Vista Boots only to Black Screen

I have a friend who gave me his computer to look at it's a Dell Dimension C521 running Windows Vista Home editon says he did all his windows updates and now when he turns it on it goes to a black screen with a mouse cursor. I have tried using the recovery disc I have to no avail, he didn't have a restore point on his computer I have looked around the internet to find an answer but have found nothing he does not have a vista disc like the rest of us so it is kinda hard to format it and reinstall. Please anything you could do to help would be very appreciated thank you in advance

 

I assume you have tried safe mode?

 

yeah have tried every mode the only one i can get to is the command prompt through the recovery disc and that's it

 

From the Windows Advanced Options Menu, please try the following ...
Windows Advanced Options Menu
Getting into Windows Safe Mode
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm

Choose "Last known good configuration that worked", and press the Enter key. The computer will attempt to load Windows.
If Windows does not start, try the same thing again .... and continue trying for 10 times, before you rule that option out as a means of getting your OS up and running again, normally.
Why 10 times? Based on past experience, a successful result is sometimes achieved after several consecutive failed attempts.

If the above does not get you back into the system ..
There are possibly other options, some of which may be:
1. System repair or recovery from a hidden partition on the Dell system.
2. Order recovery disks from Dell.
3. Using the Vista Recovery Disk, at the command prompt, you can un-install the recent Windows update or updates that you think are causing the problem. To do this, first use the command prompt to navigate to the Windows directory and using the file dates, establish which updates were recently installed.

 

Yeah I've tried over 20 or 30 times with the recovery disc doesn't get me any where I never thought of unistalling the update I had to do that once b4 for the sp1 update that screwed my computer up. I'll have to read up how to do it again as for taking it from a hidden partition I don't know how to do that but I'll look into it and see what I can find out thanx for your help