Problem with OHs laptop

ajmoney

I was wondering if you can help me out before we take the laptop to a shop. OH turned his laptop on earlier and the cursor froze, couldn't start task manager so we manually turned it off left it a couple of seconds and started it up. Started in safe mode then turned off and tried again. This time the cursor moved but wouldn't highlight anything on the bar at the bottom, would highlight desktop icons but couldn't click on them. Manually turned off again etc, this time I double clicked our Norton security icon and pressed the windows key on the keyboard, after a while Norton main screen came up and the start menu came up but now nothing will happen. I will turn it off again in a sec and we will take it to someone to see if they can help. Was wondering if any of you can offer any advice in the meantime? I am good at following instructions but jargon may confuse me so please keep it simple
I hope someone can help

closed

does everything work fine in safe mode? Which operating system?

desktop/laptop? which model? is your data backed up? do you have the windows disc or a factory restore partition?

ajmoney

Will try myself in safe mode, he mentioned about the internet but not sure he will have tried anything else.
Windows vista which I believe is not a good system. Laptop, Acer aspire 5920. Info backed up on external hard drive but not sure how recently this was done. Not sure about a disk either will ask when he is back in. Will give safe mode a go now

closed

Acers tend to have a factory restore partition, and also a means to create a recovery disk (erecovery), which you should create.

Try booting without the battery in

connect to a router with a cable, and boot into safe mode with networking, post a hijackthis log

ajmoney

Thanks for your help closed. This time when I restarted the start up repair kicked in and is currently doing its thing, hopefully that will help. I will try your suggestions when I manage to get it started up.