windows vista hanging on "welcome screen"

Copper_pipe

Hi all,
IV a laptop running vista was running fine until I turned it on this morning.

it hangs on the welcome screen for a bit, Then a black screen with just the mouse cursor appears.
how do I fix this

yoyo

Are there any clicking sounds coming from the machine? Did it update recently? Moved this over to the Windows forum for ya jic it's a software issue

Nick

Copper_pipe

yoyo wrote: »

Are there any clicking sounds coming from the machine? Did it update recently? Moved this over to the Windows forum for ya jic it's a software issue

Nick

The windows sound comes can be heard

SomethingElse

When you turn on the laptop keep tapping F8 and select 'Safe Mode'.
A load of file names come up on the screen. Check for which one it hangs on

Copper_pipe

\crcdisk.sys

yoyo

Try tapping F8 again at boot up and choose "Last Known Good Config." and see if it helps. It might also be no harm in running startup repair see here

Nick

Copper_pipe

No change unfortunately,

Stheno

Copper_pipe wrote: »

No change unfortunately,

can you get into safe mode?

Copper_pipe

No same problem, black screen with the mouse cursor is the farthest it gets

SomethingElse

Copper_pipe wrote: »

\crcdisk.sys

Try running chkdsk from the Command Prompt, it might help.

Copper_pipe

Is that safe mode with command prompt?

SomethingElse

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Is that safe mode with command prompt?

Will it boot into it?

You may need to boot from a disk if it won't

Copper_pipe

No it won't boot into it, I don't have the disc. Can I download it

deisedave

Do you have any files that you want to get incase it doesnt start up, use [ Linux boot ] disc and get your files, then reformat the drive and do a clean installation.

SomethingElse

deisedave wrote: »

Do you have any files that you want to get incase it doesnt start up, use [ linux ] disc and get your files, then reformat the drive and do a clean installation.

You could do that but you'll lose all your programs and settings if you do.

I think this is the disk here http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

Copper_pipe

Can i boot the recovery disc image from a usb, as I only have a netbook with no disc drive to download it

Copper_pipe

My friend has a 64 bit win 7 key and he said he'll sell for cheap. can I use this even though I have a 32 bit vista previously installed

SomethingElse

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Can i boot the recovery disc image from a usb, as I only have a netbook with no disc drive to download it

There should be a way but I've never tried it.

Windows 8 (upgrade) was available for €15, I'm not sure if that deal is still available. It'd probably be in the bargain alerts forum if it is

It's free for you to do a clean install of Vista again, but there are better operating systems out there. (I use Ubuntu)

Copper_pipe

The Laptop had XP when it was bought a few years back, then A friend put Vista on it as i needed it for a printer.

What do i need for a clean install?

All have the vista recovery disc

Copper_pipe

Anyone?

stevek93

Try the vista recovery disc first could be possible the hard drive is dead.

SomethingElse

Do you have a Vista license key on the base of the netbook? If you don't you would have to buy a license to do a clean install (I was assuming earlier that it was Vista when you purchased it, sorry )

There's a method here to make a recovery usb.

http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7805

RodgersLFC

If its loading all the way to the pointer screen its unlikely that the hard drive is fried, its most likely a corrupted boot sector file.

If you have the vista installation disc, boot into it and try the "repair" option.

If that doesnt work, and you need to retrieve your files, if you know anyone with a HDD docking station, get them to remove the hard drive and dock it with another machine and pull your files off it through Windows Explorer. Then format the drive, put it back into your own machine and do a clean reinstallation. Problem should be solved then.

Capt'n Midnight

Copper_pipe wrote: »

The Laptop had XP when it was bought a few years back,

There are no legit XP CD's online.

Don't download any because you don't know what's on them.

if you ask over on laptops forum someone may know the recovery procedure for your brand of laptop - some have partitions, some have disk images, some gave disks, some vendors sold spare media (not cheap but...)

If you have a full transferable version of vista with the COA and license then you could use that. If it says OEM you can't use it. If it says up grade you could only use if your friend upgraded a non-oem transferrable windows license and then transferred the license to you.

Overheal

I had a Register PC go down on me at work last night, it was hanging on startup (it's heavily modified in-house setup, but still). Our help desk suggested the following:

-Power down the system
-Reseat the Keyboard connection (...)
-Disconnect the power cable
-Press and hold the power button for at least 10 seconds to dissipate the bus
-Reconnect power
-Fire on the system
-Pray

I have no idea if they managed to remotely do any other troubleshooting to the system during that but they never said one way or the other. Worth a shot, don't expect much.

dazberry

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Then a black screen with just the mouse cursor appears.
how do I fix this

This is known as the Vista black screen of death, and if you google it you'll see there are apparently a number of causes and fixes for the issue. Twice I was given a laptop to fix with the BSOD and twice it subsequently worked by taking out the hard drive and plugging it into another computer, resetting/fixing all the NTFS security permissions on the drive and them putting it back. YMMV.

D.

Copper_pipe

if a do a clean install of windows 7 will i need to install the drivers on the laptop again?

Also is 32 bit the same as x86

RodgersLFC

Copper_pipe wrote: »

if a do a clean install of windows 7 will i need to install the drivers on the laptop again?

Also is 32 bit the same as x86

x86 is 32 bit yep - you dont need a 64 bit system unless you're running over 4gb RAM.

Windows 7 is pretty good for finding drivers of its own accord, but speaking from experience, I would advise you to download a driver for your ethernet card from the card manufacturer's website. That way, if you are left with the ethernet card not working after the reinstall, you can load the drivers, get online, and use Windows Update to find drivers for anything else you may need.

Not having ethernet/wireless drivers after a reinstall is the biggest nuisance. So long as you have those, its easy after that.

Copper_pipe

OK thanks,

Copper_pipe

SomethingElse wrote: »

Try running chkdsk from the Command Prompt, it might help.

Sorry to be bringing up an old thread, but because I'm on midterm I said I'll try get this working again.

I ran chkdsk in command prompt and results are below

stevek93

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Sorry to be bringing up an old thread, but because I'm on midterm I said I'll try get this working again.

I ran chkdsk in command prompt and results are below

Where are you running the command prompt from?