Vista Sign-on -> Blank Screen

Friend of mine has a relatively new Dell Vista SP1 laptop. It hung
yesterday and needed a hard reset to power down.

Now it boots to the "choose safe mode, choose normal" screen. But,
after normal login, it just displays a blank screen. It does not seem
to be completely hung as the mouse arrow is still there and responds.
But, Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing. There does not seem to be any further
disk activity.

It's the same in safe mode - you get the little "safe mode' text at
the corners of the screen and the version ID at the top, but nothing
else on the screen.

Any ideas on what might shake it loose short of a full reload?

+Bob+ wrote:

> Friend of mine has a relatively new Dell Vista SP1 laptop. It hung
> yesterday and needed a hard reset to power down.
>
> Now it boots to the "choose safe mode, choose normal" screen. But,
> after normal login, it just displays a blank screen. It does not seem
> to be completely hung as the mouse arrow is still there and responds.
> But, Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing. There does not seem to be any further
> disk activity.
>
> It's the same in safe mode - you get the little "safe mode' text at
> the corners of the screen and the version ID at the top, but nothing
> else on the screen.
>
> Any ideas on what might shake it loose short of a full reload?

Your friend might try Startup Repair. He needs to put the Vista install DVD
in and boot from it. Pressing F12 when the computer first starts up will
give him a one-time boot menu so he can boot from the DVD.

Repair Windows Vista using Startup Repair -
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...torial148.html

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:53:46 -0800, Malke <>
wrote:

>> Any ideas on what might shake it loose short of a full reload?
>
>Your friend might try Startup Repair. He needs to put the Vista install DVD
>in and boot from it. Pressing F12 when the computer first starts up will
>give him a one-time boot menu so he can boot from the DVD.
>
>Repair Windows Vista using Startup Repair -
>http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...torial148.html

That's for the reminder Malke... this is a Dell and I think they still
include a startable disk. I tend to forget that since many vendors are
shipping "reload only" restore disks these days.