Windows - Blinking Cursor on First Boot

I had Vista running fine before, except for a weird issue that caused me to want to format and reinstall, this time with Windows 7. My optical drive is broken so I installed via USB DVD drive.
When I boot into the Windows drive, it just appears as a flashing cursor.
* I've tried resetting VRAM
* I've tried installing Windows 7 * 5 times
* I've tried installing Windows Vista * 3 times

Similar Messages

Arch linux shows a blinking cursor instead of booting intaller

well i use
sudo dd if=archlinux-2010.05-core-i686.iso of=/dev/sdb1
and check the md5 sums. I tried to boot it on two different pcs having the same result: intead of booting grub(or anything useful for that matter) it just shows a blinking cursor at the topleft corner of the screen. It is unresponsive to any kind of input, the flash drive led doenst seem to blink or shiver at all and there seems to be no other activity whatsoever.
I tried using another flash drive and this time it is completely ignored booting winholes "normally"
(posted the same thing on superuser.net but got no reply )

sudo dd if=archlinux-2010.05-core-i686.iso of=/dev/sdb1
^^ is wrong, see vv
The Wiki wrote:
Beginning from release 2010.05, all iso files can be directly written to usb media. Download them from your local mirror. To install, first ensure the USB device is unmounted and then issue the following command:
$ dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sd[x]
where image.iso is the path to the iso file and /dev/sd[x] is your USB device.
Warning: This will irrevocably destroy all data on /dev/sdx.
Warning: Make sure to use /dev/sdx and NOT /dev/sdx1. This is a very common error!
Sidenote: I would recommend using the new test isos found here
Last edited by Mr.Elendig (2011-02-09 19:01:11)

Re:blinking cursor -- will not boot up

cpu --- intel (r) atom (tm) cpu Nz80 speed 1660 mhz - built-in HDD/ssd:toshiba MK2555GSX-(s1) total memory
1024 mb bios version v1.60
i think my son watched a movie and added on an viewer that erased the original drivers...now hd is gone and needs to be restored. attempted several times going to f12 and changed configurations back to original default settings and pressed f9 to save and f10 to exit.
also attemped hdd recovery mode and there were to options to restore when pressing f8 advanced -- computer locked up; left overnight to see what happens and error message keeps referring to check cable. have reboted with ac adapter and without (only blinking cursor) attempted to take out battery but unable to unscrew and attempt to use only ac adapter...
i know nothing else -- any tips will be helpful or it goes to local guy that hopefully can do a recovery....
Solved!
Go to Solution.

got the toshiba recovery disks today (2). sorry but i'm still having trouble with this process.
steps to recovery
1. place the disc into the drive - Toshiba mini starter notebook does not have a drive.
2. power up the computer while holding down the "C" key
release the "C" key when the screen reads Toshiba
3. the computer will format the hard drive and install the factory image. follow all instruction on the screen
4. Once the process is complete remove the recovery media and press any key to restart your computer.
I went out and purchase a Male to Male connector to transfer files. Got one file in back of hard drive that has cd/rom drive and one on side of mini notebook. Press and held down "0" to get to boot menu. There is no choice to select, DVD drive or Flash Drive to highlight so that either one will know who to communicate with to make the
transfer. (ex: transfer recovery mode disks from d drive to c: drive on mini notebook).
upon inserting Recovery disk in d: drive; screen pops up that says AutoPlay open folder to view files from DVD drive E removable disk instead of getting selection here to transfer files on d drive to c:mini notebook.
Do you know what the problem is? please help if you can...I will be waiting.
thanks fixmeup

Terminal window blinking cursor will not accept keyboard entry

Have SunBlade100 w/ Solaris8.
This is probably a dumb beginner question...
When I enter certain commands at the terminal window - in this particular case
# cat /dev/cua/a
and I hit <return> the cursor skips to the next line, and
continues blinking , and will not accept any keyboard entries.
1. What is the significance of this? Is the cursor waiting further action, and if so, what?
2. How do I get back to the prompt?
3. Under this condition, is it safe to exit the terminal window by closing from the Window menu? (I can't type "exit" because the cursor won't accept keyboard entries, and Help for "closing the terminal" warns against closing from the Window menu because any background processes will not be terminated (and this may cause problems).
Thanks in advance for any info on this.

Thanks again for the info. <control>+C was exactly what I was looking for. It's coming back to me now-- the last time I had contact w/ UNIX was back in '85 at UC Berkeley (no GUI's back then!).
I'm assuming that <control>+C is a graceful (i.e. relatively harmless way to exit the command.

Windows 7 partition won't boot, hangs on black screen / blinking cursor

Hi all,
I just installed windows 7 home premium x64 on a new 100gb partition I made first with bootcamp assistant and then simply with disk utility the second time. I can't get windows to load however, it just sits forever at the black screen with blinking cursor at top left.
I have tried the Bootrec.exe /Fixmbr
bootrec.exe /Fix boot
Bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd
fix that is floating around to no avail. The rebuildbcd command yields 0 copies of windows installed but still ends successfully.
i have spent the majority of my day trying to get this to work and have no leads left anymore. Please help!

I HAVE SOLVED MY PROBLEM! Windows is running excellently on my Bootcamp partition.
Taking a few steps back: I used Bootcamp to remove the disk utility partition, then remade it also using boot camp assistant. Ran the windows install, and this time instead of hanging endlessly on black or going back to step 1 after restarting, the install went all the way. I had to restart once when the computer hung on "starting windows" but it got back on track right after this.
I think I must've fudged something with Disk utility before.
Thank you so much for your help!

HT1846 Windows take a long time to boot up with black screen and a blinking cursor. Help anyone?

Im running 64-bit windows 7 on my late 2012 mac mini. When it boots, it takes around few minutes to boot to windows. During the few minutes, it shows a black screen with a blinking cursor at the top left. Is there any ways to remove it and go straight to windows?

Hello cncprogrammer,
Welcome to the HP Forums, I hope you enjoy your experience! To help you get the most out of the HP Forums I would like to direct your attention to the HP Forums Guide First Time Here? Learn How to Post and More.
I understand your HP Pavilion HPE h8-1360t Desktop computer. I am providing you with a link to a great proactive post by @Daniel_Potyrala titled How to speed up system boot time and the performance, where he offers some great advise on how to deal with the very issue you are posting about. I would advise you give it a thorough read and apply as many steps as you can to speed up your computer.
Please re-post if you require additional support. Thank you for posting on the HP Forums. Have a great day!
Please click the "Thumbs Up" on the bottom right of this post to say thank you if you appreciate the support I provide!
Also be sure to mark my post as “Accept as Solution" if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others who face the same challenge find the same solution.
Dunidar
I work on behalf of HP
Find out a bit more about me by checking out my profile!
"Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." ~ Donald Porter

Boot Camp: Early 2011 MacBook Pro boots to black screen with blinking cursor after windows 7 installation.

I bought and downloaded the windows 7 ultimate edition 64 bit iso, then proceeded to perform a correct burn to a DVD one at the slowest speed and one at the fastest. all went well. so I open Boot Camp assistant and follow the instructions to the letter, downloaded the driver support to the flash drive. partitioned my drive with more than enough room 150 gb. its starts its install. I get through everything seamlessly where I put in my info all with the exception of my activation code. yet it still continues to finalize the install and does another restart. boots back up to either A. black screen saying press any key to boot to my install disk. B. if I take it out just a white curser. also I read it may be because I had the flash drive in while I was trying to boot so I removed it as well, same result. any input would be much appreciated.

Boot Camp- Windows installation boots to black screen with blinking cursor.

Windows 7 64-bit black screen and blinking cursor for ages before boot

Help!
I'm having the black screen with blinking cursor whenever I try and boot up Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit thru Bootcamp on my MacBook Pro. If i let it just sit there for maybe 2 or 3 minutes, it then goes to the Windows Boot Manager screen and allows me to click on Windows 7 and the it boots perfect. I've tried installing it twice, same thing. No problem booting OS X Snow Leo 10.6.3. Got the right NVidia drivers installed, makes no difference. Have Paragon NTFS installed so I can get thru to NTFS partition from OS X. I badly need Windows too and don't wanna slow it down by running it in Parallels or VMWare Fusion. A little help?
Thanks a lot!

Solved! Here's what worked for me, it's located at:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11567814#11567814
(scroll further down, Option 3, you'll see one or two others had success with it too)
Message was edited by: rapture_elk

Windows 7 on Boot Camp stuck at black screen with blinking cursor... starts up fine in Parallels desktop

Hi,
Recently my dad's Windows 7 (Ultimate 64-bit) on his Mac Pro has stopped working. It gets stuck at a black screen with a blinking cursor. I've waited at least five minutes and it doesn't do anything, I have to power it off.
However it starts up perfectly fine and intact in Parallels desktop. If I insert the original installation DVD and boot from the Disc that says 'Windows' it will boot into the partition and work fine, unless I press a key to boot from the DVD.
I find both these things to be strange. The partition is backed up, which is fine, but I'd rather not have to re-install it if possible.
I have booted from the DVD and tried to repair the disk. It said it found a problem with something related to startup and that it needed to restart to repair it. I clicked yes, and then held alt/opt and (I think wrongly) booted back into the disc rather than the Windows partition. However it now says that it can't detect any problems.
In the repair my computer section when booting from the DVD, it detects the OS as Windows Vista Business. I followed these steps I found online:
Fixed! Peroblem was I think using OEM, which Bootcamp advise against using... they advise to use retail only. Fixed like this:
1. Put the Windows 7 installation disc in the disc drive, and then start your computer.
2. Hold down Option key till all available disks are displayed and select DVD. Press a key when you are prompted.
3. Select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard or an input method, and then 4. click Next.
5. Click Repair your computer.
6. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
7.In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
Type (these commands are safe)
Code: Bootrec.exe /FixMbr
Code: Bootrec.exe /FixBoot
Code: Bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd
*Press ENTER after each command.*
*Restart your computer.*
Done. Rockin'
FixMbr was successful, as was FixBoot. However RebuildBcd reported that it found no Windows installations.
Does anyone know what could be wrong here? I should note that recently I removed the drive Windows 7 is installed on and put it back in. Also Windows Updates probably have been done by my dad. Not sure if they could be the problem.

Cult, welcome to the forum.
It sounds like you have a failing power supply unit (PSU). This will cause the symptoms that you describe. If the computer isn't getting enough power, it can cause numerous problems. You can try disconnecting any unnecessary components to see if it will boot. Here is a guide to help you troubleshoot the problem.
Please click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved.
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Booting Windows 7 in Boot Camp shows a black screen with a blinking cursor

I am trying to restore a DMG image of a Windows 7 Boot Camp partition back to Boot Camp. (I know that I should have used Winclone, but I didn't have that option because the drive was already dying and so I couldn't even access OS X anymore.)
So far, I've gotten to the point where I can start up the computer, hold Option, choose Windows, but then when it boots up, it shows a black screen with a blinking cursor.
I've tried a few things so far to try and fix this, none of which has worked. I have used the Windows 7 install DVD to run `bootrec` and all its possible arguments. I've ran `chkdsk C: /b`. I've also used the "Automatically fix startup problems" button, of course, as well.
Anyone know what else I could try to fix this?

Already tried those steps. Did not work. I finally fixed the problem by using iPartition and running "Write MBR Boot Code" and then renaming the Windows 7 partition and hitting "Go". The latter step causes iPartition to fix any problems that might exist in the partition. After renaming it, I just renamed it back to what it was before. (It was "Windows 7", I renamed to "Windows 7-02", then renamed it back to "Windows 7" afterward.)

Blinking cursor and Satellite C850-1NU does not boot up

Hi
I did something really stupid!
Recently I installed ubuntu on My toshiba laptop. During a part where it was downloading things, I turned my laptop off because i thought it was frozen. I turned it back on, but all there was was a black screen with a white flashing "_". I put in an old Windows XP disc to see if i could install it but, still nothing happened.
And the laptop came installed with Windows 8 x64 if that helps.
Do I need to buy a new BIOS chip, or what?

Hi
The issue is not related to BIOS problem.
The blinking cursor in the left upper corner can appear due to faulty HDD or RAM malfunction.
It can be possible that you damaged the HDD booting partition due to the shutdown.
But this is easy to check
You should power up the unit and press F2. Now you should access the BIOS.
Now in case the HDD is OK; you should see the HDD on the first BIOS page with all the HDD details. In case the HDD is visible in BIOS, you should go to next step.
Next step: try to reinstall the system again.
In case you want to install an Linux or another Windows system you have to disable firstly the secure boot option in BIOS. Also you have to switch from UEFI to CSM mode. This is also part of the BIOS settings.
After that you could boot from CD or USB flash stick in order to reinstall the system

Blinking cursor when installing Windows 7 on a MacBook Air (Late 2010)

Hi.
After spending several days trying to solve this, I turn to this forum.
I have a MacBook Pro Retina (Mid 2012) and I had no problem installing W7 on that machine.
My wife has a MacBook Air (Late 2010), on which I am trying to do the same.
I use an external LaCie BD/DVD reader/writer, which I also used for the MBP without problems.
After partitioning and restarting, the install DVD doesn't seem to want to work with the MBA, though. Only a blinking cursor appears. Occationally some message like "Error code 5" or BOOTMGR image is corrupt. The system cannot boot."
I've tried starting with Alt, and when the screen appears where I can choose the Install DVD, there is no HD image, as on the MBP in the same situation, but just an image of a disk under which is written "EFI boot" - and it keeps poofing, appearing, poofing appearing. Actually, the first of these poofing images is actually called Windows, but choosing this returns the same blinking cursor.
I have tried resetting the PRAM and SMC, as well as repairing the disk.
Any ideas how to solve this?
Best,
Richard

leiladog wrote:
Can I install Window 7 Professional on a boot camp partition on my 1.8/2GB/64GB SSD MBA?
Today I installed Win7 Preimum on my brand new MBA (1.8/4GB/128GB SSD). I started with a stock MBA and first installed the new version of Parallels (7). After that installation, I installed Win7 Premium, followed by MS Office for Students and MS Streets and Trips. I should note that I also added slightly over 500 tunes for iTunes.
I was hoping to only install Excel and Word, but I never saw an option to go custom and as a result, all of Office for Students got installed.
With Parallels I didn't have to partition the hard drive. While I'm not totally sure, I think Parallels "grabs" empty space as needed, either for OS-X or Windows.
When I finished the installation, the computer reports that I still have 87GB.
I would assume if you went the route above and installed all the same programs, you would end up with 43GB of free space.
I intend to use my MBA as a road warrior, mainly surfing with some light Excel/Word. Unless you really need the Professional version, you might consider just installing the Premium version if the size of the program is much larger.
I've only been running for a few hours, but the machine seems very robust in both OS-X and Win7. Re the size of your hard drive, you might consider picking up a small external hard drive. I have a Western Digital Passport that is about the size of a cigarette pack and has the look of something that Apple might have made. 500GB for about $70.
I'm wondering if your 2GB of RAM might be a little on the weak side for going this route?

Won't boot, blinking cursor, F8 doesn't work

I have a laptop with a Windows 7 and Debian Linux dual boot configuration and the Windows partition doesn't boot anymore. I just get a black screen with blinking cursor and no disk activity. F8, F5 and tab don't do anything, and cause it to beep if I keep
pressing them. This is on a BIOS system with MBR partitioning. So far I've tried:
chkdsk c: /f /r /b and sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows -- neither found any errors.
bootrec /fixmbr and bootrec /fixboot -- this restored the default Windows bootloader and made it go directly to the blank screen without the GRUB menu.
bcdboot c:\windows /s c: -- tried with and without the "/s C:" and tried deleting C:\boot first. Neither had any effect.
Backed up and deleted all partition table entries other than C: (note, this system didn't have a System Reserved partition). Repeated bootrec and bcdboot commands. No change.
I am about ready to back everything up and do a fresh install, but I'm really curious as to what could be screwed up here. I feel I have a moderate understanding of the NT 6 early boot process. I've remade everything up through Boot Manager, which should
at least get me a boot selection menu with F8, but I'm getting nothing.
Here is output from bcdedit /enum all after all of this:
Windows Boot Manager
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-us
inherit {globalsettings}
default {default}
resumeobject {59817a93-ab6a-11e4-81b4-b2a3ade99c7a}
displayorder {default}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30
Windows Boot Loader
identifier {4c074127-ab63-11e4-ba2c-b38857316e7a}
device ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\211dc182-3aa3-11e1-9c1c-99ac330a77
26\Winre.wim,{4c074128-ab63-11e4-ba2c-b38857316e7a}
path \windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Recovery Environment (recovered)
locale
osdevice ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\211dc182-3aa3-11e1-9c1c-99ac330a77
26\Winre.wim,{4c074128-ab63-11e4-ba2c-b38857316e7a}
systemroot \windows
winpe Yes
Windows Boot Loader
identifier {default}
device partition=C:
path \windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-us
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \windows
resumeobject {59817a93-ab6a-11e4-81b4-b2a3ade99c7a}
nx OptIn
detecthal Yes
Resume from Hibernate
identifier {59817a93-ab6a-11e4-81b4-b2a3ade99c7a}
device partition=C:
path \windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-us
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filepath \hiberfil.sys
Windows Memory Tester
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=C:
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-us
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes
EMS Settings
identifier {emssettings}
bootems Yes
Debugger Settings
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200
RAM Defects
identifier {badmemory}
Global Settings
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}
Boot Loader Settings
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
{hypervisorsettings}
Hypervisor Settings
identifier {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype Serial
hypervisordebugport 1
hypervisorbaudrate 115200
Resume Loader Settings
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
Device options
identifier {4c074128-ab63-11e4-ba2c-b38857316e7a}
ramdisksdidevice partition=C:
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\211dc182-3aa3-11e1-9c1c-99ac330a7726\boot.sdi

Thanks for your reply. I actually have the Linux side of it under control. At present, to simplify things for fixing Windows, I've used dd to save the first few dozen sectors of my drive, deleted partitions other than the Windows one, and restored the
Microsoft bootloader. So long as I don't create new partitions in that "free" space, I can bring back my Linux and Grub simply by restoring those backed up sectors.
I'd like to get Windows working again and then restore the Linux stuff. At this point I am probably just going to do a fresh install, but I would love to know what can go wrong and cause this. MBR, PBR, C:\bootmgr and everything in C:\boot have been re-created
fresh and should be fine. AFAIK this much ought to get me at least a boot menu when I press F8 regardless of the state of the rest of the Windows system.
For Linux backup I usually just use tar and manually remake partition tables and install Grub should I need to restore the backup. For Windows I often use ntfsclone, which works similarly to Acronis or Ghost, only copying sectors that
are in use. I've actually successfully backed up and restored Windows XP before using just tar, mkfs.ntfs and ms-sys, though system and read-only attributes were lost, and I haven't tested it on Vista, 7 or 8.

Black screen with blinking cursor while trying to boot from Win Install CD

I'm running Leopard with all updates on a brand new MacBook Pro.
I initially had no problems with Boot Camp - the Assistant partitioned my drive, I put in my Vista DVD and hit Start Installation and the MacBook rebooted from the Windows DVD just fine. I made a mistake, however, when I used my retail Leopard disc instead of the install DVDs from my new MacBook, so the wrong drivers got installed and things were a mess. It wasn't painful setting up Boot Camp, so I decided I'd just go back into Leopard, wipe the Windows partition, and retry.
The Boot Camp Assistant had no problem merging the boot camp partition back with the main one, then making a new boot camp partition (I'm not sure if this was necessary, but I did it). I then put in my Vista DVD again and hit Start Installation. The MacBook rebooted, but not into the DVD - it just sat at the black screen with the blinking cursor in the top left corner. After 10 minutes of nothing, I held the power button to shut the MacBook down and tried again - same thing. I booted back into Leopard and tried Start Installation again - same problem. I remerged the boot camp partition, restarted the MacBook, then made a new partition and tried the Vista DVD - again just that blinking cursor.
What went wrong and how do I fix it?

Try resetting the PMU. See link here.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7188736
I tried everything mentioned previously (in this thread AND the link thread) and the PMU reset (shutdown, pull out power cord and other cords, wait 30 seconds, plug back in and restart) let me continue to install windows after partitioning the HD. Good luck!

Black or blank screen with blinking cursor after entering Windows password

This document pertains to all HP computers and tablets with Windows 7 and Windows 8 (8.1).
You can also link directly to this document at this URL
http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04572861
Use the following steps if your computer stops at a black screen with a blinking cursor after entering the Windows password.
On the black screen, press Ctrl, Shift, ESC to open the Task Manager window.
note: If the Task Manager window does not open, see Troubleshooting Black Screen Displays with No Error Messages During Startup or Boot.
Click the Process tab.
Look for one or both of the following tasks:
Run Once Wrapper
Run Once Wrapper (32-bit)
Right-click the task, and then click the End task button. Windows should start normally.
On the Windows 8 start screen type Control Panel then click Control Panel in the search results. In Windows 7, click Start then type Control Panel, then click Control Panel in the search results.
From the Windows Control Panel, go to Programs and Features or Add/Remove Programs.
Remove any of the following programs. Additionally, remove any other suspected programs that are not listed.
Remove these suspected programs:
Binkiland
SevenZip
Unchecky
Image Repair
SolutionReal
Vosteran
JetClean
Speed Browser
Web Bar 2.0.5273.16044
mypcbackup
Speed Checker
Wincheck
Omega Plus
Spy Clear
Word Proser
Optimizer Pro
Spyware Clear with PC Tech Hotline
WSE_Binkiland
Pepper Zip
Storm Watch
WSE_Taplika
Pro PC Cleaner
Strong Signal
WSE_Vosteran
Safe Search
Taplika
To resolve all other black/blank screen issues at boot, see Troubleshooting Black Screen Displays with No Error Messages During Startup or Boot.
To resolve virus and malware issues, see About Spyware, Adware, and Browser Hijacking Software and Using Windows 8 Defender to Prevent Virus and Spyware Problems
I work for HP, supporting the HP Experts who volunteer their time and technical knowledge to help others.

This is not what happens. The screen goes black, no curser or anything, then it comes right back on to the same page I was on when it went out. It doesn't happen when I login, it happens as I am on a webpage or playing a online game.

Windows - Blinking Cursor on First Boot

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