Black Screen...of Death?

[Zelina]

I don't know if that's what it is, but my computer was working yesterday, and later on when I restarted it, I got the black screen after Windows logo shows up, before I get to the welcome page. I tried going into Safe mode, and I get the same thing, minus the safe mode stuff at the corners. Oh, and my cursor shows up.

Anyone know whats wrong, or how to fix it? I have tons of important files on this computer, and I definatly do not want to lose them!

[CmptrWz]

What version of windows? Did you install windows updates? Do a check on the hard drive from the tools tab of C:\'s properties? Etc. and so forth.

[Frozen Inferno]

Try unplugging any USB cables, especially ones connected to ipods... I'm not sure it'll solve your problem, but my laptop does the same thing if I try to start it up with the USB charger for my ipod in it. However I don't remember anything about being able to see the cursor, so it might be something different. I assume you're using a different computer at the moment?

(when I first saw this, I thought my sister's computer had achieved a new level of fail XD)

[Minoru]

Hey, do you have your XP install disk? There are a few things that we could do from the repair console to try and fix the problem.

[Zelina]

I got the black screen after Windows logo shows up (and I don't even get to the Welcome part of start-up).

When I go to Safe Mode w/ Network or Command, I get one of those "driver_irql_not_less_or_equal" errors, and only when in those two modes.

I have a Dell Dimension 2400 on a Windows XP (Home Edition), and it does Windows Updates
I got this in the blue driver screen: 0x000000D1 (0x00000004,0x00000002,0x00000001,0x83882390)

I unfortunately don't have the install disk, nor remember what has become of it in the past 5 years.

[Minoru]

-_-;; That complicates things just a bit. Without the ability to log into windows, you really kind of need the recovery console to fix windows normally..

[Zelina]

Let say I have the disk (We are still looking for it- if not seeing if we can get a copy or something), what would I have to do then?

[Minoru]

First, you'd put the recovery cd/dvd into the cd rom drive. You then need to restart the computer and boot from the cd. As long as you move quickly, you can turn on the computer, put the cd in the cdrom drive and press ctrl-alt-del before the computer shows the splash screen.(that says windows XP.) That way, you don't have to reboot the computer to boot from the cd.

A text might pop up that says something like "Press any key to boot from cd..." If this happens, press a key and boot from the cd. You should see a stuff loading for an installation. Press 'R' on your keyboard to go to the recovery console. Once you arive at a prompt, you should run the a couple of repair programs.

In the prompt, run the fallowing commands:

chkdsk C: /p /r
fixboot C:
fixmbr C:

 If typing in those commands in the recovery console doesn't work, I'm not sure what to do past that point. If you end up having to re-intall windows but need to back up information off the hard drive first, I can help you with that.

NOTE TO PEOPLE WITH MULITPLE OS'S INSTALLED:
If you have multiple Operating Systems Installed (ex. Linux and Windows XP), running fixboot and fixmbr will get rid of any boot loaders that you have installed. If you only have Windows installed on your computer, which I'm sure is the case, you can just ignore this message.

[Zelina]

Alright. And I keep all my files programs if the repair works, correct?

[Minoru]

 Yes you would. By typing in the commands you are only checking the disk for errors(chkdsk), fixing the boot files(fixboot) and fixing the Master Boot Record.(fixmbr) I would think that the most likely cause of the computer stalling were it does would be because there are disk errors that need to be fixed. I'm fairly certain that it's not the Master Boot record, but I thought I'd add it in there for good mesure. It COULD be some boot files that are corrupt, that's why I added the fixboot command in there. Regardless, non of these commands should hurt your computer at all. The worst case senario is that they are unaffective.