Alienware m5500 black screen no taskbar

killer_of_emo · #1 07-11-2008, 05:35 PM

This is actually my buddies computer...being on a military base with computer skills automatically gets you elected the " computer guy".

Anyways he owns a Alienware m5500 running windows Vista. His machine starts up normally going to through the bios screen, onto the windows loading screen and to the user selection screen. After selecting the user, the screen will go to a black screen with a cursor on it. You can hit control alt delete and bring up task manager. I used this technique a couple of times to get his start menu to return. That no longer works.

I know that we had alot of viruses floating around while we were in iraq. but i cant get it to connect to the internet as we only have wireless in our barracks. Any ideas gents?

Monty007 · #2 07-12-2008, 07:22 PM

Hi,
have you tried to boot into safe mode? Press f8 at start up select with networking can boot from there? ...in safe mode add a new user give it a name (bob will do and make it a admin account) Before doing any thing else save your mates documents and files he wants to keep to a cd or similar for safe keeping. http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2...ount-in-vista/
Now boot hte PC and login with the new user account....how did you go?

killer_of_emo · #3 07-13-2008, 06:05 PM

yeah i tried setting up an admin account and booting in safe mode. Neither works. Still getting the same black screen of death. I have also tried to contact Alienware numerous times about my and my buddies problem. They send me an email saying that they have recieved my complaint but have never got back to me in the 5 months i have been trying to contact them.

PeckerWood · #4 07-14-2008, 05:58 AM

Sometimes with a portable computer the memory sticks/ram works it's
way loose a bit and you may need to take the ram out and reseat it.

Monty007 · #5 07-14-2008, 07:44 AM

Do you have the Vista OS disk if so you can try a repair.http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...torial148.html
If you dont have it you can try checking components to see if they are seated properly as Pekerwood suggested. If none works with out a vista cd there is nothing else you can do.