Win 7: Black screen of death

My Win 7 starts normally, get the animated welcome screen, then it all goes black except the mouse pointer. If I click where I know I have icons the spinning circle appears for few seconds.
In other words, it works, but I can't see a thing, so can't do anything.
This means I have to switch it off by holding the power button.
On restart I get the option to start normally or in safe modes, but the same thing happens in safe modes.
I have disconnected it from the router, just in case it's a virus or malware.
Any ideas what goes on ?
Should I use the Win 7 CD to restore ?
Thanks,
Martin

This may help you

http://www.prevx.com/blog/140/Black-Screen-woes-coul...

Sometimes you can get this when hardware gets disconnected from the system, i.e. an external hard drive connected via USB or Firewire which has become disconnected. Windows can spend a long time looking for it.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

My Win 7 starts normally, get the animated welcome screen, then it all goes black except the mouse pointer. If I click where I know I have icons the spinning circle appears for few seconds.
In other words, it works, but I can't see a thing, so can't do anything.
This means I have to switch it off by holding the power button.
On restart I get the option to start normally or in safe modes, but the same thing happens in safe modes.
I have disconnected it from the router, just in case it's a virus or malware.
Any ideas what goes on ?
Should I use the Win 7 CD to restore ?
Thanks,
Martin

How long are you giving it to start up? Allow 10-20 mins, once you are in windows then you can troubleshoot a bit better.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

This may help you

http://www.prevx.com/blog/140/Black-Screen-woes-coul...

Well, NO it didn't, contrary to what they say, when I press Ctrl+Alt+Del the screen remains black. I even worked out what keystrokes to use (on another Win 7 system) to start Task Manager, but again could not see anything.
Reading the comments only leads to confusion, too many different problems and NO answers.

So, now I have nearly new machine with Win 7 and Office 2007, worth many hundreds of pounds, and it's all totaly useless !
Regards,
Martin