Black Screen with Cursor after Vista splash screen

[Lanarkshire IT]

hi all

trying to repair a Toshiba Satellite A300 Laptop with Vista installed.

The system boots OK but once the Vista splash screen has passed it hangs with a black screen and white mouse pointer.

I tried a system startup repair from the Vista CD - no joy
I tried system restore and was informed that there weren't any restore points
Scanned using UBCD4WIN (Avira, SuperAntispyware etc) - removed some crap
I tried Last Known Good - no joy

Any other ideas as the Toshiba HDD recovery does a full HDD format / reinstall which I think is daft - surely a non-destructive recovery option should be present like on other OEM kit?

any info appreciated

 

[Bobbye]

2 other people are reporting a black screen with a "flashing underscore." Is that you also?

 

[Lanarkshire IT]

2 other people are reporting a black screen with a "flashing underscore." Is that you also?

Not me mate

 

[Bobbye]

Okay- what is the reason you are trying to repair this system?

 

[mrturtle]

My step brother had the exact same problem, it was a Toshiba as well so I know how bad the recovery disks are, lol.

Have you tried using a live Linux cd to get any photos/ important data off the comp first? That's what I did then no other choice than to reinstall (probably one of the better options as this means that there will be less chance of it happening in the future if it was a software problem), or maybe you could use this method to check the logs to see if there are any indicators to what was causing the problems.

 

[mrturtle]

You said that "I tried a system startup repair from the Vista CD - no joy
I tried system restore and was informed that there weren't any restore points
Scanned using UBCD4WIN (Avira, SuperAntispyware etc) - removed some crap
I tried Last Known Good - no joy" And I just read this on the UBCD4-WIN website:

"You can boot your Vista system with UBCD4Win but use caution. First, if you used 2k3 as your "source" to build UBCD4Win do NOT use that CD on a Vista system it will damage the Vista restore points. There have been a few bad reports with other Bart PE based boot CD's, but the cause of the problem has been a few incompatible tools (mostly registry restore software). By default there are no programs know to cause damage to a Vista system when UBCD4Win is booted on it. Still please use caution with Vista systems."

Did you run UBCD4-WIN before or after suing the system startup from the UBCD4WIN?

 

[Lanarkshire IT]

Okay- what is the reason you are trying to repair this system?

Er .... to get it working

regards

 

[Bobbye]

Er .... to get it working

I really don't feel like playing a game with you!

Do I actually have to ask you what was "broken"??
Do I actually have to ask you if if ever worked?
Do I actually have to ask you what happened when it "stopped working"??

I think not!

 

[Lanarkshire IT]

I really don't feel like playing a game with you!

Do I actually have to ask you what was "broken"??
Do I actually have to ask you if if ever worked?
Do I actually have to ask you what happened when it "stopped working"??

I think not!

M8 come on, be fair

I'm not interested in playing games

You asked what is the reason i want to repair this system. Why does anyone want to repair a system? Cos its not working properly I presume.

regards

 

[Bobbye]

Repairing system can be done because of a hardware problem, a software problem, a malware problem or all of the above.

The "fix" will depend on what "broke it" in the first place.