When I restarted my PC, I am presented with a blank screen... I do not have the Windows Start button and so cannot open the start menu.

I can open programmes using Windows Task Manager and have tried to run the computer in safe mode, but this also gives me a blank screen.

When I shut down, I get a message that a programme is still running and is not responding. The programme is shown as 494D195AOEFE4E50ADBCB20A112...

I use the 'end programme now' option to shut down, but get the same message every time I shut down afterwards.

Any advise would be gratefully received.

Many thanks
Bill

Hi Bill, What OS are you using? If it is Win 2000 you can do a rescue from the CD (F2) Same for XP. If it's win 98 thenyour best bet is to go in via a dos boot disk and alter your in files and boot.ini file.

Sorry it must be XP as you are posting in the XP help Forum

Is this a new problem? Were things working OK previously? Any new hardware or software?

If this is a new problem try a System Restore to a point prior to the problem:

New Task > Run... %SystemRoot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe

Others can help better here but as I've known its usually an HDD MasterBootRecord first line problem:

http://www.ntfs.com/mbr-damaged.htm