System Recovery killed my computer

[smoser1959]

I own a Compaq Presario SR513WM desktop computer with Vista & 2GB RAM. It had been freezing up and recently caught a virus, so I decided to use the System Recovery disks I'd purchased from Compaq. The recovery process works just fine, and at the end of the process the computer reboots. That's where the problem shows up. The computer displays the Compaq splash screen and then just goes to a black screen with a flashing cursor in the top left corner. I can go into Setup and the Boot menu, but no changes I make there seem to have any effect. Hitting the F8 key during startup has no effect either. Any ideas?

[tiflyn]

I'd be interested if anyone has any info on this. My PC is basically doing the same thing. It powers up, shows the XP splash screen, and then goes to a black screen. I can see my mouse cursor and nothing else. My desktop background doesn't show, nor do any icons. Cntrl /Alt /Delete doesn't do anything.

The day after it happened (Dec 2, 2009) I read a lot of forum posts on misc sites calling this the "Black Screen of Death". i read it was either a virus or a problem with Windows update. But they have a fix avai, which I cannot try since it requires the function of cnt /alt /delete...

I have basically left it unplugged and sitting there because I am scared to take it somewhere. Heard too many horor stories.

I tried safe mode, but F8 has no effect when starting the PC. My options are F1 or F10. I even tried the system recovery which scared me half to death. But I was desperate, and it gets to 52% and then goes no farther. It keeps counting up time elapsed, but goes no farther than 52%.

I desperately want to save the HD. I wasn't very responsible about backing up my files or pics, etc. If I could save the PC, that would be great too, but my primary concern will be retrieving the files.

Anyone who can help - Please!!!

Tif