Black Screen But Can See My Cursor

SMC is reset like this (there is no "SMC mode").

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Barry

Thanks jesseinma! you've saved my morning, your solution is spot on.

Hallelujah! Worked for me too! I didn't have to put in the username; thankfully because I didn't remember it.

I'm having this same problem. I see the mouse arrow and Notification banners and alerts but the screen is black for at least 10 secs before the Finder appears.

I tried the above procedure but I'm not sure it will work for the new MBP (I have a Late 2013 w/ Retina Display). I got to Safe Boot progress bar but the screen never went blank to enter in username and password. Contacting support to see if they have any ideas or modifications to this procedure.

Thank you thank you thank you !! Worked perfectly! Followed Apple instructions and viola it worked perfect. Can't thank you enough for your post!! I run a 2010 27" IMac. All photos and music untouched! OMG thanks!

Jesse thank you so much you are a life saver! This worked perfectly so glad I found this was just getting ready to pack it up and take it to a repair shop!!!

Brilliant! Saved the computer at work. Apple needs to fix this ASAP!

BEAUTIFULL!!! This absolutely did the trick. Spent two hours resetting SMC, fixing dics and partitions and a bunch of other stuff. None of that worked. THIS DID.

THANK YOU

THANK YOU

THANK YOU

Had the same issue. Mine was not when I booted my Mac but instead when I let the screen turn off and then click the keyboard to turn it back on (not sleep mode). Typically my screen would stay black with the mouse cursor for about 20 seconds before coming back on fully.

Following the instructions above suggested by jesseinma which were basically to boot into Safe Boot and then restart the Mac seems to have worked so far. Fingers crossed that it will stay fixed because the issue was really annoying.

Thanks for the help.

Wow -- jesseinma's fix totally worked. I'm really surprised that Apple would have a routine update crash with such a bizarre recovery. Beware upgrading to OS X 10.9.3!

Absolutely perfect solution to this problem. Thank you Jesseinma!!!!

Yip - worked like a charm. Took about a minute to clear up after following the instructions. Awesome thanks.

I tried the instructions and I got the spinning ball for 2 or 3 seconds and then it just went back to cursor. Any other suggestions?

Jeeseinma I don't know where in MA you are but I would like to find you and hug you!

This SAVED me!!!! thank you so so much. I literally thought I was losing all my business data and would be up a creek! I am backing up my computer as we speak just in case! Thanks!