No desktop or anything else.

[BurnChao]

This is Windows Vista SP1 (Build 6001) , 32bit, Dell Inspiron 1525.

The desktop does not boot. There's no taskbar, no icons, no background. There's no task manager with ctrl-alt-del, nor any kind of response from touching any key. Just a mouse pointer (the mouse pointer DOES respond to the touchpad, but does NOT respond to any right- or left-clicking) on a dark blue screen (not BSOD color). I've tried booting in safe-mode, safe-mode with networking, and safe-mode with command prompt. They all have the same response. The only difference safe-mode does (different than normal mode) is that it displays across the top "Microsoft (R) Windows (R) (Build 6001: Service Pack 1)" and it says safe-mode in all four corners, on a black screen.

I'm sorry I can't give any more information, but I can't get anything else out of the laptop. I don't know if there was anything recently installed or updated (I wasn't using it, my wife was, and she knows so little about computers that she's unsure if she was installing anything, or if windows was updating).

I would use a restore point, but I can't get far enough to use one. Any help or suggestion will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[SIW2]

Hi,

Do you have any kind of installation or recovery disc?

 

[BurnChao]

I have no recovery disk. I have an installation disk, and can reformat, but that's a last resort.

Right now, the only thing I can think of to do is to boot a live cd (linux), recover any data, and then reformat. But I would like to make an effort of fixing it first. I just never encountered this kind of problem before, and google's no help. I know it getting for enough to load some drivers, since I can move the mouse pointer. But nothing else is loading. I don't even get an hourglass, like it's trying to finish booting. It just gives up mid-boot.

 

[smarteyeball]

Did you add any new software or try patching any OS files before this happened?

 

[SIW2]

Hi,

You could try booting the installation dvd, going to system recovery options and see if you can do a system restore from there.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/194765-system-recovery-options.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76905-system-restore-how.html

Hope it helps.

 

[BurnChao]

Did you add any new software or try patching any OS files before this happened?

As I said, I wasn't using it when it died. My wife gives different answers to that question depending on how I ask:
"Were you installing anything?"
"Oh no, I didn't do anything!"
"Was the computer installing anything?"
"Oh yeah, but now nothing installs when I turn it on!"
"Arrrrgh!"
Maybe there was an update, maybe not. I have no way of finding out.

You could try booting the installation dvd, going to system recovery options and see if you can do a system restore from there.

Oh cool, from that tutorial, there appears to be an option for start up repair, instead of recovery. That sounds like just the thing I need. I won't be able to try it out until tonight or tomorrow, but I think that'll fix it. I'll update when I can get the time to dig up the CD and try it out. Thanks for the help.

 

[BurnChao]

Well, I dug up the CD, and I tried the startup repair, it didn't find any problems. I tried all the diagnostic tests, no problems found. I tried the most recent restore point, a week old restore point, and a month old restore point. No luck. Nothing has changed. I also tired a boot logging startup, but I have no idea how to access the log to discover where the boot failed.

Anyone have any ideas? It thinks it successfully boots, but there's nothing. No desktop, no taskbar, no task manager, nothing at all but a mouse pointer with no clicking capacity.

 

[SIW2]

Hi,

Try this:

Press and hold the F8 key as your computer restarts. You need to press F8 before the Windows logo appears.

On the Advanced Boot Options screen, use the arrow keys to highlight Last Known Good Configuration, and then press ENTER.

Hope it helps

 

[BurnChao]

I tried the last known good configuration. Sorry, I forgot to mention it. I tried pretty much everything from the F8 boot loader. That's where I enabled boot logging.