XP boots to black screen before "welcome/login" screen

[Boidy]

PLEASE HELP

ok, heres the deal

when I boot my PC it boots normally (ie past the XP logo with loading bar) then goes to a black screen with the mouse curser. keyboard seems unresponsive.

So, I tried booting into dos using the XP msdos start disk created in the "format" tool (on my mates PC)
when that starts it will only access A: drive (not my cdroms/dvdrom drives nor my harddisk)

I used fdisk to make sure my HDD was recognised but it has no drive letter nor anything under the "system" heading

I tried using a win ME startup disk and it says my HDD is has no supported partition (I figured that was becouse ME doesnt support my NTFS partition) So I still cant access my hard drive

I enterd into BIOS sttings and my hardrive is still being booted as normal (it was) - I also tried resetting to default settings but still no change.

I tried starting in safe mode - no change, I tried using last known working settings - no change, I've tried every thing I can think of - but still no change.

I even tried using my friends harddrive as my primary drive to make sure its not a hardware problem - but it boots normally with that drive, and will not pick up MY harddrive if I set it as a secondry drive (using the jumpers on the drive and also in BIOS)

I cant think of anything else to try.

If you have any ideas or if youve had this problem.... PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE... reply

cheers.
BOIDY

 

[Comtech]

Boot to your XP CD.
Select new install, not upgrade.
Hit "R" to enter the repair console.
At the prompt, type: fixboot
Again at the prompt, type: fixmbr
Take out the CD and restart.
If that doesn't fix it, boot to the XP CD again.
Start a new install
Hit F8 to agree to the TOS/License.
When prompted to repair a current installation, hit "R".
Have the CD key handy, and let it run.
This will reinstall XP over top of itself, and usually fixes many problems.

Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[linney]

314503 - Computer Stops Responding with a Black Screen When You Start Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314503&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

If you end up doing a reinstall of windows you will have to redo all your windows updates.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp