I've been having the same problem only now, my screen goes from black with a mouse cursor to suddenly all blue and with the mouse cursor...any thoughts on repair?

Try to remove one memory module if you have two of them. I would then replace the Hard Drive Cable, also make sure the hard drive is formatted. When you Check BIOS make sure that Bios sees the HD

Hi im having the same problem, and I partly fixed it.. My computer (windows vista buisness 32-bit) got a BAD virus that would create a new virus everytime a program is opened, and give me an error message something like "Runtime error access is denied, press OK to termiate the process". I scanned my comp, it deleted 1121 viruses, and asked me to restart my computer, I restarted, and ended up just like you, a blank screen with a mouse. this is because no processes are running. press control alt delete and select task manager. under Applications select "new task" type in explorer and press enter. you should see your background image and the taskbar as well as your icons. but other processes arent running. for example, i normaly get widows sidebar when I start, nowi dont. my plan is to back up everything and re-install the OS because it is all screwed up. then ill be okay. hope this helps.

I am having the exact same problem. Black screen with only the mouse cursor which you can move around the screen but that’s it. This happen after a virus scan using AVG.

Here is what happened, AVG found 3 infected files…
LSASS.EXE
SERVICES.EXE
SVHOST.EXE
AVG then said it needed to reboot. When it reboot it went through post and the Windows XP logo splash screen. Then the black screen with only the mouse cursor which you can move around the screen, it never gets to the login or welcome screen. Same thing with any other mode except safe mode. In safe mode you get a black screen with the words SAFE MODE in all 4 corners and the mouse pointer.
I tried booting from the Windows CD and repair mode installation from the CD but once it copies files to the hard drive and reboots from the hard drive it still has the same problem. A black screen with movable mouse pointer.

Using a other computer and a hard drive to USB adaptor I connected the this drive and found the files….
LSASS.EXE
SERVICES.EXE
SVHOST.EXE
Missing from the c:\windows\system32 folder so I replaced these files from a known good computer and just as before same problem. Again connected the hard drive to a other computer to examine it and again the same files are missing again….
LSASS.EXE
SERVICES.EXE
SVHOST.EXE
Every time I replace them they get deleted and the computer ends up with the black screen with only the mouse cursor which you can move around the screen.

It appears that AVG change something in the boot up so it can access and delete these protected system files. Since these files are required the system halts and the changes made by AVG are still in so even though you replace the files it again deletes them. To fix this problem the changes AVG made to the boot need to be removed.

I have tried to rename the AVG folder in C:\Program Files and in C:\ Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\
But it must be some were else like the registry or an INI file. Does anyone know how to remove or disable these AVG boot changes? And thanks in advance for your help.

I have the same problem...i woz playing on sims when the screen went black now all i've got is cursor...the shift button just makes noises and that control alt delete thingy wont show up ... HELP

Thank you so much, I did not try this and as I said I restored my drive finally, It seems a good way really,

Thanks again for your kind attention :)

I've been having this same problem with a clients computer running XP. I seemed to happen after doing Windows updates. In order to fix the issue oddly enough all I had to go into safe mode and install IE7. IE is awful but windows will screw up without the right one apparently.

My symptoms were black screen movable cursor after the black loading screen and before the welcome screen. I could not open task manager or the Sticky keys as others mention. Hitting shift 5 times just made the noise.

Side note: I had another computer with what seemed to be a crippling virus on it. The last computer guy said it was toast and they needed another comp. Turned out to be IE8 that came with a windows update. Uninstalled it and everything worked fine. Just one more reason to love Firefox.

This pertains to a Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop that crashed due to a virus. I reformatted harddrive from startup recovery command prompt option using Vista install CD, reinstalled Vista and still got the black screen with mouse cursor. I then rebooted and entered bios settings by pressing F2 key. I changed the SATA harddrive option from AHCI to ATA. Before I could do this I had to disable the Flash Cache module. I saved the changes rebooted and Windows Vista Install finally completed. Hope this helps someone.
Bill

Fixed by ubuntu

Just put the missing lsass.exe back to windows\system32 directory. Use preferably file from a healthy XP with the same service pack.
I have recovered 3 computers this way using IDE/SATA to USB2 adapter.
Simple!

Stupid antivirus has removed lsass.exe in a first place.