no welcome screen, just black screen with cursor

Question

My computer is a Dimension 8200 desktop.   Thursday I installed some security updates from the Microsoft site and what I guess was a graphics card update along with the security upgrades. I did'nt restart right after because I am at college and was going home for the weekend. I shut down before I left.   I came back today and my screen's resolution was very low. I tried different settings but they just wouldn't work. I decided to system restore back to Wednesday.   Now the computer goes through the loading screen (green loading bar), but where the welcome screen should be for me to sign in, instead it's just a black screen and the cursor, which I can move. Besides that, I can't do anything.   I called Dell support and they tried to help by doing all the stuff in the setup menu. Safe mode has the same result, and so does last good configuration mode, as well as all of the others. in safe mode though, the words safe mode appear on the top, bottom, and sides of the screen.   I inserted CDs but they don't work either. Nothing happens at all no matter what I do.   They said it is definitely a software problem. Does anyone know what I should do? Note: I WILL NOT FORMAT MY HARD DRIVE NO MATTER WHAT.

Frabbi 01 · Answer

That sounds like a good idea. There are a couple problems though.   1. I am at college and won't have a good system to install it to until Thursday. I have no idea how to take the thing out of my computer at all, and I know they are very sensitive. Is there a certain way they should be carried (in a box, bag, etc)?   2. If I put it into another computer will the settings affect that computer?     Can you explain this method more? What exactly do you mean by overinstall and what does it do? Why is there a chance i could lose everything?     If anyone knows any other possible solutions please help!

ejn63 · Answer

Ordinary caution (don't drop or zap the drive with static) is fine.

Remove the hard drive from the system and mount it in place of the CD-ROM drive in another system with the same operating system. When you boot the machine, your old drive will show up as a secondary. Copy what you can to the other system's drive.

Depending on what's wrong, installing Windows over itself may worsen the problem to the point where you can't read the drive at all, even in another system. If there is data on the drive that's not backed up, do that first.

For that matter, you should keep backups - invest in an external hard drive and keep a second copy of all data on the system. Hard drives can, and do, crash without warning - and if it does, you could be faced with the choice between losing everything or paying $5,000 or more to a recovery service to retrieve the data.

ejn63 · Answer

You can try an install-over (install XP over itself), but before you do that, you should mount the drive in a working system, and back up your data. There is a major risk you could lose everything.

If an install-over won't work, you have two choices: format and rebuild, or live with a heavy paperweight.

Message Edited by ejn63 on 03-28-2005 07:33 PM

Frabbi 01 · Answer

Having a backup is good, but external hard drives are expensive and I don't have a DVD burner. the last time I backed up my files was May of 2003. I have a lot more files now. That includes a lot of school files, a ton of music (that's not too bad because I can rip my CDs), and home movies I made that range anywhere from 1-10GB. I'll try the HD removal method if nothing else works. I might have to wait about a month and a half to do that though.   Also, I probably won't be calling Dell support again anytime soon unless I really have no other choice. After messing aound with safe mode and all those other modes and nothing succeeding, they told me that my only option would be to format and reinstall XP, and contact a technician to make a backup. That has to be some of the worst advice I have ever heard. Hopefully that's not true. Message Edited by Frabbi 01 on 03-28-2005 07:14 PM

Frabbi 01 · Answer

Is this also a good idea?   I wanted to get a 250GB hard drive. Should I take out the old one, put in the new one and install XP and my other programs, then put the old one back in as a secondary hard drive and just delete its windows files and stuff?

Frabbi 01 · Answer

I also found the XP startup files on another site and put them on a floppy to make a boot disk. That didn't work either. I got a message, something like: I/O error.   Also a lot of people online in different forums are saying that agpCPQ.sys is causing problems. What is this file? Is it related to my graphics driver? I have an Nvidia Geforce4 128bit card. I'm not sure what number (4400, 4600? I got it in 2002). Message Edited by Frabbi 01 on 03-29-2005 07:49 AM

Storage, Drives & Media

no welcome screen, just black screen with cursor

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