Help with a laptop issue: My granddaughter was out this week-end and when she turned on her laptop (Dell Inspiron) the Dell logo appeared and then the windows logo and under the...

Pepper Loc: Planet Earth Country USA

My granddaughter was out this week-end and when she turned on her laptop (Dell Inspiron) the Dell logo appeared and then the windows logo and under the windows logo the words "windows is starting". Then the screen goes black and all you can see is the cursor. You can move the cursor all over the black screen but nothing else. Any suggestions?

Coyote9269 Loc: USA

Try control alt delete which will restart the computer have her keep hitting f12 as it restarts should boot it into safe mode. Have her down load malwarebytes and run a scan. Try getting it from cnet. Black screen is way better than the blue screen of death.

Oh she should also be able to get into the bios in safe mode.

Ambrose Loc: North America

Coyote9269 wrote:

Try control alt delete which will restart the computer have her keep hitting f12 as it restarts should boot it into safe mode. Have her down load malwarebytes and run a scan. Try getting it from cnet. Black screen is way better than the blue screen of death.

Oh she should also be able to get into the bios in safe mode.

I believe you get to safe mode by tapping F8 multiple times after powering on the system. If the system boots up in the safe mode then you can back up the data. If the system doesnt boots in the Safe mode THEN run the hardware diagnostic by tapping the F12 before Dell logo after powering on the system.

This does sound like a malware issue and Malwarebytes would certainly be a good idea. Also, ask her what sort of virus protection she has. Make sure both are updated.

Good luck!

Pepper Loc: Planet Earth Country USA

Coyote9269 wrote:

Try control alt delete which will restart the computer have her keep hitting f12 as it restarts should boot it into safe mode. Have her down load malwarebytes and run a scan. Try getting it from cnet. Black screen is way better than the blue screen of death.

Oh she should also be able to get into the bios in safe mode.

Tried both Safe Mode and Safe Mode with Command Prompt and in both cases it just goes back to the black screen. It acts as though its hung up in the sleep mode.

Pepper Loc: Planet Earth Country USA

Ambrose wrote:

I believe you get to safe mode by tapping b F8 /b... (show quote)

She's running the diagnostics now, she said the computer told her it would take approx 30 minutes. Thanks for the help.

OlinBost Loc: Marietta, Ga.

Check the model number of the unit and Google it. If you see several listed issues on the same then it is a bad unit. Some Dell laptops are not so good.

Bangee5 Loc: Louisiana

Coyote9269 wrote:

Try control alt delete which will restart the computer have her keep hitting f12 as it restarts should boot it into safe mode. Have her down load malwarebytes and run a scan. Try getting it from cnet. Black screen is way better than the blue screen of death.

Oh she should also be able to get into the bios in safe mode.

For a PC "control alt delete" brings up the task manager. F8 brings up the options for safe mode.

Are you on a Mac?

Coyote9269 Loc: USA

Bangee5 wrote:

For a PC "control alt delete" brings up the task manager. F8 brings up the options for safe mode.

Are you on a Mac?

I have both. Don't really touch windows very often anymore.

singleviking Loc: Lake Sebu Eco Park, Philippines

Pepper wrote:

My granddaughter was out this week-end and when she turned on her laptop (Dell Inspiron) the Dell logo appeared and then the windows logo and under the windows logo the words "windows is starting". Then the screen goes black and all you can see is the cursor. You can move the cursor all over the black screen but nothing else. Any suggestions?

Did you make a recovery disk? If so, put it into the DVD drive and you should be able to restore the machine.

I made a clone of my OS on a USB drive and boot from that when everything goes south.
But some new laptops need the SECURE BOOT feature disabled to do that.