HP PC won't start up (black screen)

Goolay

Hiya,
I have a hp pavilion 492.uk running WinXP service pack 2 which I haven't had any problems with previously. The PC crashed while I was trying to use a program (virtualdubmod for video editing). I tried to shut down the normal way but it was unresponsive. Eventually I had to hold down the power button and it shut down. Now, however, anytime I try to start the pc I get the hp logo followed by a screen saying windows did not start successfully giving me the option of safe mode, last known configuration that worked or start windows normally. No matter which option I pick the same thing happens I'll get the windows xp starting up page then it goes to a completely black screen with nothing but the mouse cursor. The cursor is responsive but there's nothing to click on. In safe mode it's the exact same thing except with the words safe mode in the corners. Unfortuantly I don't have a recovery disk or anything like that. Does anyone have any ideas or tips?

If not does anyone know the best people to contact in Dublin to call out for similar pc issues? If the pc is completely fuxxed will there be anyway of transferring files and programs to a temp location such as an external hard drive? There's some really expensive programs and invaluble files on there.

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

(ps writing this from my dad's laptop!)

commited

Sounds like some windows files have corrupted. Best thing to do is to remove the hard drive, place it in another desktop and transfer all the necessary Documents over.

Then format the hard disk and reinstall windows.