Blank screen with cursor before windows loads (vista Ultimate)

[wronghead]

Hello everyone.

 

This is my first post here, I have been trawling the internet all day for a solution.

 

I have recently reformatted my computer and wiped it, and put on windows vista ultimate edition. The problem I had before and the reason why I wiped It was because I was getting a blue screen of death bios loop on xp, as soon as the computer got to the windows loading bar it restarted...

 

Anyway, installed Vista Ultimate with no problems atall, for the last 2 weeks or so anyway. But today I seem to have come accross a problem similar to the XP issue.

 

Computer loads but straight after the (hit any key to continue, F6 for bios etc) the computer hangs on a black screen with a white flashing cursor.

 

Now I have done various things that may have triggered this issue today.

1. I updated my java

2. I Installed the newest nvidia drivers for my graphics card (gforce 6800)

3. I disabled windows defender as I am using Opera and was told it is 100% safe to use as it only has 2% market share

 

I downloaded and burned the vista recovery disk. I can get into that OK. It detects no start up issues, however system restore, even back 3 days still dosent fix the problem.

 

any idea what this could be? My PC was a custom build and I can't seem to get into anywhere to access the spec but i suppose I can sort that out if anyone would like to know.

 

Help...much appreciated :)

[Boomer]

This could be a hard-drive issue. If you get as far as desktop screen check out the SMART drive entries using something like speedfan. You may have to ensure SMART drive technology is enabled in your BIOS setup.

Drive health may be low.

[Plastic Nev]

A couple of questions to clarify things a little,

first you say you wiped (I assume you mean reformatted) and installed Vista Ultimate, What did you use to install it please?

 

You also mention you downloaded and burned to disk Vista Recovery, what exactly was it and where did you download it from? Was it the Vista recovery console?

 

One thing you didn't need to do was to disable Windows defender, and also what sort of antivirus do you have if any?

 

Answers to the above will help a great deal in going further for you.

 

Nev.