Blank Screen after startup (safemode too)

Hey everyone,
I'm taking a look at my friend's HP Pavilion ze1230, and it has Windows XP Home Edition. It starts with the screen that says "we apologize for the inconvenience, but windows did not start successfully, bla bla bla, and then it gives options of safe mode (3 kinds), last known good configuration, and start windows normally. Well no matter which one i choose, they all eventually come to a blank screen. On start windows normally and last known good configuration, it will do the windows XP startup with the bar going back and forth, but after that it will just turn black, but the mousepointer can move freely. When i choose the safe mode, it will run through the commands, and then come to the same screen as before, except in 4 corners it says safe mode and at top it says Microsoft (R) Windows XP (R) (Build 2600). I ran the E-Diag, and everything was working fine. She doesn't have a boot disk because HP doesnt give them with their computers i guess. I'm not sure whats causing this and i dont know what to do from here, so if you guys could help me out i would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

Without a boot disk, you pretty much have to use the HP recovery..boot the computer while holding down f10 and you will get the option of a non-destructive recovery..use it

When its booted to the blank screen can you ctrl+alt+del and access taskmanager?
If so you should be able to go to file new task and type in explorer.exe and browse to the all users start menu programs accessories system tools and system restore (if not shut off) and restore back to when it did work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by futuretech

When its booted to the blank screen can you ctrl+alt+del and access taskmanager?
If so you should be able to go to file new task and type in explorer.exe and browse to the all users start menu programs accessories system tools and system restore (if not shut off) and restore back to when it did work.

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No, i can't. all i can do is move around the cursor. ive tried about everything.

If you can start the computer to a command prompt then this article might help.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...EN-US;Q304449&

Quote:

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Originally Posted by futuretech

If you can start the computer to a command prompt then this article might help.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...EN-US;Q304449&

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Thanks for your help, but that didn't work either. Even when i select the w/ command script option, it still goes to the black screen with the cursor. This computer must be REALLY messed up. I was going to slave the drive to save the files so i could restore XP, but i can't find a IDE cable that will fit it. The hard drive is a 20GB IBM Travelstar, with a model #: IC25N020ATCS04-0. The pin pattern is a little different. It is total 45 pin, or 42 in two rows that does not have one on the middle bottom (so 41), and then a column of nothing at then end, then 4 more. Looks similar to this:

.................... ..
......... .......... ..

It says ATA/IDE on it, and the directions for attaching the jumper is to put it on the last 2 (column). I need to get a hold of an ide cable that will adapt to this.

well, i ended up buying a USB 2.0 2.5" Hard Disk Drive Enclosure from e-bay. That will probably be the safest and easiest way.