Not black screen - but, computer won't move past partial Windows logo

suzazz

Honorable
May 18, 2012
1
0
10,510
Hello,
Hello,
Last week I had a sudden black screen on an Acer One Aspire. It was working through an external monitor, though.

Then, it seemed to 'right itself', but took forever to boot up. Now, it will go as far as the blue windows background and 'curvy foursquare' part of the logo - but there is nowhere to put password, and there is no start menu ) or the other colors associated with the Windows start up screen. I finally managed to get a task manager up (but, nothing else). It states that 35 processes are running in the background. That makes no sense. It has been sitting in the same mode (even with hitting escape and control-alt-delete or removing battery) for over an hour and has not gone any further. This is a 2-year-old 10.1" model with Windows 7 starter. Up to the minute I received my first black screen, the computer worked great. I also have the computer elevated on little feet, so it promotes airflow - and it doesn't feel hot. I should also mention that instead of being able to do what I need through an external monitor (like I could before) - it reads exactly the same as the laptop, now. Help! :) P.S. I have NO idea of what category this falls under - so, forgive me if I got it wrong.
Thank you.