Windows XP Home start up problems

I am trying to fix my mother's HP Pavilion 510n pc. It has WinXP Home as the OS. She had a ton of spyware on her computer and I was removing it using Spybot and Ad-Aware. On my last reboot, the computer started acting funny. I get the HP boot screen, then the Windows XP boot screen, and then the screen just goes blank. The mouse arrow is visible and moves, but the rest of the screen is black. The same thing happens when I boot into safe mode. I can see the words "safe mode" at all four corners of the screen and "Microsoft (R) Windows XP (R) Build 2600" at the top, but nothing else appears except for the mouse arrow. The monitor is a Philips 150S. I have rechecked all connections and they appear fine. The video card is onboard.

Any ideas?

 

I switched monitors to a Sony Multiscan G200 and the same thing happens.

 

Try Last Known Good.

If that doesn't work, try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545

 

Sounds like all that spyware has caused the problem. Some of it does not like being removed. Might be time for a clean install & a lesson or two on spyware.

 

In part one, I am supposed to copy a file called system from the c:\windows\repair folder to the c:\windows\system32\config folder. The system file is not found in the c:\windows\repair folder. What do I do?

 

Look for system.bak.
If its there, rename it to system and use it.

OEMs like to be asses and do stuff differently than retail.

 

It now wants a administrator password which it did not want before. Just hitting enter does not work. What a pain...

 

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Can you get this?

It makes a live Windows CD, not unline Windows PE.

Then you don't have to worry about Recovery Console.

 

I am not sure how to install and setup PE Builder.

The problem I am running into is that HP did not give my mother a recovery disk when she bought her computer. I was using my single copy of XP Pro to try and recover her system.

I know she has a hidden partition with the recovery information for her PC. I just can't get to it to recover her OS. Also, HP is currently out of recovery discs and asked me to call them back next week.

Sorry, I am only somewhat of a computer geek, but not enough of one to figure this out.

 

To get to that hidden recovery partition, you must hit 'F10' at the HP Invent screen

 

I know... I have been... nothing happens... I boot to the screens described in my first post.

 

Do you have an F-lock key?

 

No... it does not have an F lock key. I know the F keys work because pressing F1 bypasses the HP Invent screen to get in the BIOS.