Locked on Welcome screen

I was wondering if anyone has an resolution or came across this issue. I have an HP tx2500 laptop. I have Vista 64 with 4g ram and AMD Turion X2 Ultra 64 processor.
I setup my laptop not to challenge for login credentials, therefore going straight to the Welcome screen. I seem to get stuck on the welcome screen and after 36 hours there has been no change. I get periodic disk activity, but nothing seems to be going on. I unplugged the laptop and removed the battery to reboot.
I have this laptop for 2-3 months. Last week, i used the recovery disk to bring me back to factory settings, but I am running into this issue again.
Does this sound familar to anyone out there? The OS came pre-loaded with the laptop.
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Thanks!

I would contact HP or the vendor you bought it from, as you are definitely still in warranty.

echrada said:

I would contact HP or the vendor you bought it from, as you are definitely still in warranty.

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I would have to agree. If you've already done a factory restore and the problem persists, it could indicate a hardware issue.

Thanks guys. I will contact HP. I will post my resolution.
Thanks again!