Windows 7: grey screen

hi new to forum
my laptop froze so i tried ctl/alt/del and nothing then it just went black screen with white cursor
when i restarted it it came up
launch in repair or start up normal

have tried both and both time it gets to a grey page and freezes?

has anyone any idea what i have done ?

thanks

Hi,

Kindly follow the below mentioned steps in order:

1. Confirm Hard Drive is recognized in BIOS. If yes, follow next step. If NO, load BIOS defaults.
2. Boot to Safe mode and perform system restore. System Restore will affect Windows system files, programs, and registry settings only. If system restore fails or unable to access safe mode, follow next step.
3. Run Start Up repair from the URL mentioned: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-vista/Startup-Repair-frequently-asked-questions
4. If the issue still persists, then try running the Hardware Diagnostics. If you get any error code, make a note of the error code.

Hope this helps.

while booting keep pressing F8 button to have the option to boot in safe mode, after that you can make sure that your hard disk is clean and has no bad sectors by performing harddisk scan, then you may perform system restore if there is some OS errors.

If you cannot boot in safe mode try to repair your windows by booting from windows 7 installation DVD (make sure the DVD is the same version as your installed OS).

Hello Maggie and welcome to Seven Forums.

Couple of things you can try to solve this. See if you can access Safe Mode through the Advanced Boot Options menu. When you first power on your computer immediately start clicking the F8 key about once every second (top row of keyboard.) Keep clicking until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears. Use the up/down arrow keys to select Safe Mode and then click enter.

Safe Mode

Once in Safe Mode you may be able to roll back your computer to a date/time prior to when this problem first occured by using a system restore point.

System Restore

After rolling back your computer I would next check for any damaged or corrupt system files by running a system file checker scan from an elevated command prompt (option two.) If problems are found, run the scan 3 times and reboot your computer after each scan.

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

And don't forget to check for malware by running a full scan with your installed anti-virus suite.

It's hard to know what may have caused your machine to freeze. If you can remember what you were doing just before it froze that might offer a clue. Some possibilities include: Too many programs were open at the same time; insuffcient memory to perform a task; outdated drivers; compatibility issues; malware; overheating; failing hardware; etc.

Please post back if anything helped or not.