BleepingComputer.com: Windows Vista black screen, no bootup logon screen

---Wow this is frustrating, I just got done fixing two other computers- one was helping someone else fix their computer, because they were seeking someone with basic expertise, and here I am seeking someone with higher knowledge to help me out! thanks in advance to all who contribute!---

HP Media Center M8330F
Windows Vista 32 bit
4GB RAM, NVIDIA graphics card, and plenty of HD space
F9 hardware diagnastics: A-OK!

Suddenly this computer decided to malfunction, without installing anything new, or updates prior to its "crashing." I'm pretty wary to spyware and virus of the like, so I am careful to what is installed and opened on this computer. But for all I know, when I was out of the house someone could have accessed the the machine, infecting it with something.

I noticed before I left the house that it took a ridiculously long time to empty out the recycle bin (has anyone else had this problem in vista?). I know there were a lot of high res pictures in there, so I'm guessing quite a few gigs of deletion, but after an hour it hadn't even progressed. It said 13 minutes and appeared to be frozen, but was still moving. I restarted the computer and tried the same thing-- exact same result. <--- this is the only hint I have as to what happened, because before this everything was fine!

Anyway, I got home and turned on the computer (after someone turned it off) and it just booted up the HP screen and then went to the windows logo loading page, except there was no windows logo! It displayed the loading bar and moving across the box at the bottom, but just with no windows vista logo. Then came the blue screen with the moveable mouse pointer. I waited hours, the mouse pointer still could be moved, but the screen was frozen on the light blue hue right before the welcome screen or logon screen. I retried this several times, with this same result. Even CTRL+ALT+DEL does not work.
Even more interesting, I tried booting in Safe Mode and Safe Mode with Command Prompt both with the same result of: black screen with mouse pointer and the text "Safe Mode" in all for corners. No progression after an hour of waiting. Booting windows in "last known good configuration" didn't work either. There was also a "repair" function that precipitated the same results as well. The F11 Recovery Console at the HP boot screen did not work no matter how rhythmic my F11 pushes were-- not sure why I couldn't recover this system on the recovery partition since HP doesn't send you recovery CDs anymore! Lastly, I made a Hiren Boot CD followed with my own Windows Vista installer/boot CD. They both had the same result when booting straight from the cdrom:
error message on a black screen:
"
The System memory manager (EMM386.EXE) has detected an error caused by a fault in one of the device drivers or programs loaded in the system.

Due to this fault the system is probably in an unstable state, and you are therefore recommended to reboot the computer immediately. If the problem persists, then try to isolate which program is at fault (if you have loaded several, then load them one at a atime until the fault appears), then contact tech support department for that program.

Advanced technical information:
Exception 6 (Invalid Opcode).
DS=02CB etc etc... let me know if you need all the alphanumeric encoding..
"
When I don't boot straight from the cdrom it freezes and says this:


"1. FD 1.44mb System Type-(06)
Starting Caldera DR-DOS
EMM386 3.27 Copyright etc. etc. etc.
_ <---- blinking cursor!
"

I don't think I'm leaving out much of all, but any other inquiries let me know. I find this problem extremely odd, yet annoying. I don't know what else to do, this computer is barely a year old. Tech support wants $100 or something like $50 for 14 days on one issue! even for a recovery cd they want $30. Wow HP!

Anyways thanks in advance and cheers,

Nowachi

It may be that someone didn't turn off the PC rather that it experienced a damaging event and shut down.

Suggest you check the RAM - remove and reseat and try rebooting. If not successful your mother board may be damaged - nasty thought.

There is also this site which may be relevant.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831515

If you can get your PC going suggest you check Event Viewer. Then restore files from the recycle bin and then use SHIFT/DELETE to get rid of them, delete a small file and see if emptying the recycle bin works OK

Paul

Try disconnecting all add in cards except video and all drives except the one you are trying to boot from. be that hard drive or cd drive. disconnect lan or modem connections, In bios, write down and disable all items ethernet etc that you do not need for boot. I have seen malfunctioning devices such as hard drives, cd drives, video cards and even once a case fan which pulled two much power away from the mother board causing the cpu to malfunction.
reseat memory sticks, and if you have more than one stick of the same size, try swapping them in the slots. Your bios test should have done a memory test tho.

I do not know if this will help, but it may point you in the correct direction if you have a hardware problem. also listen for the processor fan, the power supply fan, and any case fans. If there is a fan on the video card, make sure it is running.

check to see if you have a case speaker connected that can beep to indicate problems on boot.

Ok I reinstalled Vista using the awesome 16 recovery CDs I made. ( now I know why they don't give you recovery CDs ).

Installing went about successfully. However, it booted very slowly.

So as always when getting a new computer, I go to add/remove programs to remove all the unnecessary programs. Yet, it loads incredibly slow or not at all. It seems this computer has gotten ridiculously slow. I am not sure why. I don't think it is a virus, because it's well protected by Norton, and I can usually notice virus behaviors..
Nonetheless I'll run a thorough virus scan to confirm my theory. Even shutting down and restarting it is taking way too long to load and turn all the processes off. As of now, its been stuck on a Vista screen saying "Logging off..." for 15 minutes, but its not exactly frozen because the mouse pointer is movable

I speculate its something to do with the memory or processor. but the hardware diagnostic tests all verified to be ok.

It shouldn't be the hard drive though since I reformatted it..

any thoughts?

thanks

This post has been edited by nowachi: 15 June 2009 - 06:43 PM

Ok I decided I don't like Vista.

I installed Windows XP 64x. (tough getting all the drivers for HP's Vista-ready system) I took out the video card-- big difference in performance. However, after getting all the drivers and updates I put it back in and I'm currently running a video card stability test to see what happens. As of now, it seems to perform fine (crossing fingers!).

All in all I'm not sure what the heck caused this little problem. Could it be Vista's little bugs? I've had the computer a year. Well I hope the family gets used to XP again!

Thanks for all of your inputs.