Safe Mode Tip:
Hold the power button to turn off the computer. While off, hold SHIFT and start tapping F8 as fast as you can. While tapping, hit the power button to turn on the computer. The idea here is that you're already tapping before you even hit the button
and still tapping after hitting the button. This will DRASTICALLY increase your odds.
>Open Advanced Startup Options
>Choose Troubleshoot
>Choose Advanced Options
>Choose Startup Settings
>Touch or Click Restart Button
After the computer restarts...
>Choose a Windows 8 Safe Mode Option
>Wait While Windows 8 Launches
>Log In
Fixing the Black Screen:
People are spot-on that it's a display driver issue. The exact problem driver and the exact solution driver may vary based on the make and model of your computer. I simply recommend...
> From the start screen (with the live tiles) type "Device Manager" (it will initiate a search)
> Select the "Device Manager" option from the results
> Expand the "Display adapters" section of the list
> For each entry within "Display adapters"
>> Click on the item and click Delete on the keyboard
>> Check the box for "Delete the driver software for this device"
>> Click the "OK" button
>> Repeat for any other display adapters (if more than one)
From here, you should be in a minimal graphics mode. Feel free to reboot your computer normally (no need for safe mode). You should be able to get in. Granted, it will launch into a minimal graphics mode. This is the point you can start trying out
different graphics drivers supported for your computer. In my case, Windows just automatically noticed that I had missing drivers and loaded them up automatically. The drivers Windows picked worked perfectly.