Black Screen But Can See My Cursor

So every time I boot up my computer I am getting a black screen but my cursor is responsive. I tried rebooting in recovery mode but could not reinstall my OS because of Apple being unable to "verify" my computer. My macbook is a 2010 but I was just as the Genius Bar over Christmas to have my computer checked out and they said everything is running great. Any ideas? Solutions?

I live 3 hours away from the closest apple store so anything anyone can recommend would be helpful.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Mar 11, 2014 6:45 AM

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jesseinma

Level 1

53 points

Posted on Mar 17, 2014 6:11 AM

I had the same issue with my 2008 iMac and Apple support walked me through the fix yesterday...

1. Shut the computer down by holding the power button for 10 seconds

2. Restart the computer and press shift at the same time until you see the progress bar start moving

3. Once you reach the point where your screen goes dark and you see the cursor, type the first letter of the username for your computer, then hit Enter, then type your password, then hit Enter.

4. After a moment, you should see the spinning beach ball

5. Your screen should then move on to something along the lines of "Completing OSX Installation" (I can't remember the exact wording). Let it finish. After that it should go to your normal desktop and the issue should be fixed. (If your screen goes pitch black during this process, hit the space bar. I thought it wasn't working, but the screen was just sleeping).

Apparently it's an issue with an automatic update that never quite got past the login screen.

Hope this helps!

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166 replies

Jul 31, 2017 6:17 PM in response to jesseinma

If your ever in Texas.....I owe you a beer

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Black Screen But Can See My Cursor