start up/boot problems

[jason]

I have a Sony Vaio computer that is awesome and it's running vista.
so the problem is that when ever i hit the power button the computer sleeps
which is good because i can come back to it later and everything loads up
correctly.
the bad part is that when ever i power down from the start menu and later,
turn the computer back on the computer will do it's normal boot and the
little green bars will pop up and everything looks fine however, after the
little green bars go away im left with a black screen and might i add, with
no curser.
i look at my hard drive light and see that there is no action going on and
it just sits there. what do i need to do to get windows vista to boot and
load fully.
thanks for your help!!
jason

 

[AlexB]

What I am going to say may be applicable to some specific situations only. I
mean if it is a new machine which is in need of downloading a bunch of
updates and install them properly.

I ruined at least 5 or 6 installations of Vista before I realized what was
going on. Finally, I decided: I would not hit the power button to turn the
machine off unless I went to the bathroom, took a shower, came back and it
still has the black screen. Believe it or not it worked.

Subsequent boots were shorter and shorter. Now it all works just fine on 3
machines where I installed them myself. That dark time of uncertainty is now
in the past and fading.