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Black screen

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by teutonuz

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We have a 2003 Dell XP with start-up problem.
It goes through the Windows XP screen and then to
a black screen with different choices in white
Safe Mode and so on. The up and down arrows will
work but after "Enter" it freezes and nothing
will work anymore, the computer has to be shut
down with the start button. We tried F8, F12,
Ctrl-Alt-Del, Esc. but nothing changes. What should we look for next?
Paul G Finster
teutonuz@yahoo.com

5 replies

by tintoman

I get service calls on this subject every day, usually the result is data corruption or sometimes a damaged hard drive.
I would suggest the quickest and most user friendly way for you to go about this is to boot the machine from the windows installation CD if you have one, follw the instructions through to pressing F8 to accept the license agreement, then as long as setup detects the windows installation on your hard drive you will have the option to repair it without loss of data.
You will be required to type in the license key during this process.
This is not guaranteed to work as it isn't necessarily windows files which are corrupt.

by teutonuz

Tintoman, thanks for your advice. I tried the
installation disk, but the result was the same.
The black screen with the different choices -
"safe mode" etc. One of them was "system check"
I ran it and it came out clean. After selecting
"safe mode" and "enter" it froze and I had to
shut it down manually.

teutonuz@

by Former member

When you get the white text next time select "safe mode" (this will take sometime, so make a cup of tea) you will see a list of text going up on your screen, if all is ok you will see a screen asking for your password enter the password, once in you can go to "system restore": Start > programs > accessories > system tools > system restore. When down all should be ok. If not please get another hdd and load on windows xp disc, from the new drive you will be able to access all (or near all) of you files and applications.
Hope all works out for you. Please post back if you have anymore problems or questions.

by teutonuz

Peconet, thanks for your advice. However it did not work out. After "safe mode" this list came up, but that was all, nothing else came up and
none of the keys were working. After 30 Min. I
shut it down. Then I tried it with the installation disk and the result was the same.
I will get another hdd and load it with the xp program disk. I will keep you informed.

teutonuz@

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