I have a Dell Inspiron 2500 with XP Home Edition. While doing a Windows Update recently, it rebooted into a dark screen, i.e. the screen was dark, but by shining a bright light at an angle I could see the desktop behind it. (I'm not sure whether this is the same thing as the "powersaver" feature or not. I turned off all powersaver options, but it still happens.) The Dell and Windows splash screens appeared normally, but when the desktop loaded the screen went dark. I have found that this happens every time a shutdown/restart is done. It reboots correctly only if I power it down and let it sit for a while - sometimes 5 minutes is enough, sometimes it needs several hours. If I power it on again too soon, I get the dark screen again. Very weird. In the Windows Update that preceeded the first occurrence of this problem, I mistakenly included an update called "Computer Fails When Connected to a UPS." Thinking this may have caused the problem, I used the System Restore feature to undo the updates. This did not fix the problem. Is there anything I can do to fix this other than to completely reinstall Windows XP??

The next thing to try is an in-place upgrade. Start the Windows Xp Cd and choose to install and choose upgrade. It looks like an install. It is only refreshing the WinXP files. The Windows Updates will be gone and the restore points will start over. All data and applications are OK. Do not put inanother user when prompted, unless you want to add one. Good Luck

Is there anyway u can get into the control panel Add/Remove programs. Your Updates should be in there. Uninstall them all if possible then reboot. I have the UPS update on my computer. I also updated it without really needing it but my computer works fine but then again every computer is diffrent. Have u tried going to the Display properties and Select Themes Tab. Then select Windows XP. I'm thinking maybe somehow the updates modified the themes. Good luck

You might have a cd-rom in your cd-rom player. Take it out and that might fix your problem.