[RolfeZ]

Hello.
I realize there are many posts on the "blinking cursor" topic but it seems my issue is a little different. I just put together a PC for a friend and proceeded to install XP. XP installation started up and started to load some drivers and stuff and then a minute later just the blank screen and blinking cursor. I have tried resetting and adjusting the BIOS settings but won't get past the blinking cursor.?

The system is
- Asus P5Q3
- Intel E8400
- WD raptor connected to SATA port 1 (started out on the orange SATA_E port)
- 9600GT GFX
- Keyboard is an old PS/2 connected
- Mouse is USB
- Monitor is old and connected via an adapter to the GFX
- DVD-RW is Samsung writemaster connected to the IDE port and set to slave (should it be master since there's nothing else on the cable at the moment though it did read XP installation start-up before the problem)??

Any hints are most welcome. My friend's unhappy and I'm frustrated.

Regards
Rolf

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I have tried disconnecting the Raptor HD and starting up the PC. Now XP will start installation but of course cannot continue since there's no HD connected. Putting back the HD in SATA 1 and cold-starting it hangs with the blinking cursor when trying to boot. I haven't found any "MBR overwrite protect" to turn off in BIOS. I'm wondering if something has already been written to the HD and now it's garbled. I'll try putting the HD into my own machine to see if I can figure out something. Does the Raptor HD need to be jumpered? There was no jumpers supplied so I just put it in.

The PC does respond to CTRL-ALT-DEL when hanging and restarts till the point of the blinking cursor.

Any input is most welcome.

Regards
Rolf

Edited by RolfeZ, 15 November 2009 - 03:11 AM.

[RolfeZ]

I have tried disconnecting the Raptor HD and starting up the PC. Now XP will start installation but of course cannot continue since there's no HD connected. Putting back the HD in SATA 1 and cold-starting it hangs with the blinking cursor when trying to boot. I haven't found any "MBR overwrite protect" to turn off in BIOS. I'm wondering if something has already been written to the HD and now it's garbled. I'll try putting the HD into my own machine to see if I can figure out something. Does the Raptor HD need to be jumpered? There was no jumpers supplied so I just put it in.

The PC does respond to CTRL-ALT-DEL when hanging and restarts till the point of the blinking cursor.

Any input is most welcome.

Regards
Rolf

Edited by RolfeZ, 15 November 2009 - 03:11 AM.

[RolfeZ]

Removing the HD from the boot priority list in BIOS helped. Now XP installation is running and found the HD and partitioned it. The HD is connected to SATA1 on the M/B and the special Asus SATA_E1 and 2 are not used and have been disabled in BIOS.

When trying to install XP last night something must have gone wrong causing it to hang. Maybe because there was a wireless network card connected that conflicted with the M/B onboard network. At any rate trying to start up afterward apparantly tried really hard to boot from the HD which had nothing installed and was not even formatted.

I hope this works and if so can help others who run into this problem.

Regards
Rolf

[RolfeZ]

Hello all.

XP installation completed and after roughly 20 (not kidding) Windows Update runs the machine is now up and running and fully updated.

Apparantly the machine tried to boot off the blank harddisk cause it was included in the boot priority list. XP couldn't see that there was nothing to boot off of on the disk and just blinked it's cursor. When booting now the blinking cursor is seen briefly just before the windows logo and the running squares come up.

I guess this just adds yet another learning point to the very long list of XP "challenges". It apparantly also mattered whether the disk was set up as IDE as XP supposedly only recognized that.

Best regards
RolfeZ