xp home edition machine won't boot up

[Gerard]

i have a sony vaio desktop and i can't get any icons to
display on my start up screen-- it will only show my
screen saver-- the mouse works, but there are no icons
including the start button. i've tried ctrl-alt-del, and
even a cold reboot, and i still get a screen saver start
up screen-- it doesn't even do a disk check.

i've never had this happen with any version of windows--
at least with the blue screen of death you can do a cold
reboot and it will take you through disk check before
resetting-- that doesn't work here.

any ideas on what could be wrong?

 

[Malke]

i have a sony vaio desktop and i can't get any icons to
display on my start up screen-- it will only show my
screen saver-- the mouse works, but there are no icons
including the start button. i've tried ctrl-alt-del, and
even a cold reboot, and i still get a screen saver start
up screen-- it doesn't even do a disk check.

i've never had this happen with any version of windows--
at least with the blue screen of death you can do a cold
reboot and it will take you through disk check before
resetting-- that doesn't work here.

Can you get into Safe Mode? If not, do a repair install.

Malke

 

[D.Currie]

i have a sony vaio desktop and i can't get any icons to
display on my start up screen-- it will only show my
screen saver-- the mouse works, but there are no icons
including the start button. i've tried ctrl-alt-del, and
even a cold reboot, and i still get a screen saver start
up screen-- it doesn't even do a disk check.

i've never had this happen with any version of windows--
at least with the blue screen of death you can do a cold
reboot and it will take you through disk check before
resetting-- that doesn't work here.

any ideas on what could be wrong?

Do you really mean it boots up with the screensaver running, or do you mean
that all you get is your background picture?

If it's the former, it might be that the computer is going into hibernation
instead of shutting down. If its the latter, have you tried starting in safe
mode?