Troubleshooting Black Screen with Cursor

[nowwhatnapster]

Friends laptop boots up to a blank/black screen with a movable mouse cursor and hangs right there. No keyboard commands work. System can only be shut down by holding power for 5 sec.

I backed up her data, and did a windows repair via the installation disc.

Didnt change a thing...

I was sure that was gonna fix it now i could use some suggestions. Any Ideas what to troubleshoot next?

*Note* before doing the above i tried the typical things like, Last known good configuration, halt on error, safe mode, vga mode. all of those yeild the same results Blank screen with a movable cursor.

*Edit* Running CHKDSK C: /R ..... seems to be the next logical step.

*Edit* CHKDSK found errors and fixed them, however still boots to a black screen with movable cursor *sigh* im running out of ideas

 

[n3f0ur]

If you have backed up her data, start fresh and do a clean install. A laptop has a Windows license on a label on the bottom of the case.

chkdsk isn't magic. If it fixed errors, that means some files/data would be lost forever.

 

[nowwhatnapster]

yea after chk disk didn't work i gave up and just formatted the damn thing. BTW I REALLY HATE DELL's Driver downloads. OMG They mass produce these laptops and they don't even have their own driver page. They have a generic driver page that has like 8 different network drivers to pick from... I did my detective work in the BIOS but still. There are 3 devices i couldn't figure what the hell they were because dell is retarded, never gonna buy from them ever ever haha. Glad it wasn't my laptop. Anyways i got all the components working, audio, network, wireless, guess those 3 devices weren't very useful.

*end rant*

 

[Zoron]

Download the Intel chipset drivers (if it has an Intel chipset, that is). Don't download them from Dell, download them from Intel. I'm almost positive that the drivers you seek will be in the Intel chipset package.

 

[nowwhatnapster]

your prolly right, and i think i did download a chipset package from dell, not sure which i got, but i dont care its not my laptop, and im not getting paid squat for what i did. so f*** it.

 

[n3f0ur]

Or the easiest way: install only network driver, do windows updates which will find and link to hardware drivers.

 

[nowwhatnapster]

*** in take advantage of me. /sigh