Hi all-- I've been having a problem persistently for quite some time now but have tried some of the options suggested on other discussions but without any results. Upon turning on my computer (Lenovo ThinkPad R61, Win 7 (upgrade from Vista about a year ago)) the boot process goes along normally and I am prompted to enter my password to log in. However, after that screen I am taken not to my desktop but to a blank screen with the cursor arrow in the middle (movable). All of the hardware and software will function from this state and I can easily ctrl-alt-del to the options screen and bring up task manager or restart. When I restart from this state, the login is again prompted only this time the desktop loads as expected and the computer runs as intended. I have tried opening the task manager from the black screen state and ending the explore.exe process and then re-starting it using RUN, and while this strategy does load the desktop, some small features do not appear (mostly ThinkVantage stuff like the battery gauge in the task bar, but I have not looked around too much) thus I usually resort to restart the machine. I am hoping there is some simple fix out there as the computer is otherwise running great, just very annoying to sit at it for 3-5 minutes in order to start because I have to restart every time. Thanks in advance for anyone's assistance.

If you can get into safe mode I'd uninstall the graphics drivers. Uninstall and reinstall the graphic card drivers in safe mode You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps. 1. Open Device Manager by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Device Manager. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. 2. In Device Manager, display adapter and then double-click the device name. 3. Click the Driver tab, and then click uninstall Driver and follow the instructions. 4. Restart the computer and see if it works.

similar type of problem but even after restarting the machine i am getting the black screen with cursor so no start button to click so i can not able to go to device manager. Please suggest. thanks