If you could answer a few questions, maybe we can figure out what's going on:
1) HP Model Laptop?
2) New or Used?
3) Came with Vista already pre-installed?
4) Was it plugged into the wall outlet when it shutdown suddenly?
5) Are you getting the date and time error every time you start?
6) Any updates made to the laptop just prior to the problem starting (Windows Updates, software install, driver update)?
One thing you can try is seeing if you can get Vista stable in safe mode. If you are not familiar, when you first start the laptop (the DOS like screen), start pressing the F8 key before the screen goes black and you see the Vista startup. This will bring up a menu screen in which you can pick "Safe Mode". Safe mode will boot up Vista with just the bare minimum (mostly no drivers or applications that would normally run when Vista starts). Because the video drivers aren't loaded, things will look a little weird and larger than normal. Log in and see if it does the same thing.
Let us know how that test goes and the answers to the questions.
Michael
My Grandson has a 5 month old HP laptop with Atholon 64 dual core and 1 gig of memory. The problem started about two weeks ago when it just shut down for no appearent reason. When I started it it went into Dos start up and stated the day,month,year, and time failed. I entered into set up and restarted the system, this time it asked if I wanted to enter safe mode. I went to start window normally and it brought up the password screen, entered the correct password and it went to the desktop. Here is where the problem appeared. "Windows Explore has a problem and Vists is attempting to repair." This lasts for 10 seconds then "Windows has found the problem and it restarting explorer." Which it does then goes right back into the problem again and continues to do so until it shuts down explore completely. During this you can not get into any of the restore, control panel, programs, etc. I was able to use CTRL-ALT-DEL and use this to get on the internet and go to microsoft for a down load of a critical (they say) stablizing up grade. I was also able to use thier scan, for vista problems to no avail in fixing the problem. BTW he failed to make a back up DVD so no operation system restore is available. Any help would be greatly appriciated.

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