Win 7 boots stright to black screen with cursor

[sydox10000]

hello all, my appologize if this has been previously posted this is my first question and i didn't find a search option.

i like to say that i'm experienced with computers but I’m a Linux user and my friend, who needs help, has Windows 7 machine. Unfortunately I’m not as up to date with windows as i should be i suppose.

it's a dell (still waiting on the model number) and when it boots up you see the dell splash screen and then it boots to justa black screen with a cursor on it. I then booted it off of the windows 7 cd and tried the automatic repair system restore and the bootrec series (bootrec /fixmbr... /fix boot... /scanos ect) through the command prompt and nothing seems to work. although when in the command prompt i can see all of their file and even open the text files with notepad. this tells me it's a boot problem but i can 't fix it.

bootrec /scanos tells me it finds no windows but on the way to the comand prompt while in the gui it does see windows 7 and it also sees the restore points as well.

i'm not afraid to put the hard drive in my computer and work on it through linux but i wouldn't know what files to try to fix

Thanks in advanced!!!

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

Specs ?

All the best Brett

 

[sydox10000]

it's a Dell Inspiron 560, sorry i don't know the exact specs it's my friends computer and I’m doing this home cause of course I can't from his house. although i don't believe the exact specs should be needed for this problem. i know it's a windows 7 boot problem.

the link below is a pdf of the inspiron 560 570 right from dells web site

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CF0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsupport.dell.com%2Fsupport%2Fedocs%2Fsystems%2Finsp560mt%2Fen%2Fcs%2Fcs_en.pdf&ei=i9UZUKqzCLDl6gHmxoCgDA&usg=AFQjCNFMqrU3EMCscC5zMRYtX3Ehreju8Q&sig2=-DU6vmm_W3T9rr5MDsWk9g

thanks again