internet without a problem.
I've googled this problem and apparently it's one that many people have had. Usually it's associated with pirated copies of Windows, but I bought this computer from Best Buy and the operating system is still the factory installation. Even more people have had this happen to them on legit copies of Vista and even Win 7 after installing a windows update and rebooting.
I've seen several methods of "correcting" the problem (which Microsoft denies that there even is a problem). Some are registry edits, and some suggest doing a factory restore. I do not want to do a factory restore, I don't even consider that to be an option.
So, has anyone here had this happen to them, and if so, how were you able to correct the problem?