BleepingComputer.com: Black screen w/ cursor on start-up

Hello.

First of all, apologies for bothering you with such a seemingly common problem, but I'm having a nightmare with this and need some help.

I'm using Vista (I don't recall which exact version, sorry) but today I just can't get my computer to start. I get to a pure black screen with a single white cursor in the middle. Research tells me that this is quite a common problem, but none of the suggested solutions have worked for me. I have tried the following:-

1) Removing USB devices.
2) Running system restore. I successfully restored the system and got into Windows proper, but all processes/programs crashed as soon as I'd started them, rendering it useless. I restrated and boom, straight back to the black screen.
3) Running system restore in Safe Mode. Same results.
4) Running explorer from the task manager. Didn't work, as the explorer process crashed immediately.

I've been having a few problems with various processes crashing on start-up over the past couple of weeks, so I wonder if these problems are related.

Any help on this matter would be much appreciated. I guess an easy solution would be to completely reinstall Windows, but that isn't really an option as I lack an installation CD. I'd be very grateful for your help!

This post has been edited by Murrr: 08 January 2011 - 04:54 PM

I have the exact same problem and always wonder what that is. Had my computer for about 3 years, and never had the problem until couple of weeks ago.

Did you attempt a Startup Repair?