Laptop in constant initial boot splash screen

You could try going into safe mode by pressing the F8 key repeatedly as you boot. Then you can do a system restore if it will boot up.

It is possible that the spyware removal was unfinished when the system shut down and now the boot sector on the hard disk is damaged. In that case you'll need to repair the boot sector with a Windows disk, and use the repair options, if possible. There are tutorials here on how to do that:

Repair Install

Startup Repair

I press F8 repeatedly once I power on. It thinks about it for a while (the splash screen stays there slightly longer), then it goes through the loop again. Can't find a way around it.

Also, I never created a boot disk. I have a desktop, and two other laptops with XP. The laptop I'm on now is a Dell Inspiron 1720 with Vista... no other Windows 7 computers in the house.

A recovery disk wouldn't help you at this point, I don't think. You need an actual Windows 7 retail disk or ISO to do startup repair, or a repair install. You can download an actual MS ISO disk and use that to try to fix your computer, as long as you have a valid activation key for your laptop. See the "Warning" section on the Repair Install link that I posted for details on how to get a Windows ISO file and burn it to a disk using the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool.

You mean no Windows activation key? How did you activate it? You should have a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) for your laptop. It had to have come with one. The activation key is printed on it.

It should be stuck to the bottom of the laptop (most of them are), or it might be attached to the sleeve the driver disk came in. Look around, you'll need that key if you have to reinstall.

Mellon Head said:

You mean no Windows activation key? How did you activate it? You should have a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) for your laptop. It had to have come with one. The activation key is printed on it.

It should be stuck to the bottom of the laptop (most of them are), or it might be attached to the sleeve the driver disk came in. Look around, you'll need that key if you have to reinstall.

It was 4 years ago... have no clue. It's not on the bottom of the laptop. I have a Drivers and Utilities disk. One the back of the sealed envelope is something that appears to be the key but not quite. XX-XXXXXX-XXXXX-XXXX doesn't appear to be the right configuration. I am at the point now, where I would love to do the factory restore, but F8 does nothing. Severely frustrated.