please help

my wife has a acer aspire 5516 laptop it was just on and updated now it just starts up to a black screen with a blinking cursor. I can hit f2 and go in to bios but f5 or f8 (which ever one that starts safe mode) does not work so it just sits at the black screen

 

What exactly was updated on the laptop?

 

the normal windows update from microsoft it had 14 and it said restart i hit yes you can see acer start up screen and then no windows start up screen but screen does light up black with blinking cursor I dont have a windows disc. can I download a start up file or something to a usb drive and have it boot from there it has vista on it

 

This may not be your problem but I have done this. Do you have a USB key attached to the computer during boot? This can lead to a blinking cursor.

 

no i wish lol

 

As the Major said, you can use a linux distro to see if your monitor is working or not. I like Puppy because it is a small download. If you need to get to your files and you have an external drive, you can transfer them fairly easy.

Do you have access to a Vista System Recovery CD? If not you can also make one if you have access to a computer with Vista. Microsoft in there infinite wisdom has deemed it necessary to take down all sites that had the download available and it is only available now for purchase. Go figure.

If you can get the Recovery CD, you can try to do a system restore in order to take it back to a date before the updates. The other option would be to transfer all your files to an external drive with puppy and then do a factory restore using the Recovery Partition on the hard drive which would take it back to the day it was first booted.

Edit: added link

Recover files from Windows Vista hard disk using Puppy Linux

 

ok screen works its like something is wrong with windows vista. no I dont have a windows disc it didnt come with one. can I download something that will boot it in safe mode or something that will just start it up so i can get in safe mode

 

ok now I have got it so I it starts up i hit f8 it ask to start in safe mode i click on safe mode and it starts like its starting up then sits there and will not start up. I try to start normal and it says microsoft corporation and does the loading bar but just sits there. I was working this morning till it update then this