A friend called me and said he's having troubles with his PC. First of all, the sound isn't working. I've ran him through a few tests over the phone, and it seems the computer recognizes the sound drivers, the sound just doesn't work. Sometimes when he boots up, the screen just stays blank. My first question is: If the boot GUI is disabled in Windows, and the computer runs chkdisk scan when it boots, will it show up? It apparently stays on a black screen for a LONG time, eventually causing you to reboot it. Happens in Safe Mode as well. Sometimes it boots straight up, others it's just a black screen. It's not possible to listen to the sounds to see if the computer boots, because the sound isn't working. I need to gather ideas to test tomorrow when I get my hands on it. _If_ reinstalling sound drivers doesn't work, what else is there to try? Do you think the elongated black screen is due to Windows boot GUI being disabled? Also, would boot GUI be re-enabled by default when attempting to boot in Safe Mode? Thanks.