Tonnes of "black screen" advice, but nothing helps!

[Zanzibub]

Morning all,

I've got a Dell Inspiron laptop and it won't work - I'm having black screen problems (as are a trillion other computer users according to all the searches I've done for help online!)

However, all the advice seems to apply only to those that can basically get their computer switched on (in Safe mode or whatever), or those who have their Windows XP discs.

My problem = I switch my computer on, get the Microsoft Windows loading screen and then a black screen with my mouse pointer icon. This remains till I hold down the power button.

* I don't have any Windows XP CD's as Dell provide all that online only.
* When I've tried F8 during start up, I get all the necessary text but none of the 'Safe Mode' options make any difference...still a black screen (but with the addition of "Safe Mode" text around the top and bottom of screen
* I've tried the 'F12>Diagnostics' test but this hasn't made any difference. 
* I then tried calling Dell - my warranty expired in November 08, which I'm sure they hadn't warned me about...in fact when I asked them why they hadn't reminded me they said "we tried to call you" ?!?!?! Anyway, they then charged me £25 to...? Guess what...run the same diagnostics check again! As that threw nothing up they said they'd need to pass the enquiry on to the software dept but I'd face another charge of around £60!! There ended the phonecall.
 
So, can you help?! I can't get Windows loaded to try any commands and feel pretty useless...and this coming from someone who felt pretty confident with using computers and technical stuff.

Big cheers,

Zanzibub

[tobydorji]

Hi!Why dont u scan ur laptop's hard disk once for virus.It may not be possible for u to scan since ur not able to start ur machine,i would recommend if u can can remove ur hdd and scan it with the help of ur friends computer.Then Try once.

[Zanzibub]

Thanks 'tobydorji' - as you say, I can't even get my computer to a stage where I can scan the hard drive. I have no idea how I would remove my HD and get a friend to scan it, but I'll do some asking around.

[BC_Programmer]

Does control+Alt+Delete bring up task manager at that point?

I take it "safe mode command prompt" doesn't work either?

try this, it's the "recovery Console" disk for windows XP- try performing a repair install from there:

http://www.thecomputerparamedic.com/files/rc.iso



if repair doesn't work, you can do a system restore from the recovery console prompt:

Sometimes I screwed up my machine so bad, that i couldnt boot into windows anymore, not even safe mode. So i looked around for ages and eventually found out how to do it in the recovery console. For anyone who is new to windows, the recovery console can be found by booting up your machine with the XP CD in the drive, and booting off of that CD. Then it will ask you if you want to go to the recovery console, and select that option. The recovery console is basically a MS DOS command prompt, with a little more functionality.

When you get to the recovery console follow these instructions.

    * Type CD\ then Enter
    * Then cd system~1\_resto~1 then Enter
    * Type dir then Enter

When you hit enter it will list all the restore points folders like rp1, rp2 …….. If the restore points have more than one page then u have to keep on hitting the <Enter> key to view the last restore point folder. You will have to choose the second to last option folder

    * Type cd rp {the second to the last restore point no. } (Note: Example: cd rp9, if rp9 is the second to the last restore point where the last restore point no. is 10
    * Then type cd snapshot

Now the command prompt will look like this c:\system~1\_resto~1\rp9\snapshot

    * Type: copy _registry_machine_system c:\windows\system32\config\system
    * Press enter
    * Then type: copy _registry_machine_software c:\windows\system32\config\software

Then type exit

...

If you get an access denied error when doing the above, then do the following at the recovery console:

Type CD\ then press Enter
Type cd windows\system32\config then press Enter
Type ren system system.bak then press Enter
Type exist press Enter

Your PC will reboot, go back into the Recovery Console and then you have access

If you still cannot get access in anyway to your installation in the recovery console then your SAM database files are corrupt. There is no way you can restore these with the recovery console. You may need to do a fresh install

[KingPincer]

For me try reformatting your computer. Your only problem is you don't have the xp installer and the drivers cd for the motherboard.