[Loz189]

My father's laptop keeps coming up with a black screen after the XP logo and won't move from there. I've tried starting in safemode but that won't work either, same problem occurs. It did have a virus/trojan horse in it before but a scan revealed it and my father "dealt with it" apparently. Could this be related? I'm not much use with computer related things but I'm better then my father so I'm willing to give things a try. I don't know if we have a windows XP CD, will have a look but I don't recall it coming with one. Is there anything I can do in the meantime that might fix this? The computer is a year and a half old, Toshiba laptop.

 

[TriggerFinger]

sure looks like a corrupted Windows installation. an XP CD would really come in handy. but since you do not have one at the moment, you can try if you have a recovery partition.

boot the laptop and when the logo appears, tap on F10 or F11 (dunno what laptop you have but either of the two may work). if you do have a recovery partition, consider repairing or reinstalling XP (if these choices are available to you).

 

[Loz189]

Looks like it doesn't have a recovery partition. Still no luck finding a CD either. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TriggerFinger]

ok since we do not have any recovery partition or a recovery CD or an XP install CD, try a Linux Live CD (Knoppix or PCLinuxOS).

this would NOT fix any Windows problems but it will tell us if the symptom is caused by hardware or your Windows install. if the results point to a corrupt Windows, then you need to reinstall or do a repair. you will definitely need an XP install CD here.

visit your laptop manufacturer website to order a copy of recovery CD. HP/Compaq recovery CD costs something around $20 the last time i checked.