Only black screen with arrow after laptop boots

Problem description:

After the laptop boots up, all you get is a black screen with the arrow. You can move the arrow but nothing else appears on the screen. There is no background picture or icons.

Possible cause:

Software corruption.

Possible troubleshooting steps and repair solution:

Most likely this problem is related to the software corruption. Here are a few things you can try in order to fix the problem.

1. Turn the laptop on and when the logo appears on the screen, press on the F8 key. Select Last Known Good Configuration from the boot options and press on the Enter key. It’s possible that after that the laptop will boot up back to the normal desktop.

2. Instead of Last Known Good Configuration select Safe Mode. If the laptop boots in Safe Mode, go to the System Restore and roll Windows back to one of the previous restore points.

How to access System Restore utility in Windows Vista:
Start menu >> All Programs >> System Tools >> System Restore

3. If using Last Known Good Configuration or System Restore doesn’t help, back up all personal files and reinstall Windows from scratch using laptop recovery discs or installation CD.

You can back up files using an exernal USB enclosure.
- remove hard drive from your laptop.
- install hard drive into the external USB enclosure.
- connect enclosure to another working computer.
- access hard drive from My Comptuer and back up all personal files.

In some cases this problem might occur when you have a failing hard drive. You can test the hard drive using diagnostic tests from the Ultimate Boot CD (google UBCD).