XP Pro won't boot all the way ~ hangs and I get a black screen with white arrow

techireland

Hi, can anybody help...
XP Pro won't boot all the way it Hangs after Initial Boot and I get a
black screen with white arrow that will move at my mouse or pointer
commands, but just a black screen nothing more, I have also checked it
with an external monitor and the same, first it appears to be booting
up, then I get the screen that offers safe mode, or start windows
normally or using the last known configuration that worked or
something similar, whatever the choice the result is the same, black
screen and white mouse cursor arrow ~ Only difference is if I choose
SAFE MODE then I get the four White text Safe Mode things in each of
the corners and all else is black with the white cursor arrow? Any
ideas? When it happened me I had installed XP Pro's SP2 about a week ago and just before everything crashed I had downloaded the most recent
windows update. I was running quite low on memory space at that time..here's the kind of stuff I've tried.

1. In the BIOS setup I wanted to temporarily disable the L1 and L2 cache to l allow the computer to boot and then remove SP2 but this option was not available in my Bios or if it was I couldn't see it but I'm nearly sure it just wasn't there.

2. Boot with an alternative OS or to the safe mode command line. Not possible, as only one OS loaded and when safe mode is tried to load the result is the same, black screen and white mouse cursor arrow ~ Only difference is if I choose SAFE MODE then I get the four White text Safe Mode things in each of the corners and all else is black with the white cursor arrow?

3. Booting with XP CD to user Recovery console but it isn't accepting my admin password so this isn't an option either. I had my admin password disabled so I thought it would accept <enter> but it didn’t and kicked me out after 3 tries. Then I re-enabled the password in the bios and set it but even the Recovery console wouldn’t accept it.

4. Booting with XP CD and choosing to setup. Then selecting to repair the existing version. This seem to repair/upgrade but on rebooting it tries to load but the result is the same, after the XP logo screen I get the black screen and white mouse cursor arrow which will only move around a small section of the screen, about the size of the safe mode screen.

5. Ran a diagnostics and everything was clean, including the memory and the graphics card.

Here are the links I could find related to the problem. I’ve tried all the suggestions. Any advice would be welcome because I’m lost without my laptop. It’s a Dell Inspiron 4150, P4 1800 Mhz 512 RAM, 40 GB in case the spec is of help. I read that this problem has sometimes been related to certain P4 processors according to the logs I’ve been reading. Help!!!! :eek:

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6268_11-5330486.html#
http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSP2.htm#Boot_or_shutdown_problems_after_Service_Pack_2_installation
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6268_11-5330486.html#
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9b99c199-5d75-454f-ae07-b620727be8d8&displaylang=en
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=885626

Khannie

FYI lads, this lad is my mate. I pointed him here.

My suggestion is to boot into safe mode, ctrl alt delete, run task manager, file->new task,

type "explorer" and see if you have a working desktop at that point.

edit: the L1 and L2 cache is on the CPU, so that's not going to help.

Khannie

Ok, closing this thread temporarily. Just spoke to the guy (he's in the US) and he's going to go and buy a drive enclosure to back up important stuff that way, then wipe the machine. Also suggested knoppix. I may reopen if that doesn't work for some reason