blank screen, active cursor

an old friend has phoned me up in a panic and will phone back later for advice. Her 4-year old laptop, running Windows 10 is just showing a black screen at start up, with active cursor. We have a Windows 10 laptop here, but I do not use it and am not familiar with the system. I am asking, is there a combination of keys that will refresh the system and which will keep her files? She has all her pics of her late husband on there.

If you cannot help we will have to go get the laptop, take the drive out, recover the pics, and then attempt to reinstall W10, and that too is unchartered territory. Please help if you can.

I have been on the web while waiting for this to be accepted and have learned that pressing Ctrl and then entering password, even though you cannot see anything on the screen, and then pressing Enter, might fix it, for now. I shall pass this info on when she phones me later, but it still isn't a 'proper' solution. I shall also strongly advise her to get an external to copy her pics to....

Ok, that worked, and she is going to get an external. I think it must be a graphics driver problem, so I will probably have the machine here before too long, but for the moment, all is back to where it should be.

Windows icon + I opens Settings.....assuming it appears will give many options.

pawz10 said:

thank you Dencal, I shall tuck that away for future ref - would it have got her to a visible welcome screen though? Anyway, all sorted for now.

Your welcome.