No login prompt when Win7 boots

Hello everyone.

I've spent my entire Sunday scouring the net to find a solution to what happened on my laptop this morning. I opened it up, Windows resumed. I had 3 programs running from the night before (AIM, Skype, and Firefox) all of which started performing slowly and freezing. Eventually I got the BSOD and the computer restarted. I chose to Start Windows Normally and it took me into what appeared to be the Windows 7 login screen. The only thing missing was the actual login prompt. No amount of rebooting, going into Safe Mode, turning the laptop off for a while and trying again later or anything will let me access my desktop and start menu.

Here is a photo of exactly what I see on my screen. I get stopped here every time no matter what I try.

I had been letting it sit at the blank login screen behind me for a while as I searched for solutions on my PC when I turned around and noticed something called Startup Repair had begun looking for problems. I thought this was a great thing and might repair whatever was wrong. But it's going on 9 PM now and it is still "Attempting repairs. Repairing disk errors. This might take over an hour to complete." It's been over a few hours now. I'm willing to be patient and let it do what it needs to do but I'm worried maybe the Startup Repair program is actually just timed out now or something and not doing anything.

I'm not terribly concerned about losing data, although it is a bit of an inconvenience. But of course like the person in a thread I read about this same issue (I didn't want to take over that thread and this thread) I don't have my Repair Disc. So I'm really not sure what to do or where I could buy a repair disc, if I even can.

Here is a link to my laptop with all the specs and information that may or may not be useful to anyone who might be able to help: Newegg.com - SONY VPCF11NFX/H NoteBook Intel Core i7 720QM(1.60GHz) 16.4" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M Not available on Newegg now as you can see but the information is still there.

I'd appreciate any help. It seems this isn't an extremely common bug/error but It looks like at least a few people have experienced this.

Thanks,
Laura

Hi Rich,

Thank you for the quick response. I read through the threads you've directed me to. It seems the user 'thehay' had a problem in which he or she took several tries to get to the login screen. However, with my problem I do get to the login screen. It has the background and the pointer, but there is no login box. I restart multiple times and it always ends up in the same spot.

I will not rule out that perhaps a virus has caused this issue as was suggested in the thread you linked, but I feel like it is unlikely since I always load my machines with great anti-virus and spyware protection I've trusted for years.

Since I don't ever get a login screen, I can never get to my desktop or start menu. So I can't run any virus programs or anything. I'm wondering if I should stop this "Startup Repair" that has been running for hours and try something else or continue to let it go as long as it will.

Well as I had mentioned in my original post, I did try Safe Mode and various other options, but they all lead me to the same spot: the login screen with no login box.

Do you know if you can purchase a Windows 7 Repair disc anywhere? Or am I screwed because I do not have my Recovery Disc?

I created a Recovery Disc, and tried it out. I tried a System Restore but my laptop didn't have any restore points. I also can't do a system image recovery because I don't have that created either.

Right now I'm running the Startup Repair once again but this time from the disc but it appears it's going to take just as long as last time, 5 hours or more. I had to end it earlier to try some other things.

Do you or anyone else have any other suggestions for a way for me to get past this Windows 7 error/bug and reach my desktop?

Update on my issue: After contacting Sony tech support online, they were able to tell me about hitting F10 on bootup which allows you to do a Complete System Restore. I hope this helps anyone who also experienced this problem with Win7. Unfortunately you do have to format and lose all data but it allows you to restore without your Recovery Disc.

Hellom, does any one solve this problem ?? i have the same problem with that !! thx