Aurora R3 Black Screen after windows logo [RESOLVED]

Hi, I had a bit of a freak-out when my computer started acting up following a "hard" shutdown using the power button last night. I didn't see this particular issue for an Aurora after a search so I thought I would post my experience in case someone else has the same issue.

I attempted to start Star Wars the Old Republic but the launcher would only partially open (outline with no graphics) and then froze. Never happened previously. I tried the usual shutdown options but these also just seemed to freeze and nothing happened so I decided to do a shutdown by holding the power button.

On reboot, there were no "windows no properly shutdown" warnings or anything like that, the windows logo appeared as normal as did the Alienware/windows 7 login screen.

When windows then tried to load after the login screen it went immediatly to a black screen but with full mouse cursor control. I did notice that at the top left of the screen there was a small icon, it looked like a CD symbol - no idea what it was but when i moved the mouse cursor over it i got the rotating windows circle symbol meaning "working".

The PC stayed in the black screen for about 5-10 min and then would boot up into windows. IE and chrome would run fine, but certain games, including SWTOR, would just freeze the PC when I tried to load them. Every restart would go through the same long black screen start up and fail to run most games.

A windows system restore fixed the problem.

If anyone has a clue as to why I had this issue I would be greatful. Otherwise hopefully this post is useful to someone else experiencing the same issue.