When you try to start Windows XP, the computer may appear to stop responding (hang) with an empty, black screen immediately after the power-on self test (POST) is complete and before the Windows XP logo typically appears on the screen.

This issue may occur if

1. You have a CD, a DVD or a floppy disk in your CD, DVD, or floppy drive when you start the computer.(Remove the Disc from drive and you would be fine)

2. Also you could see the frozen hanging black screen before Windows Logo if one or more of the following elements are corrupted and will not load during the boot sequence of the computer:

* Master boot record
* Partition tables
* Boot sector
* NTLDR file

To fix this issue, trigger the recovery console or windows advanced options menu by pressing F8 at the start up, start your computer ‘Safe Mode with Networking’ if you can. Then go to Reimage and run the scan, fix all the corrupted or missing boot files.

or..

if you cannot access any of the options on windows recovery console or advanced options menu then you have to create a windows xp boot disc here, set computer to boot from the CD drive on ‘BIOS’ and start up the computer with the boot CD in the drive. europa2004.