I have an issue with getting a completely black screen. I never see a desktop. I never even see the login screen. If I press the sleep button on the case, then start it back up, I see a mouse pointer too. But on first boot, there is no mouse pointer. Booting in safe mode has the exact same problem (that makes this different than lots of the google hits I'm getting for my searches). There are some recovery options, but I don't want to have to re-install all of my windows apps again (I'm talking about the "refresh" option, IIRC). I will try that option but not until I've asked here first. There is another recovery option that tries to auto-diagnose and fix issues, it tells me it can't fix anything.
Sometimes (but not always), after waiting for a couple of minutes at the black screen after booting, I get a BSOD.
My computer is old-ish, I built it in 2007 or 2008.
I have an EVGA 8800 GT (two dvi outs, I tried booting with the single monitor hooked up to each one).
I do have a DVD. I haven't tried it.
I have win8 pro.
TL;DR: I see a completely black screen on boot, and safe mode does NOT work (same issue). I cannot get a U.I. except for the recovery options.