Windows 7 Startup/Shutdown Failure

[Quakeroats97]

Thanks in advance.

My computer is a Dell Inspiron Laptop with Windows 7. I just got it like a month ago. Recently it has decided to be a real bugger. Everytime I try to start it up, it either gets stuck on the "welcome" screen or advances past it and goes to a pitch black screen with just a cursor. I've also found that if I try to shut the computer down without just pressing the power button, it can't turn off. I'm not sure what to do about it. Any advice?

 

[Kirsch]

If it gets to the black screen with the cursor, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE, choose task manager, click New Task, enter "exporer" (no quotes), see if that starts windows.