I have had my Windows Vista laptop for just over a year. Yesterday, Vista crashed and it wouldn't let me log off or shutdown or restart. So I held the power button down to turn it off.
Upon restart, I got the usual "Windows did not shutdown properly" and I picked "Boot normally" as I always do.
However, the laptop hangs on the Microsoft Corporation screen (with the yellow bar moving across) and never gets any further.
I tried to turn it off and on again, but I then got a different message, saying something about a hardware or software problem and that I could insert my installation disc and choose "repair windows".
The hard drive is still ticking during this stage and the light is on. But it does not matter how long I leave it.
So far I have tried:
Booting the PC in Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Save Mode with Command Prompt and also "Last Known Good Configuration". None of these work - they also get to a certain stage and the laptop just stops.
Inserting my support disk that came with the PC, although this only lets me wipe the PC totally and start again, which I don't really want to do.
I have downloaded an ISO image from here: http://neosmart.net/...-disc-download/ and tried to boot from the created repair disk. However, although it says "Loading windows files" at the bottom, when it gets to the end, the PC restarts, then I get the never ending Microsoft Corporation screen again!
Has anyone any ideas what else I can try before resorting to the factory restore?
Any help much appreciated - I have spent days trying to fix this!!