Computer starts up with a black screen, explorer.exe not started - Hardware & Software

Right, so here's the story. I'm rebooting my computer for an unnecessary reason, and the CHKDSK prompt comes up while the screen is still black. so I let the disk "checking" program run until completion. The computer restarts. I get the vista logo, and the Welcome screen. after that, the screen is completely black with the exception of my cursor. I'm able to Ctrl+Alt+Del and launch explorer.exe, but there's a few other things that are a bit off. -A bunch of programs refuse to start: Firefox gives me the "invalid shortcut; program deleted" screen Steam gives me "Cannot access the specified file" screen -System restore does [B]NOT[/B] work, I've already tried it. It still starts up with explorer off. It's all a bit unexpected, so I'm not particularly sure whether I should just Reformat or try some solutions first.

Virus Scan.

Karma. [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Help or don't post." - Greeman))[/highlight]

[QUOTE=Wootman;17819665]Virus Scan.[/QUOTE] I'll try this. Not sure if AVG is responsive or not. [editline]09:03PM[/editline] [QUOTE=AteBitLord;17819686]Karma.[/QUOTE] This isn't helping. [editline]09:05PM[/editline] Alright, the AVG tray and scan are responsive. I haven't downloaded anything recently so it may not be a virus, but it's safe to scan anyway.

Try scanning with malwarebytes.

both AVG and malwarebytes turned up nothing. It's not a virus.

Press F8 after the system POSTs and before windows starts to open the windows startup utility. Try selecting "Last known good configuration". It may say what you have now counts as a good configuration since it at least booted, but at least it's something to try.

[QUOTE=Specter;17831872]Press F8 after the system POSTs and before windows starts to open the windows startup utility. Try selecting "Last known good configuration". It may say what you have now counts as a good configuration since it at least booted, but at least it's something to try.[/QUOTE] [quote=Kinglah Crab]-System restore does NOT work, I've already tried it. It still starts up with explorer off.[/quote] Already tried. [editline]06:45PM[/editline] Reformatting may be the only option left if we don't come up with anything.

obtain chocolate pudding... open pudding. dump on your CPU obtain hammer gently tap your motherboard about 6-7 times. place a cookie in your cd tray.. RESTART YOUR COMPUTER TWICE.. your pc is now fixed.. you are welcome [highlight](User was banned for this post ("This reply is not helpful" - verynicelady))[/highlight]

[QUOTE=acidstriker;17862294]obtain chocolate pudding... open pudding. dump on your CPU obtain hammer gently tap your motherboard about 6-7 times. place a cookie in your cd tray.. RESTART YOUR COMPUTER TWICE.. your pc is now fixed.. you are welcome[/QUOTE] ur so randomm xdd!!! lol penguinszzzx Also, to OP: Insert Windows CD and do a repair install.

Yep, just reformatted. Dunno what CHKDSK was or what it wanted, but I'm not running that horseshit in the future.

[quote=Wikipedia]CHKDSK (short for Checkdisk) is a command on computers running DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows operating systems that displays the file system integrity status of hard disks and floppy disk and can fix logical file system errors. It is similar to the fsck command in Unix.[/quote] :eng101: