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XP won't boot. blinking cursor with blank screen


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#1
quin8484

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I have an xp, that won't boot into windows xp. All i get is a blinking cursor on a black screen. All indicator lights are green on back, thats good.

I shut it down and restarted and a dos style like program chkdsk program popped up before i got to xp startup screen one day asking me if i wanted to run it
(I was kind of heistant to run it, fake chkdsk virus?) so i did it took about a half hour to complete and said something about changing orpaned files and a bunch of other files.

Ever since I ran this i cant get into xp.

f2 and f12 are the only options i can get into.

I cannot get into safe mode or the screen that says reset to the best known config, which I would love to right about now.

I have tried windows repair cd done everything on that and it just shows the blinking cursor again. I have tried re-seating my memory and video all nothing.

So if anyone knows how to fix the blinking cursor problem any other way please help.

thank you

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#2
Troy

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Hi there, welcome to Geeks to Go! Just a few extra questions for you if you don't mind...

"All indicator lights are green on back" <-- What indicator lights? On the back of what?

"f2 and f12 are the only options i can get into" <-- What options does this get you into?

Sometimes chkdsk will run on startup if it detects there might be a problem with the harddrive. If you haven't run chkdsk before, or not for a while, this is not uncommon. How old is the computer? Can you give us some more information (make/model or hardware info)? Have you made any software or hardware changes to it lately?

When you have the blinking cursor, can you type anything or is it frozen?

The more we know about this stuff, hopefully the better we can tailor an answer for you!

Cheers
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#3
quin8484

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hello. yes. I have a dell 2350 series. Pentium 4 2 ghz about 768 mb of ram. I want to say it's 3yrs old.

The indicator lights on the back of cpu are green that means no failures.

I ment these are the only 2 options i have after the dell logo, and then the blinking cursor on top left. I can't type anything in it or do anything it just blinks and xp doesn't load.


before all this happenes you can hit f4 or f6 to try to start in safe mode that doesnt work, or you could get into best know configuration i cant get into either.

f2 gets me to the place where I can change the order of how, I boot my computer and other options etc . (bios screen, doesn't help me.)

f12 gets me to more options. (doesn't help me either, dont know the name of this screen)


I'd love to atleast get to this screen http://www.playtool....2ksafemode2.jpg

I have 2 yrs worth of work on here and I really dont want a fresh install

Edited by quin8484, 27 May 2007 - 02:06 PM.

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#4
Troy

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Before we go any further, disconnect any extra parts that you don't need for XP to start. Like, if you have a USB printer or external hard drive, just unplug them from your computer.

Okay, first, I think the BIOS could help us a little. Let's use it to verify that all your hardware is being properly detected. When you start your computer, press the button (you said F2) that gets you into BIOS. Double check that it detects your processor and it's speed, the RAM amount, any optical drives you have (cd-rom, dvd-burner etc), and your hard disks (and their capacities).

If everything is detected right, and you can't access the advanced startup options menu (by pressing F8 repeatedly), then I imagine one of two possible scenarios:

1) The boot file has become corrupt, and therefore doesn't tell your computer to load windows (this is possible to fix); or
2) An error has occurred rendering your XP installation obsolete (hard drive failure, corrupt data, etc...).

Next, can you describe for me better what the options are under the F12 menu? Give me some examples.

You said you have a Windows repair cd, is this a proper XP installation cd or a Dell recovery cd?
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#5
quin8484

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To answers all your questions in the previous post:

At my Bios screen yes, all are listed correctly. My processor speed, ram amount and all others look correct.

When I press f8 repeatedly I don't get to the advanced startup screen, but the screen with a dos like blue ribbon like this screen i found off the net --> http://www.pcfrikis....histe-placa.jpg that has the energy star bios stuff on it etc. I also get a no keyboard error at this screen and it goes right to the blinking cursor screen( it's not my keyboard because it was working fine)

Yes I can describe better the options in f12. it says boot menu at top of the screen and has

normal

floppy

hard disk

and some others in that menu.

and yes I do have the boot cd that came with my computer.

maybe this scenario would fall under the boot file being corrupt. And i think that chkdsk had something to do with it

Edited by quin8484, 28 May 2007 - 03:07 PM.

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#6
wannabe1

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Hi quin8484...

When you tried the repair using the XP disk, how far does it get into the process before it goes to the dark screen?

wannabe1
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#7
duckleader

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My PC (running XP Professional) developed the same problem - it wouldn't boot up and the screen showed a blinking cursor. I had another hard drive with an older version of XP Home, so I threw that in as the master and made the problem drive the slave. With that configuration, the computer is able to read the slave drive and gives me its specs, but when I click on "Properties" it tells me the disk isn't formatted and asks if I want to format it. (I obviously said, "NO" or I'll loose any chance of recovering data.) I entered DOS mode and it won't read any files on the disk. I'm guessing that the hard drive is dead and I need to put a new drive in and do a complete reinstall. Bummer...
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#8
wannabe1

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duckleader: There are programs that may still be able to recover your data...so long as the drive will still spin up. GetDataBack is one example...I use it and it works. It's free to download and run on the drive, but you must purchase a key to actually recover the data...about $80.

For future reference, please start your own topic when you need assistance...to avoid confusion to the original starter of this topic. :whistling:
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#9
quin8484

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waanabe1:

When I try a repair install from the cd, after the process is done, I take the cd out (so it won't boot from the cd on next boot up) after it says computer restarting in a couple of seconds.

The screen boots right to the blue dell logo the right to the black screen with cursor blinking in left hand corner.



any commands I can type at the repair console that might fix it?

I've tried fixmbr and fixboot all nothing.

Edited by quin8484, 29 May 2007 - 04:27 PM.

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#10
wannabe1

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Have a look in BIOS setup...specifically the boot priority. Is it set so the first boot device is the cd-rom and the second boot device is the HDD?
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#11
quin8484

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I have it in this order

CD rom

Hard Disk

Floppy

Lan
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#12
wannabe1

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Try running the repair again. This time don't remove the cd at the first reboot...don't do anything and it should go on about it's business. See if the repair will complete this way.
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#13
quin8484

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Ok I left the CD in after a repair install and you would think it would finish but it just says press any key to boot from cd... then a bunch of weird dos characters on the screen

when i press any key to boot from cd, nothing happens.

took a pic of it.

http://img262.images...cture043sl4.jpg

..this is all after i run repair install from the cd after it boots up again

Edited by quin8484, 29 May 2007 - 05:21 PM.

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#14
wannabe1

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It IS finding an operating system to repair, though...this is a good thing.

Boot to the cd again, only this time load Recovery Console by pressing R on the Welcome to Setup screen.

Choose the operating system you want to repair, usually 1. C:\WINDOWS, by number.

When prompted for the Administrator password, just press Enter...unless you have set a password.

When you get to the command prompt (C:\WINDOWS>), type chkdsk /r and press Enter (on some machines the check will begin at this point)

If you are told the drive is in use and asked if you want to schedule this to run on the next boot, type Y and press Enter

If, at this point or when this check completes, you find yourself back at the command prompt, type exit and press Enter to exit Recovery Console.

Reboot

This is a very long 5 stage check...let it finish. It may appear to hang or even back up at times...this is normal, be patient.
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#15
happyrock

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you may want to try this to recover your data..
you get puppy linux...Get puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso download it and burn it to cd ...if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files go here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso burning program...make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...if your hardware is is good working order you will know...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all yor data to cd/dvds... OR
you can also use it to backup your data to a internal drive or external usb hard drive..just have it hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy...
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