Vista boots to black screen with white arrow

[Tony D]

I have a Vista laptop and it's not working properly, First thing I did was to boot to Safe Mode. I also tried Last Known Good Configuration. No matter how I try to start I get the same results:

 

The machine starts,

Windows starts and you see the scrolling status 'eye',

The screen goes black and there's only a white cursor arrow.

 

Some things work like NUM LOCK, SCROLL LOCK, and CAPS LOCK as witnessed by the indicator lights on the laptop top panel. CRT/LCD toggle works with ext display. Cntrl-Alt-Del does nothing.

 

From what I've read, this is due to file corruption and Vista needs to be repaired. Instructions are to start from a Vista CD, choose your language and then select Repair. Has anyone here done this? Does it work without deleting user files and applications?

 

-td

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Have you tried the Vista Recovery ISO from here Tony?

 

http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/downloads/4256-windows-vista-recovery-console.html

[Tony D]

Hey Wolfey - yes I had tried it. Again I was hesitant as it said it was going to Install Windows. I didn't know if it would delete user files and applications so I stopped there.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Did you see the option to Repair your Computer when you booted from the vista disk Tony?

[Tony D]

With the Vista disk, I didn't see the option to Repair. However, I may not have gone far enough as I was concerned that user files would be deleted and I hadn't backed them up yet.

 

With the Recovery disk, with your push (thanks for that) I took it one step further and I see there's an option to Repair. That would be great. However, I will back up the user files beforehand in just in case something goes wrong. I just don't have the time right now.

 

But thanks for your suggestion. I'll back up the user files and try the Repair from the Recovery disk.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Ok mate let us know how you go.

[RandyL]

I've used the startup repair on that disk. It worked great.

[Tony D]

I tried the Recovery Disk and it worked. At the first screen you select Language, Keyboard, and something else - it may have been region, I forget. Then click NEXT. This screen gives you a choice to REPAIR. The next screen allowed you to do a SYSTEM RESTORE. That was my choice. I restored to a recent System Checkpoint and was able to boot to Safe Made.

 

The next boot was a Normal boot and that worked also. It wanted to Activate Windows. When I continued with the activation, I found that this machine doesn't have a valid copy of Vista. That may be what got the guy in trouble. It's a Dell is XP-MC sticker. I'll bet there's something fishy going on here. I will not continue until I see he has a legal copy of Vista.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I would have chosen Repair but no matter.

 

It obviously sounds to be booting to a point where it was continually asking for activation.

 

I will not continue until I see he has a legal copy of Vista.

 

Neither would I.

 

Best of luck Tony.

[LimeBowler]

Same Problem

 

Hi, currently i'm having the same problem with my PC. I've done what you guys have talked about but unfortunatly my computer can't find any restore points. :(

 

Is there any other way that i can get my computer working again?

[wellies]

Hello LimeBowler and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. I think it would get better to start a new thread for your own difficulties. List all the details in that. There may be small differences with your own fault that would make the advice different to that given to the original poster in this thread.