Ok .. since I wasn't having any luck with SETool2 in regards to the USB Flash driver install, I went ahead and tried the jdflasher tutorial.
I followed the instructions to the "T" and all seem to have gone well ... didn't encounter any errors and the phone stayed at the "black screen" throught out the process.

After all was done I restarted the phone and it was as I left it before trying to unlock it. Now my question is, how can I tell for sure that the phone is unlocked?

thanks again Simox for all your assistance!