My laptop is stuck at startup. How can I fix it?

To turn your laptop off you'll have to do a "hard shutdown". Press and hold the power button down until the machine goes "blip" and turns off. Let it rest a few minutes before you try to boot it up again. During this time, turn off the internet connection and unplug any USB devices you might have plugged into it.

If it still won't boot up correctly, shut it down using a hard shutdown again if you have to. This time before booting up, find the F8 function key at the top of your keyboard. Hold down this key and boot up the computer. This should give you an option screen. Your mouse/touchpad won't work so use the arrow keys on your keyboard to select Safe Mode and press Enter.

Do not panic!!! Your computer will boot up in Safe Mode which means only Windows and a few of the basic parts of your little machine will be running and your desktop/opening screen will look really weird. You mouse/touchpad should work now. The important thing is that your anti-virus and all the fancy stuff won't be running. If your computer boots up OK in Safe Mode it means that something else that normally starts when Windows starts is interfering with Windows.

To get out of Safe Mode, just restart your computer and the first screen that appears will ask if you want to begin Windows Normally. Just press Enter on your keyboard and your computer will pop back to the way it normally looks.

Now, the hard part .... If Windows boots up in Safe Mode, you've got to try to determine what's running normally that's interfering. Depending on what version of Windows you're running, you may or may not be able to repair Windows from the repair partition on your hard drive. Now, might be a good time to take in the laptop, tell the tech that it does or does not boot up in Safe Mode and let someone who knows your laptop work their magic on it.