Hey can you help me with my laptop please

I got a compaq windows vista laptop and when i turn it on it shows the compaq logo and all and then a widows error recovery pops out and i can choose to start normally or safe mode, safe mode with networking, and safe mode with command prompt. i choose normally but then the screen turns like a light black and i don't know what to do, can you help me please or do you know anybody that can. thank you