Black screen with white cursor after upgrading to Windows 8.1 Pro?

[Sun]

Long story short, I was prompted earlier today to install 8.1 and various other updates. The installation was fine, and there weren't any problems. After the installation ended, I had to choose my color palette and a wifi network to connect to. At first, everything was going fine, but after I chose my wifi network and hit continue/next, I was brought to a blank black screen with a white cursor.

I contacted Microsoft Support, and they were clueless on how to fix this issue. I spent over 2 hours talking on the phone with them while they ran by me different fixes. Upon boot up, I was told to do various things such as press F8, F12, or the Delete delete key repeatedly. We also tried to bring up task manager on the black screen, but nothing seemed to solve my problem. Eventually, he just gave up, and he said they would continue to investigate the issue and would call me back later once they found a solution. Like WTF?!

Here is what I'm experiencing after the Windows 8.1 Update: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZmhCYbLpIs

[Deleted]

Was this an update install or clean install, as doing a bit of searching there are programs that arent working nice with 8.1. Causing just this problem, like third party start buttons and Avast virus scanner. Also old Intel HD4000 graphics drivers can cause this problem, need to do boot in safe mode and uninstall the graphics drivers, so you can install new drivers in normal mode.

[Cyrops]

I was having this issue on a few Win7 Machines that ran Kaspersky AV, fixed the issue with upgrading the Kaspersky to latest version.
Do you know what is Safe Mode and are you able to boot into it?

[Deleted]

Does this black screen appear at the logon screen when you boot the computer?
Because I had a similar issue, not sure how I resolved it though; I believe I just pressed the 'Up' arrow key on the keyboard.

[Sun]

This was an update from the Windows store.

I'm not able to boot into safe mode using F8 or Shift F8.

When I boot up my computer, I see my laptop's brand name with circles swirling in a circle, followed by a black screen

[Deleted]

you got a second screen connected to the system ?
if you have it sounds like windows is detecting that and setting it as the primary screen, simply turn on the other monitor or unplug the second monitor and continue as normal.

[Sun]

you got a second screen connected to the system ?
if you have it sounds like windows is detecting that and setting it as the primary screen, simply turn on the other monitor or unplug the second monitor and continue as normal.

Nope. It's just my laptop =\

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I just got done speaking with a Microsoft Technical Support specialist. To solve the issue, I need to figure out how to get to my BIOS settings and make my DVD drive the boot priority device before he is able to help me. Any ideas how I would go about doing this with a Sager computer?

Here is what I'm experiencing after the Windows 8.1 Update: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZmhCYbLpIs

[Sthos]

Nope. It's just my laptop =\

- - - Updated - - -

I just got done speaking with a Microsoft Technical Support specialist. To solve the issue, I need to figure out how to get to my BIOS settings and make my DVD drive the boot priority device before he is able to help me. Any ideas how I would go about doing this with a Sager computer?

Here is what I'm experiencing after the Windows 8.1 Update: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZmhCYbLpIs

BIOS menu for a Sager should be F2, from there you should be able to find the boot priority easy enough.

[Cyanotical]

sounds like explorer.exe is corrupt and not loading (along with a few other things since you can't bring up task manager)

you'll most likely have to do a fresh install

F7 is the boot select button on sagers