compter knowitalls required

Ion · Post by **Ion** » Sat May 14, 2011 11:25 am

ok need a little help
acer desktop
vista 32 home edition
2gb ram
quad core
8400 256mb

ive surfed numerous sites trying to work this to no avail as the info they give is sketchy at best

essentially im getting black screen on start-up after windows bar does its thing. came back to the comp after dinner to find screen had gone to sleep so a quick waggle of the mouse & bash of keys.... no response. Turned off & on BLACKSCREEN!!!

now im no compter wiz so any help to try fix this would be graciously accepted, ideally i want to keep all data. last resort complete wipe and fresh install (if ican find my disks )

i have freshly installed some lexmark x1270 drivers afew days prior &
had minecraft & skype sitting idle at the time of original unresponsiveness

thanks ion

PS Typing with a ps3 controlller takes ages ha

Mastametz · Post by **Mastametz** » Sat May 14, 2011 11:37 am

first thing to try is pulling the damn power cord out for a minute and then trying to boot up again. sometimes sleep mode bugs out and not everything fully sleeps/wakes and @#(! like this happens.
if that doesn't work, tap f8 while booting and try start in safe mode. if you can boot up in safemode, then it's likely a driver problem.

start with that.

Ion · Post by **Ion** » Sat May 14, 2011 12:02 pm

i left it all unplugged over night still same issue f8 only gives start normally or the repair/restore to earlier date even after following the repair/restore choice n reboot the issue persists, i can find no wayaround it

Post by **Raveen** » Sat May 14, 2011 2:10 pm

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows...er-in-safe-mode

Follow those instructions to boot into safe mode.

Psychosis · Post by **Psychosis** » Sat May 14, 2011 2:31 pm

Yup, safe mode, usually jamming f5 or f8 during startup will kick to the boot menu, let us know what happens

germloucks · Post by **germloucks** » Sun May 15, 2011 3:12 am

If you cant get into safe mode, you should try using the windows vista disc that came with your computer. The reason is that you can boot the startup repair program from your windows vista disc and it will fix most problems that stop windows from starting successfully. \\

Just put the disc in, and your default BIOS boot order should check your CDROM before your harddrive for a bootable volume. Once the prompt comes up, you should have several options to select from, and startup repair should be the one you should select first.

Pos_21 · Post by **Pos_21** » Sun May 15, 2011 8:25 am

Don't just press it once, sometimes the timing can be weird and vary by machine. Don't be afraid to mash F8 until desired results are achieved. This may require more than one attempt.

Ion · Post by **Ion** » Sun May 15, 2011 10:07 am

Well I remembered all the important stuff i had has been backed up which i found yesterday buried ha with the restore disks,did alt f10 to restore via disk to factory settings.

The full restore hasn't worked either as when windows goes to start up for first time you get no menus etc as you Would expect to input info etc users blah blah, instead it will sit on the spinning ring for a while with the vista background then reboot.

There on after it will proceed to blue screen reboot rinse and repeat.

Can't lanch in safe mode as windows hasnt installed properly, so I reckon there has been a hardware failure somewhere?

JimmyNighthawk · Post by **JimmyNighthawk** » Sun May 15, 2011 10:14 am

One word to the idea of pulling the plug.

Pull the mainboard-battery for quarter an hour - then your computer will be electricity-empty for sure.

ps: Do not forget to touch some metal stuff like your heating perhaps, so you are not going to burn your hardware with your electricity in your body!

raumvogel · Post by **raumvogel** » Sun May 15, 2011 10:33 am

Do what nighthawk said.....then wipe the drive and re-install.