windows blank screen on start

[Ahk7373]

Hello everyone, I've got quite the interesting problem. I got the blue screen on my dell, and now windows hangs up at start up and just gives me a blank screen before even the logo appears.

I've tried starting in safe mode, and using the repair console to fix the boot and master boot files but no luck, I can't get any access to windows, or mbam to run a test.

Do I have any other options besides reinstalling windows?

And if I do have to reinstall windows, is there a way to do so, without losing my data?

Any help and advice offered is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

A.

[noknojon]

Hi Ahk7373 -

If you can access the forum in Safe mode with networking it may pay to have our experts look at the problem -

There is no guarantee a reinstall will fully cure the problem at this stage - It may have been caused by an infection from somewhere also -

To contact the experts area please follow the directions below and do as many of the tasks requested -

Please print out, read and follow the directions here, skipping any steps you are unable to complete. Then post a NEW topic here.

One of the expert helpers there will give you one-on-one assistance when one becomes available.

After posting your new post make sure under options that you select Track this topic and choose one of the Email options so that you're alerted when someone has replied to your post.

Alternatively, as a paying customer, you can contact the help desk at support@malwarebytes.org

Thank you -

[Ahk7373]

Thank you for your prompt response,

Unfortunately I cannot access windows in any mode, not even safe mode. While I can navigate through the features of the repair console, using windows itself is currently not an option. I suspect I could use command prompt, and hopefully from there run mbam, but I'll need to get my hands on a dos boot disk.

Before I get started, I should ask, Can mbam be run from command prompt?

Thank you again for your help and advice,

--A

[mountaintree16]

Ahk7373,

Command line support may be found here:

http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?a...&pid=162095

Do you think that your machine is infected? If so, please do also follow noknojon's directions.

[maxi]

It is not advisable to access the internet while in Safe mode because alot of the protection of normal mode is not present in safe mode.

[PedroHin]

You mentioned that this is a Dell PC. If you press F12 after power up, you get a boot menu, and a hard drive diagnostic. I would run the hard drive diagnostic to see if the hard drive is ok.

If that passes, I would boot to a recovery console from the XP installation CD and run CHKDSK /R.

[Ahk7373]

You mentioned that this is a Dell PC. If you press F12 after power up, you get a boot menu, and a hard drive diagnostic. I would run the hard drive diagnostic to see if the hard drive is ok.

If that passes, I would boot to a recovery console from the XP installation CD and run CHKDSK /R.

Hi, I actually tried that, checked the drive and it's fine, and tried repairing both the boot and master boot but still no luck. Luckily I still have the original OS cd, so if I can't figure things out soon, I may just reformat. Most of my data is already backed up, but still, it's a pain.

Thank you for the advice and suggestions.

--A

[PedroHin]

Well, good luck with it. Sometimes a repair install does the trick. If it was my system, I would try that first.

NOTE: On some repair installs you have to boot to safe mode and reinstall IE8 before you can re-activate Windows online.