Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Computer will not start.

Oct 8, 2007 10:01AM PDT

My laptop crashed last night when I was typing an essay for my English class. I waited a little while and tried rebooting, but even after a day it will not start. I am running Vista. It gets to the screen saying... windows startup repair and start windows normally and I've chosen both, with no success.

Both times, it goes to the next screen (one with the bar at the bottom) and then goes black. After about 15 seconds on the black screen, the mouse appears but nothing else.

Any ideas?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Rip the drive out of the laptop then
Oct 8, 2007 10:31AM PDT

Put it into some USB HARD DISK HOUSING and plug that into a working machine and hope you can save your work.

After you get your files back and safe, put the drive back in the laptop and start calling it's maker for what to do next.

Bob

- Collapse -
Essay
Oct 8, 2007 10:50AM PDT

I'm not too concerned about the essay, as I redid it on another computer (was due today).

Thank you for the help though.

- Collapse -
Since the on disk repair fails we need restore DVDs.
Oct 8, 2007 11:16AM PDT

Some machines have a special key combo when booting but you elected not to share what those words in red ask for.

This is why a call to it's maker was suggested.

Bob