Just a backlit black screen after upgrade to Windows 10! Help!

I recently bought a refurbished Dell E6410 laptop running a new copy Windows 7 Home Premium. I did not get any discs with the purchase. I activated the Win7 copy with the provided product key and did all the updates. Then I eceived the invite to upgrade to Win10...which I accepted and installed it. Since then, I am unable to display Win10 (except once...more on that below). I don't get a black screen, instead I get a backlit black screen. Pressing F8 several times at power up does not work. If I reboot the laptop 3 times, I get the blue Recovery screen with the error code 0xc0000001. My options are to press F8 for Startup Settings or Press Enter to try again. If I go into Startup Settings, I can get the 3 options for Safe Mode (as well as 7 other options). Even in Safe Mode with Networking, I cannot get to a Recovery screen. If I do the Press Enter try again, it goes back to the backlit black screen.

I have called Microsoft twice now...first time the tech guy suggested I buy a new copy of Windows. Second helpdesk person tried other options but nothing worked and gave up.

I've Googled the heck out of this issue over the last 3 weeks. At one point, I came across a post on some website that suggested attaching the laptop to an external monitor so I attached it to my 40" Samsung TV using a VGA cable. Much to my overwhelming surprise and shock, up pops Win10 on the TV asking me to log in to Windows. I did and then it asked me to go through the wifi setup which I did successfully. Yeah...I had a functioning version of Win10...only on the TV though. I went into settings and did "duplicate" screen so Win10 would show up on the laptop. It didn't. I did a Restart ...huge mistake!!! That was probably 10 days ago now and I have not been able to get the live version of Win10 back. I've tried everything, Googled everything and nothing has worked.

Sorry for the lengthy post but I tried to include everything I've tried so far.d

If you need more info, please ask. I am at the end of my rope with this. I just cannot afford another $200 to buy a copy of Windows "something" as was suggested.

Hey,
If you cannot sign in as black screen is displayed then this issue occur because of driver issue. Try using Windows 10 installation media. Download and burn the installation media to USB or DVD. Then boot the system using this media. Then select repair option. Then troubleshoot computer > advanced options > startup setting > restart. Press F5 or scroll to Safe Mode with Networking.
When you get in the safe mode, check other displays connected to the system. To view the display list press Windows key + P or Control Panel -> Display -> Project to a Second Screen. If you select TV then it must be on.
Disable all display drivers except one and try to update all drivers.
Hope it will help you.

Thanks Emily!

I had tried this option before but didn't get very far. I just downloaded the ISO again and added it to a USB, inserted the USB and booted the laptop up. I pressed F12 during the boot up and got the option of booting from internal HDD, USB or DVD drive. I chose USB drive and it has taken me to the same backlit black screen but this time with a cursor flashing in the upper left corner and nothing else. This is as far as I got the last time as well and I have no idea how to get past the cursor. If I connect it to a monitor, the cursor just transfers there.

Try to perform hard shutdown 3 times. After that a new screen will be displayed i.e restore screen. Hope it will help.
Or if you are still getting error code 0xc0000001 as you mentioned above then turn off your system and reboot while pressing shift+F8. A new screen will show advanced repair option.

Hi, your symptoms could be an installed program or a graphics driver issue.
Solved Fix for windows 10 booting to a black screen - Page 12 - Windows 10 Forums
- one page of one of the long threads on this topic on this forum.

Can you get into safe mode?

There's lots of discussion about dual monitors..

It rather depends on your precise situation.
When I had this (or similar) I used the disk image I had taken before upgrading to revert to my Win 8 installation, uninstalled a program, and redid the upgrade successfully.

Here's the last page of another long thread.

Hope you find sthg that helps.

Thanks everyone. I've tried your suggestions as well as many others but nothing has worked. I have decided to take the laptop back to the company I bought it from and they are going to re-install Windows 7 (it came pre-installed with no disks). After all this, I will most likely give Windows 10 a pass for now. This frustratingly unsuccessful process has taken up way too much of my time over the last 3 weeks.
Thanks again.