[IbanezRG250]

I own a Dell Lattitude laptop that runs Windows XP, and it just went into a total meltdown.
The post screen comes up but after that the screen just goes blank with a blinking dash in the upper left
hand corner of the screen, and i can't remember how to fix it.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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this is often a corrupted master boot sector or partition boot sector

Use your windows xp cd to boot into the recovery console, and once you're at a prompt, type

Fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0
(this will fix if it is mbr)
Reboot

If that fails, return to the recovery console and type

fixboot c:
If you have multiple harddrives, and installed XP to a second drive, then insert that drive letter)
(for partition boot sector)

[gerryf]

this is often a corrupted master boot sector or partition boot sector

Use your windows xp cd to boot into the recovery console, and once you're at a prompt, type

Fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0
(this will fix if it is mbr)
Reboot

If that fails, return to the recovery console and type

fixboot c:
If you have multiple harddrives, and installed XP to a second drive, then insert that drive letter)
(for partition boot sector)

[dsenette]

or you may have a disk in one of the drives that's nonbootable

[kd1966]

or you may have a disk in one of the drives that's nonbootable

I remember that used to happen alot with floppies............. now the BIOS gives you a message to replace with a bootable floppy

[dsenette]

kd1966 - not all bios will give that message...some times it still goes over to the blinking curser

[kd1966]

Yes, sorry I forgot to mention that "most" BIOS's will do this............