P.c won't boot. Help!

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Tamagotchi

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G'day.
I Need help urgently.
Here's my scenario.
On Saturday the maid unplugged my p.c that was still on.
On reconnecting everything (cables etc.) and starting up again, the p.c won't boot.

Strangely enough after some time the arrow cursor appears on a blank black screen.
It is even possible to move it around the screen.
After a longer period without moving the cursor the windows XP screensaver appears. After clicking the mouse it reverts back to the blank screen.

When clicking the mouse again it just makes a beeping sound everytime. Still no desktop or start menu or anything appears.

Can anyone help with this please? Much appreciated.
 
So basicly your pc does boot all the way to the welcome screen but then remains black ?

what you can try do is apon bootup press the F8 key, then choose "boot from last good known configuration". windows will then boot from the last snapshot it took of your pc working.

if that doesnt work you can try boot into safemode "press F8 at startup and choose safemode" , once in windows do a system restore.

how does the beep sound, is it long or short beeps ? beeping could be faulty hardware, in which case it normaly wouldnt go all the way to the loading screen, also check then none of your keyboard buttons are stuck. it is also possible that your profile manager got hurt somehow, still the beeping bothers me.
 
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Ctrl-alt-del menu openable on this blank desktop?

If yes

File -> run -> explorer
 
thriel's advice is sound...

Except before doing a system restore, you might try getting into Windows through safe mode and doing a proper shutdown, then attempting to boot into Windows normally.

If you don't have System Restore turned on, try and get hold of your install disc, and boot off that; choosing "Repair" at the appropriate time.
 
Okay here it is in sequence.

Press power button on tower case.
Power light comes on.
Hard drive activity light comes on.(flashing)
DVD Rom light comes on.(Flashing)
No BIOS screen appears.
After about 2 mins arrow cursor appears on screen, but all else is black, no welcome note or icons.Just the arrow.
Arrow cursor responds to mouse when moved.
After about 10-15 mins of idle Windows XP screensaver appears and bobs around screen.
Move mouse and screen reverts back to black with only arrow visible.
Click on mouse and a short beep is audible everytime a button is pressed.

Get frustrated and pull plug in socket to start over again.
Swear, curse and talk to myself and p.c and ...Repeat!

Thanks for the help so far...
 
Ctrl-alt-del menu openable on this blank desktop?
NO

So basicly your pc does boot all the way to the welcome screen but then remains black ?
No . no welcome screen.
 
I have helped someone with a similar problem, so you can try this:

Press Alt and Tab and see whether you can switch to another process.

Your logon screen may be hidden behind your desktop. If this works then I can help you further.

He had a system logon that was forced by a processon running on his system and this logon was hidden behind the normal welcome screen.
 
if you cannot get into safemode either, just hook out your windows disc and do a repair, its easy, takes 45mins and you wont lose any data or anything.

to do a repair, run the windows installation off the disc as you normaly would, but at the partition selection screen, press r for repair. ( it will actually scan for a current windows installation, then it should show you a partition with exisiting windows on it, at that screen you push R )
 
Strange problem... But suffice it to say that your computer IS booting; you just can't see it. Try and repeatedly press F8 once you've turned on. Do it until something shows up on the screen. Could be that for some reason, your graphics card is not outputting video until in Windows (yes, it IS Windows).

You might want to repeatedly press either the up or down arrow key too, because once the menu that allows you to boot into safe mode appears, you only have a limited amount of time to make a selection (pressing up or down should change that).

The other option is to turn your computer on, count to 20, then pull the plug. Hopefully, you'll pull the plug while Windows is still starting up, forcing the PC to boot into safe mode the next time.
 
I think everyone is missing this one important point... :confused: When you turn the pc on, you see nothing until (say) 90secs has pasted and then you see a cursor. Nothing else. Not even the BIOS screen... Have you tried a different display card?
 
It was the gpu after all.
Tried another and problem solved.

Thanks guys.

Wonder why it would display the arrow and XP screensaver though?

Nice one Sharkbait!
 
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