I have a Gateway laptop model MX 35604. It was extremely slow and full of spyware so I decided to re-format the hard drive with the original CD. I did a complete format and everything seemed to work okay but when I rebooted it is a black screen with a white triangle that is the mouse. I have an extra hard drive and went through the process and the exact same thing happens.
The following are things I have noticed:
- When it boots from the CD it appears normal.
- It is when trying to boot the OS from the hard drive that the issue occurs.
- This computer wasn't used for over a year and I noticed that the time and date in the BIOS settings was back in 1999. So it appears that I lost the BIOS battery power.
- When I first boot, I do get the Windows XP splash screen but it then goes black with the white mouse triangle.
- I can boot from the CD and I can get into the BIOS settings.
It is almost like the video driver is not being recognized when booting from the hard drive. The computer worked fine until I tried to re-format.
I think I might have done something to the BIOS. Any suggestions on what is happening and how can I fix this?