Gateway laptop vista unresponsive on startup

I get past the Gateway logo and make it to the error message saying Windows failed to start. It suggests Windows files were damaged or corrupted and recommends to use startup repair. It offers me two options: Launch startup repair, or start windows normally. Additionally, sometimes there's a countdown where upon 0 it launches startup repair. If I use the arrow keys to change options during the countdown, the text is suddenly replaced with boxes and is unreadable. Anyway, either option I choose and press Enter, it proceeds to a blank black screen and is unresponsive from there. I'm forced to shutdown with the power button.