I seem to recall this happening to me sometime in the past but I can't for the life of me remember the details. If the figures are loading black that usually is indicative that the textures assigned are not found where they are supposed to be. Go into the MATERIALS room and look at the ADVANCED NODES. If there are texture boxes plugged in and there should be, are they black, white, or blank? I'm betting you'll find they are black. Open the details of the texture node that is blank. Here's what to do:

1. Open a figure you know loads black.
2. Select the figure and then click the MATERIALS tab at the top left of your screen.
3. In materials room select the ADVANCED tab also top left side.
4. One of the figures textures should come up. If the texture file is missing, it will still usually show the node (the box for the texture) plugged into the primary POSERSURFACE tree. Working with the base JAMES figure for instance, his BODY texture node will have IMAGE SOURCE.................James_body_lores at the top of his texture node.
5. Click on the white letter title of your missing texture and a popup will appear. This is the load texture box.
6. Instead of clicking to BROWSE, click the black downward pointing arrow next to the texture name.
7. What drops down now is Poser's list of full texture locations. You'll see an arrow next to the one from your node. Note it down as this is where the texture should be located on your computer.
8. Now go look for it.

If you find it, hmm...I don't know what's up. But if the figure was black and the node was blank, white, or black and not showing the texture - then I'm betting you won't find the texture in the location it's supposed to be. If it's not there, then you've definitely got a corrupted install or download. This means you need to redownload and reinstall the original files. If that still doesn't fix it, you may need to contact Smith or Bondware and ask about it directly. Sometimes "UPDATERS" require the original files be installed. If you don't have a previous version of Poser installed, you may not have the original files - meaning UPDATERS may not work. I am suspicious that may be the case. But again the best way to find out if they are missing or whatnot is to track the literal location and manually look and see.

Hope that helps. I like to try and offer something solid rather than just saying "you did it wrong." Message me directly if you think I might be of further help. Good luck.