Windows logo appears on screen and seems to go through a loading procedure but then screen goes blank with just cursor showing. Have tried several monitors. Its a pressarrio 5000 about 10 years old

I hope you can get this old geezer working.

According to Microsoft, running a "system repair" should solve the problem

First, figure out what CAUSED the problem. Often times, when Windows is rendered unbootable, there is a good reason. This can often be due to hardware failure (bad hard disk, memory or CPU for example).

In these cases, the system repair function will not work. System repair will only repair your software.

I strongly recommend you run a disk utility on your hard drive before performing a system repair. you can find disk utilities here.
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/collid,1295-order,1-c,downloads

/files.html

Memory can also cause these problems. A good memory test can be found here:

http://www.memtest.org