Vista - Black screen causes, a detection strategy

This approach may sound obvious but may help people who are experiencing a
black screen after a reboot.

After two fresh installs and still ending up in a black screen condition, I
decided to do it better the third time. Immediately after the third clean
install, I set a restore point, so I could get back there using the System
Recovery Options on the installation DVD when a new black screen should
appear. The System Recovery Options are accessible from the second install
screen when booting from the DVD. One of those is System Restore (Restore
Windows to an earlier point in time).

After each major alteration in the install (domain joining, network disk
definition, etcetera), I have been setting a restore point. I also switched
off the automatic install by Windows Update so I was sure that I knew when
new programs were installed. I set it to ask for a confirmation before
installing (these updates set their own restore points).

Until now, , by going back to one of the earlier restore points, I have been
able to use the System Restore to get rid of the black screen. I also
discovered what change in my Vista installation caused the black screen (an
automatic update by Windows Update).