Hi, I downloaded and installed Vista RC1 Build 5600 a few months ago and it has run smoothly for awhile and i've used it frequently in addition to xp on the same computer. recently tho, when i boot to windows vista it will open the user selection screen as normal. when i select the user name i created, it loads to a black screen with the cursor and the Vista splash screen words in the bottom right saying Windows Vista RC1 Build 5600. If i log in under the administrator user name it loads fine but i noticed there was no sound. i was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem or knows any solutions
i am running a dell e510 with a pentium 4 3.4 GHz processor with 1 GB ram and a ati radeon x600 video card that worked perfectly previous to this problem. i did some searching and saw that it could be related to the recent release of internet explorer 7 which i installed. so i tried to unistall it with safe mode and with the administrator user name but its not there to remove in add/remove programs. thank u for ur help!

I wish I had a solution, but rather I have the same problem. Mine however does not display the user selection screen. I have the same black screen (with cursor and words visible) but am unable to proceed pass here. I have attempted to boot in safe mode with no success. Hopefully this will provide some more helpful information.

Jordan

Windows Vista
hp zd8000
P4 @ 3.0 GHz
1 GB RAM
ATI Radeon Mobility x600

i was able to boot into safe mode but could not find a solution there...and i also tried to boot to last good configuration but that did not help either

hey! i had a somewhat of a breakthrough...if u can get to the Alt+Ctrl+Delete menu and start the task manager...u may be able to load back most of the vista elements...first go to the processes tab and click to show processes from all users...then click continue and itll show all the processes...then go to file-run and type 'explorer' and it should load the rest of the way...cept for me it doesnt have the windows aero settings and my home network isnt working...i may just reinstall vista...hope this helped!

The last post definitely worked for me. I am on Vista Ultimate and encountered the same black screen after logon with the white cursor and you could only Ctrl-Alt-Del to get the task manager.

I'm still not sure why Explorer is not starting after logon...

Thanks for the solution!

Thanks a TON! I was on the verge of reformatting my laptop that had this problem in about an hour but I just decided to check one more time for a solution and here it is! No I can safely backup all my files and then reformat it without problems!

I've been having the same issue. I've yet to find a way to fix it, but I have found (stumbled onto) a way to get to "normal" operations. 'Ctrl-Alt-Delete' to the task manager, hit file, then new task. Click 'Browse...' then click 'Computer'. Right Click you're C drive and select 'search'. My computer took about 3 to 5 seconds and then the desktop just appeared. I promptly backed up my files onto 15 or so DVDs and restarted my laptop. The black screen came up again, but the "trick" worked perfectly. I "upgraded" Vista to Buisness hoping any missing files would be replaced, but no luck. Black screen after login, only difference is that now Solitaire and Freecell don't work..... At least the "trick" still works. All programs run as they did before (minus the 2 above) I hope this helps a bit. Good luck to all.

I have the same black screen now, but I know WHEN it started if not WHY. I have a brand new Lenovo Thinkpad R61 with Vista Business on it. One of the things it came with was a trial version of Office 2007. The computer has worked normally for a couple of weeks, then when I uninstalled all the Microsoft Office trialware and rebooted - bang! Black Screen of Doom.

In my case the screen comes up black with the Documents folder open. I can hit Ctl-Alt-Del, bring up Task Manager, kill process explorer.exe, then restart it through the applications tab, and the desktop comes back.

I have noticed the following:
1. The computer logs in with the default user, no login screen is presented.

2. The hard drive runs constantly until I do the work-around and the desktop comes up.

3. Turning off UAC did not help this problem, but sure cleared up a LOT of annoyances.

Since explorer.exe WILL start after doing the workaround, I am thinking this is either a problem with the boot sequence (a bad driver), or the login sequence. Right now it would appear that something is not loading in the boot-up that explorer.exe requires, but DOES load after the fact.

I am now thinking there might be a registry entry somewhere that is causing this behaviour, but nothing yet looks out of place.

Any thoughts?

Have you tried doing a clean-up? Use a good registry cleaner such as Registry Repair by Glarysoft, it's free and you can get it here:
Registry Repair

Autoruns may also prove usefull you can get it,again free, here:
AutoRuns for Windows

You could also type msconfig in the run box and see what is or isn't starting at the boot process but Autoruns will help with this as well..

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Fixed thank you,

All i was getting was blank screen+windows explorer UNTILL... {read below}

1 task manager
2 File
3 new task
4 manually look up "Computer"
5 Right click, click on "search"