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Blank Screen, Blinking Cursor

  • 28-10-2010 12:52PM
    #1
    oneila
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14 ✭


    I have an Emachines 4260 with XP Home. I left it on for an hour or so and when I came back to it, the screen was blank with a flashing cursor in the top left. I have tried starting through both the XP disc and the recovery disc but they are not being read. Tried booting from usb but no luck. Also, it will not bring me to the screen to start in safe mode. It will only let me use F2 and f10. Anybody have any ideas what else I could try?


Comments

  • #2
    demanufactured
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,756 ✭✭✭demanufactured


    You probably need to changer the boot order in your pc's BIOS to make it boot from the cd....if you can get it to bot when the windows XP setup programs comes up , press r for repair when prompted.

    Choose recovery console and when you get that fype FIXMBR and press enter , this will attempt to repair your hard disks master boot record.

    After that fiishes type FIXBOOT

    This will re write NTLDR to your hard disk which is needed to boot..


    Get back to us when you have done that and let know how you got on and if you need more help.


  • #3
    oneila
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14 ✭oneila


    I have changed the settings in bios but the cpu still won't read discs or usb.


  • #4
    ricman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,559 ✭✭✭ricman


    try a linux live cd ,mint ,set bios boot from cd, cd=drive o first boot device.
    google linux mint .


  • #5
    norbert64
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,192 ✭✭✭norbert64


    ricman wrote: »
    try a linux live cd ,mint ,set bios boot from cd, cd=drive o first boot device.
    google linux mint .
    This is a nice piece of kit.

    @ the OP, I grabbed Linux Mint 9 "Isadora" - Gnome CD (32-bit) from here
    http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=52
    700 MB download, fyi.

    It worked great with regard to booting up my PC.

    Sadly, when I tried to access my HDD with my existing windows system, it threw up an error message. There's some problem with the HDD?
    Hopefully, you will fair better though and will be able to at least backup all your files before biting the bullet and doing a full re-install.


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