System won't finish loading windows

[Martyuk39]

Happy New Year everyone. I had a machine that was cutting out - not rebooting, just the display was disappearing. Lights still on the base unit. I had to reboot to get the display back. Now it's got worse - it won't get as far as finishing loading windows. In normal or safe mode. Just get a screen with a mouse pointer - doesn't freeze the pointer, it's just nothing happens.

So I thought I'd put in an XP CD. When I select recovery, it just reboots.

So finally now I put in the XP CD and am tried to re-install over my existing c:\windows installation - that appeared to at first but now I get the same symptom - mouse pointer sitting there with nothing else happenning. I'd like the existing data. I have a fairly recent backup. But I'm dealing with someone who has no patience in technology and this won't help.

My main point is I'd like to know what's going on. If it's virus/worm related, well I have windows firewall, AVG, ad-aware. Yes I know all those get a rough ride from time to time. Also a Netgear DG834G router. After the machine developed the first problem it was impossible to complete a full virus sweep or ad-aware before it cut out. If it's hardware related - well I've checked the RAM with memtest. No problem there. Anything else I can try? System specs below - I'd appreciate any comments on the problems
Sempron 3000
Asrock K8upgrade-VM800 Bios P1.70 - everything default.
512MB RAM (448 after 64MB shared VGA) - Elixir (ie budget) brand
SATA Seagate 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB
Windows XP SP2, updated to at least early December

 

[imported_LoKe]

So Explorer isn't comming up? (Taskbar, Start menu, tray)

Control + Alt + Delete

File -> New Task

Explorer.exe

Does that help at all?

 

[Martyuk39]

No, ctrl-alt-delete doesn't do anything. Mouse moves, num lock and caps lock respond on keyboard, but nothing else.

 

[Mutilator]

Run chkdsk /r from recovery console or WinPE if you have it.

 

[Martyuk39]

can't get into recovery console - or rather it reboots when I select the option

I've downloaded some seagate diagnostic tools - I assume a full diagnostic which it's doing now (it passed the quick test) would be as good as chkdsk?

OK I've run the tests - it fails the chkdsk-like test - so I'll have another go at the recovery console. I'm hoping I did it wrong the first time, like not select the c drive or something.

 

[Martyuk39]

Downloaded BartPE - fantastic program. I've copied all the documents to a separate partition on the drive then I'm going to chkdsk c: and see if it'll fix the errors. Then hopefully do a proper backup!