xp black screen on startup with cursor at top left

[tripower1]

I have no idea what happened with my system.  when i start the system it stops with the black screen and i cannot do anything .  windows will not boot.  I went to the hp page and found the exact topic and thought it would be an easy fix but nothing helped.  hp says to uplug any other devices from the unit except the keybord mouse and monitor.  these are not new units either.  Please help give me some insight on this. thanks

[Peccavi]

Check your hard drive cabels. Unplug and plug them firlmy.

[tripower1]

ok,  I have removed and replugged both cables on the hard drive and it did not make anything different.  In case I did not give enough info Here goes

HP 750n
p4 processor
xp
6.0 Bios

Bios does work but using f8 for recovery does not
thanks for your help.

[patio]

Version of Windows and a little more info will help and someone will be along shortly...

patio.  

[tripower1]

Ok the os is windows xp home and the system has quite a bit of empty space left