Windows Vista Vista Won't Boot

[Sad Vista User11]

I have a 32-bit Vista Home Premium Acer labtop which will only boot in safe mode. If I try to start it normally, it loads the Acer logo, then the Windows Vista loading icon, then a blank screen. After the screen turns blank, the Windows welcome sound plays, but no login page appears.

I have run a disk check, a virus scan, and used sfc /scannow from safe mode. The disk check and virus scan are clean. The sfc /scannow failed with an error about being unable to repair SmiInstaller.dll. I have no System Restore points available.

Does anyone have any suggestions about what I could try? Thanks!

 

[Saltgrass]

Have you checked to make sure you do not have the laptop display turned off? Sounds like it is changing resolution then you no longer have the video.

You could also use the BaseVideo (or whatever it is called in Vista) option in msconfig.exe from safe mode to test.

 

[Sad Vista User11]

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried both the "BaseVideo" mode and "Enable VGA" mode from the F8 startup menu. Unfortunately, I still get the blank screen. I also looked in device manager and there are no items with yellow exclamation marks.

 

[Saltgrass]

You might try an external monitor, if you have something you can use. The fact the system makes the Welcome sound would indicate to me it is still booting, but I could be wrong.