black screen after startup

Does it resemble > OS X: Login window partially appears, cursor movement redraws screen...?

Not sure what year model iMac you have or if it is still under warranty..? But at this point, your best bet it to contact either your local Apple Store or AASP and make a Service appointment.

Go to > Apple - Find Locations and click on the Service box.

I have this problem too, has only just started, I found if I hit the esc key a few times the screen restores, could it be related to a recent update?

I'm having the same problem as Chad.... Esc key doesn't help. Nor did starting in safe or OS X recovery....

Help?

My screen in my MacBook Pro (10.6.8) went black while loading a webpage in Firefox. I turned it off and when I turned it back on the gray screen with the apple appears, the spinning clock goes around and then it goes black. I just tried hitting esc again. It went blue for a second and then a scary gray made out of dots of all colours. Tht hasn't happened again since. I tried safe mode (pressing space bar just after the booting up sound), No luck. I tried command option P R just after the bootup sound and let it reboot and no luck (black screen came back). I tried holding down command R while rebooting. No luck For each of these things I got the gray screen with the apple and then it went black again at the end of start up. I did a hardware check...that worked ok and said there were no problems but then it was still black when I was done with that.

Help?

I am having this same issue. Running fine from my eDrive and when I do an Option/Start up, the display using a utility disc or my eDrive partition all works perfect and the display returns the login screen vs. the black screen. All tools/diagnostics are fine. Reinstalled OSX Maverick and did not fix. Something with the latest upgrade which ran the otehr night. First time I tried to use computer, it started this black screen with cursur issue...

What is an option/start up? Do you mean trying one of the various different things you can do like option-R or option -D or option-C....I don't remember what each option does.

I don't have Mavericks on my macbook pro despite the message to upgrade to it. SInce Mavericks makes my other computer (macbook air) turn black at random times I was skeptical about upgrading from 10.6.8 on the macbook pro but since various programs are not going to be supported I will have to soon if this black screen problem doesn't meant the whole computer is toast (I don't think it is based on the hardware analysis).

I work at a university so I had the I.T. guys look at my computer and the best they can tell from everything they did the most likely cause of the black screen is that the inverter cable needs replacing. So I have to take it to the apple store. They were able to use my computer just fine when they hooked it up to another monitor. They said depending on how much the apple store charges for labour will decide whether or not it is worth fixing. The cable itself isn't expensive.