presario v5000 wont start up

Please excuse this newb if I am request help in the wrong format or location.

I was using my girls Compaq V5000 to burn a disc (using windows music player). The disc would not burn, i assumed it was a bad disc. Everything froze up and the only way to get out was to hold the power button down and shut down.

So I go to reboot.. after windows xp loads, the screen goes black for about 3 seconds and then the original compaq bronze wallpaper comes up.

The arrow is there and the touchpad moves it, but nothing else.. No windows, no start button, no ctl-alt-del, nothing...

Please help this idiot... I have to get this thing back up and running before she finds out (ps I doubt any of her stuff is backed up, which means I may be a dead man....)

 

Worst case, get an IDE to USB adapter from Newegg/etc and you can recover her data before you wipe the drive and reinstall Windows. But let's not go there just yet.

Let's start with something simple. Try booting in Safe Mode (hit F8 right when Windows starts to boot, just after the BIOS startup screen clears, to get to that menu). If it does, there's hope, possibly by going back to the previous restore point... but I'll let someone less sleepy than I am pick it up from here.

 

Thanks for the tip brian... I tried booting in safe mode using the last known settings and that just took me to the same compaq bronze wallpaper, touchpad allows me to move the arrow but nothing else.

I tried booting in safe mode with networking and command prompt both take me to a black screen with safe mode on all four corners and XP (build 2600.... sp 2) in the top center of the screen. No touchpad or arrow.

Anything else I should try?

 

Thanks all, I have solved the problem using Compaq recovery.