[cramit02]

Evening folks, so I've got a coworkers Dell Inspiron 1545 sitting in front of me and it refuses to boot. Essentially in Normal boot, Last Known Good Config, and any Safe Mode variation I get the black screen with mouse cursor. The cursor doesn't blink, I have no access to the Task Manager, the laptop doesn't go into a hibernate mode, etc. It will simply sit there for 45ish minutes (maximum amount of patience I had at the time) black screen and all waiting for me to do something. I have my Active+ Boot and Hiren's Boot disc's and they both load up wonderfully. I've backed up all of my coworkers files onto an external drive with Active and attempted to repair the MBR (didn't help any) through the Partition Manager. I popped in Hiren's and was able to get online, update a few anti-virus/malware programs and run scans resulting in little more than a dirty Temp Internet folder. I was unable to run MBAM via Hiren though, unsure as to why.

When I reboot the machine with the Win 7 64bit (or 32bit, just to be sure) Restore Disc and go into the Recovery Console I go through the Startup Repair option, it has pretty regularly come back with something along the lines of 'Cannot repair automatically, consult administrator/manufacturer'. There are no previous Restore points showing up (malware trick or lazy owner?) and I do not have the Install Disc as apparently Dell doesn't ship them with their units.

Any ideas? I think I'll have an install disc within the next day or two but in the meantime I'd really like to see if there is a resolution we can get to. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read.

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Scan the machine with PassMark to make sure the drive is okay http://www.passmark....diskcheckup.htm

[Jacee]

Scan the machine with PassMark to make sure the drive is okay http://www.passmark....diskcheckup.htm

[cramit02]

Define 'ok'; I ran PassMark and it immediately recognized the drive. SMART Attributes: All OK, SMART History: "Error retrieving history".

Using Hiren's Boot I was actually able to install MBAM onto the RAM Drive and update/run it... cleaned up 11 issues (Malware.Packer.Gen and it's variants). Will reboot the machine and see if the black-screen issue has resolved right after move a few files over from the HDD to my external.

Would you like me to attach the PassMark or MBAM logs for review?

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Update: MBAM had no effect on the black screen w/ cursor issue.

Edited by cramit02, 24 June 2011 - 03:58 PM.

[cramit02]

I appreciate the assistance but if you're still scratching your head I went ahead and made a move. Hard Drive got wiped.

I had very little info about the system from the owner; didnt know any of the specs, operating system specifics (Win 7 Home vs Ultimate, 32 vs 64bit, etc), didnt have the CD Key anywhere (written, sticker or otherwise), had no backup discs, no restore points, no install cd, etc. It was fun. I about kicked the machine until I realized that it wasn't its fault. So I treated it to a nice new install of Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (went with what Dell installed by default on these machines); CD Key was recognized (authentic, dug up from registry thru Hiren's boot) so I know I had the right key/version of Windows, a few anti-vir/malware/spyware programs, a bi-monthly task to back itself up onto a separate partition, a bi-weekly task to scan itself, a monthly Windows auto-update. Anything more than that I think is really up to the owner. -- Created a repair disc, created a restore disk, and will be giving a 45min lecture on what happens when you peruse the internet without a care in the world, use simple passwords, and download whatever happens to pop up on the screen.

Pray for this lil puter, today it goes home.

Thanks again for all the help folks!