Hi
I am having a problem with my laptop in that it won't start up properly. I left it turned on for a couple of hours without using it and when I went back to it, it looked asif it was in the process of restarting for some reason. However it got to a certain point, the mouse icon appears on a black screen, and then it restarts again.
I'm not sure why it is doing this as it was working fine when I last used it and I was wondering if anyone can suggest anything to me to help fix it.
Thanks in advance

I would check laptop battery first by charging it. In your laptop features phamplet should be how long the battery stays charged. If you use a mouse and it has batteries and stays plugged in the laptop battery does tend to discharge when not in use and not charging.

It sounds it went into Hibernation and had trouble coming out of it. Manually power down the laptop by holdiong in the poser button. Then start it up again and let me know what happens. If you get options like this (http://cybernetnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/last-known-good-configuration.jpg), then select "Last known good..."

If it keeps rebooting on its own then you have a different problem.

Thanks for the suggestions, I don't think it is a power problem as it was plugged in and charging when the problem occurred.
I also think it might be a hibernation problem as sometimes I put it into hibernate, but on this occasion I can't remember whether I put it in hibernation or not.
I have now tried turning off manually and the same thing happens, I don't get any opions coming up.
It looks as if it will star normally as the mouse icon appears on a black screen but that is as far as it will go before restarting.

Crap, that sounds like a possible corrupted Registry. Is this XP? Do you have your original XP CD?

No its vista, but I do have the CD

You can try this: How to automatically repair Windows Vista using Startup Repair (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial148.html)

I'm currently experiencing same problem, laptop shuts itself down after several minutes of inactivity. Have you been changing power configurations lately? Especially suspicious is the sleep->hibernate timer. I'm exploring this right now. I saw that in consecutive startups, the Vista would come further and further in the bootup process. Check this out. My solution eventually was just to be patient and let laptop ON for about 30 minutes. Weird: http://annoyances-resolved.blogspot.com/2009/09/laptop-wont-boot-and-shows-blank-screen.html

Just trying to add a clickable link:


I'm currently experiencing exact same problem, laptop shuts itself down after several minutes of inactivity. Have you been changing power configurations lately? Especially suspicious is the sleep->hibernate timer. I'm exploring this right now. I saw that in consecutive startups, the Vista would come further and further in the bootup process. Check this out. My solution eventually was just to be patient and let laptop ON for about 30 minutes. Weird: Annoyances-Resolved: SOLVED: Laptop won't boot and shows blank screen (http://annoyances-resolved.blogspot.com/2009/09/laptop-wont-boot-and-shows-blank-screen.html)

Annoyances-Resolved: SOLVED: Laptop won't boot and shows blank screen (http://annoyances-resolved.blogspot.com/2009/09/laptop-wont-boot-and-shows-blank-screen.html)

If that's not it, it sounds like a BSOD and you have windows set to reboot on critical failures, which is why you may not see the screen before it reboots. If the above doesn't work I'd suggest trying to get into safe mode and check the registry and undo the last thing you did before it crashed.