I've had this problem for a few day now, tried all manner of things but no luck. When it started I was just using my computer normally, I had MSN, iTunes and Firefox running, when my computer just froze suddenly. After leaving it a few mins I eventually TURNED it off. When it restarted, it came up with the option to go to Windows Startup Repair which it said was recommended, so thats what I did. It eventually restarted, went to the login screen and when I typed in my password it loaded but the screen was just BLACK. I could see bits of the taskbar and my mouse cursor but that was all. I turned it off and back on again and from then on the same thing would happen, except the screen would be COMPLETELY black, none of the taskbar was visible, though the mouse cursor was still there. Now it wont even load the black screen though. I type in password, it comes up with "welcome" and then doesn't change. The mouse cursor is visible and shows the 'loading' icon, HOWEVER I cannot move it. I can't access task manager as I have read elsewhere with people having a SIMILIAR problem, and safe mode does not work. I can however access command prompt from the startup repair utility. I have run dskchk which did not find any errors and only once of the many times I have tried logging in did it come up with an error that said

"The file or directory \Windows\System32\en-US\imageres.dll.mui is corupt and unreadable.

Please run the Chkdsk utility."

However I have run Chkdsk since, which found no errors as mentioned, so I am officially out of ideas. The only option I haven't tried is to reinstall windows, however this would mean I would lose all the data on my laptop, which I would obviously rather not do since I dont have backups of most of it. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.Go to Start/Run and at the prompt type in sfc /scannow and hit Enter...
Have your XP CD handy as it will ask for it.
Let it COMPLETE...remove the CD and re-boot.Thanks for your reply, however I can't access the start menu as I can't get passed the welcome screen.. In addition, I don't have a windows CD as it was pre-installed on the laptop when I bought it.Will it boot to safemode ? ?
Repeatedly tap F8 when the machine is started and before you see the Windows splash screen...Before when I tried to start in safe mode, the login screen would come up however the screen would begin to flash between login sceen and a black screen (the screen flashes black but it is still on, as I have a crack in my screen so can tell when the backlight is on) and trying to type the password when this was happening didn't work.

I have just tied it again after you asked however, and this did not happen, it allowed me to enter my password, but it just went to a black screen... I can see and move the mouse cursor, but the screen is black. I have tried ctrl + alt + del/esc but neither are working, and right-clicking the mouse also does nothing... I would see if you can locate and borrow a Vista CD to do a Repair Install...
With a Repair Install if done corrrect all your data and apps are intact.

If you can't find one then i'm afraid you would need to hook up the drive as a slave on another working machine...retrieve your data and do a clean install of Vista.Well hopefully I can find another way, otherwise i'll have to try that. I take it I will need some kind of adapter to use my hard drive from my other laptop as a slave drive? Thanks for your help.                       


About 8 Bucks at any PC store...
Laptop 2.5" HDD to IDE connector. Allows you to connect that drive to any working desktop machine.What about connecting it to another laptop? As I don't have a desktop PC I can use. I saw on youtube a video where someone used the casing for an external harddrive (which I do have) and connecting it to that using the adapter you mentioned above. Is that what I will have to do as well I take it? Yes...if the external case is built for regular size HDD's...One more question, the latop that is broken is running windows Vista, however the one im using now is XP SP3, will that cause any problems or will it not matter?No.
It won't matter...XP will see the Vista data fine.