Computer loads, then goes black?

[BlakPilar]

My parents' old computer got pretty old, and the power supply went bad so we got them a new computer. It's an HP Pavillion Slimline with Windows 7 64-bit. They were using it with no problems for a while, then one day it wouldn't load correctly. It started up normally and loaded the profile and everything, but right when the desktop was supposed to load the screen went black and nothing happened at all. Ctrl+Alt+Del was also unresponsive. You could, however, still see the mouse and move it around. We took it down to Staples and the people there weren't much help. The only other thing I could think of was to completely reset the computer to factory settings. I did that after I transferred all necessary files to my USB drive in Safe Mode (which oddly enough worked), and the computer worked.

However, this same situation is happening again. This is complete crap. I am not going to reset the computer again because this shouldn't be happening. Can anyone think of what would be happening? If there's no direct reason, I'm just going to have them take the computer back.

P.S. - My mom has a habit of leaving their computer on over-night; could that be it (something to do with the power supply again)?

[Jim Bauwens]

Try to see if you can start in safe mode (press f8 during boot).
If it works, try to remove some standard installed programs that you don't need at all.

Then try to go back in normal mode

[BlakPilar]

It can load in Safe Mode, but she hasn't installed anything. It ran fine for about a month after I reset it the first time. The only thing my mom has done recently is browse the web and listen to music on Pandora.

EDIT: I removed all of the standard applications after I reset it to factory settings.

[Jim Bauwens]

Well, I made the software that's installed when she bought it. Mostly there is a lot of junk between.

[BlakPilar]

Yeah, I already uninstalled it all.

[Eeems]

Graphics drivers all up to date?
Have you tried googling the problem along with the model of your laptop to see if anybody else has the same issues and if they have fixes for it?

[DJ Omnimaga]

Hmm strange. I know Windows has a tendency to do that, although from experience all I had was the desktop background, no taskbar and just the mouse cursor, then it hung there, and this usually happened after installing several stuff, not with a fresh Windows install. I wonder if the install CD they gave you was made correctly? Maybe they did something wrong while making them... else it could be an hardware issue, but then I think the computer would simply not boot at all or at least not make it past the Windows screen.

[BlakPilar]

Graphics drivers all up to date?
Have you tried googling the problem along with the model of your laptop to see if anybody else has the same issues and if they have fixes for it?

Yeah, their computer is brand new (well, four months old, but still). It was working fine literally two hours ago. I tried googling everything the last time this happened and no one else seemed to have the same problem.

[Jonius7]

Wow, it looks like the problem isn't just restricted to Windows, it may be a hardware issue.

[BlakPilar]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking it was. I just restored factory settings again and removed all the junk that comes with that. If this happens again, though, I'm definitely taking it back and getting a good one for my parents.

[Jonius7]

Will they refund it? How long have you had the computer for?

[BlakPilar]

They better lol. We've only had it six months, but we got the three year warantee.

[D4rkr4in]

Yea, if multiple clean installs doesn't work, it's best to rma it. I wouldn't suggest replacing anything by yourself in a slimline computer because its so slim lol

[BlakPilar]

Yeah, I don't know a lot about hardware, so there's no way I'm opening up a slimline lol. Especially if it's not my own computer.

[Jonius7]

Not to mention possibly voiding the warrantee.
I send my condolences to your parents. They must be confused/frustrated right now.