Ok first some detail about the computer. It's a Compaq Pressario "5000 Series", 5WV280 with 900MHz AMD Athlon Processor and 512mb ram, with at least 30 gig memory. I'm running Windows XP Professional and it had been working fine for a few years up until recently.
Can't exactly remember what led to it's current state but here's what happens when I start it up now:
-first there's just a white flashing curser in the top LH of screen
-then the "Go-back" screen shows, saying "Press space bar to restore" (or something similar) (Note pressing the space bar does nothing).
-The "time bar" goes to zero and then there's a very brief screen of flickering horizontal white bars (every inch or so) (maybe 2-3 seconds)
-then the Windows start-up logo appears (windows logo on black screen with that processing bar below with the little blue things moving through it)
-the blue indicators move smoothly, hestitate, start up again, hesitate, start up again, then
I seen my mouse arrow on a black screen (I can move the mouse and the arrow moves)
-occasionally there's also an hour-glass, while the hard-drive light flickers, but eventually that stops and that's it. It doesn't go any further. I should be getting the blue screen to select accounts but that never shows up. I even try clicking the curser where the account icon should be but nothing else happens.
Hope that all helps. Really appreciate the help!
