help!!! vista not loading

i have a problem with vista not loading...i turned the computer off last night without any problems with the computer, but when i turned it on this morning i noticed it took a little longer than usual to load. when it finally did load, windows didnt, it just comes up with a black screen and for some reason my documents folder pops up. u can still navigate through that and bring everything up like control panel, internet and so on fine....i done a system check and it says its running ok....my norton expired just 3-4 days ago so theres a chance that maybe its a virus???not sure though seems like some vista failure. any help would be appreciated thanks...
Joel

Did you remove the expired norton?

yes............past experience has shown that it is better to uninstall security software that has expired or you intend not to renew.
I have past memories of security software that was not getting renewed appearing to "upset" the normal operation of my rig.

i found another post with a similar problem which suggested to use the system restore, which actually worked...and thanx for the heads up, i will delete the norton antivirus im not using. i went for the AVG antivirus, its free and suppose to be pretty good so ill see how i go with that.