Windows 7 - black screen with blinking cursor

[shootist]

I have a 1 week old HP Pavillion with factory installed Windows 7.  Has worked fine until this morning.  I have a black screen with a blinking cursor.

[PC_Tester]

What is your system model?

Remove your external HDD (thumbdrives, mp3 players, hdd usb or 1394), media in your card reader, media in your aio printers

[CherylG]

1. Remove any CDs, DVDs, or memory cards from the computer.
2. Disconnect all devices from the computer except the original mouse, monitor, and keyboard. Leave the power cord connected.

1. Restart the computer.

If it starts normally, start plugging devices in one at a time until you find one that may be causing the black screen

If this doesn't resolve it, follow the procedure below.

1. Press the F10 key repeatedly during the first startup screen until the Entering setup message displays.
2. Press the F5 key to restore the defaults. Use the arrow keys to select YES , and press Enter .
3. Press the F10 key to save the changes and exit. Use the arrow keys to select YES , and press Enter .
   The computer restarts.
4. If a Windows Error Recovery screen displays when the system restarts, select Start Windows Normally , and press Enter .

[ryleej3]

Try these steps.

Restart your PC and press F8 durring the startup. When you get options chose Safe Mode.

Click Start, click Control Panel, click System and Security, and then, under System, click Device Manager.

In the list of hardware categories, expand the Display adapters category.

Right click on your display adapter and click Disable.

Restart the PC normally. See if you can now get to your desktop. If that works you are working with a video issue. If not there are other steps you can try.

[miaskin]

Hi,

I tried restoring the deafults in BIOS - that didn't help. I still get a blinking cursor after HP logo at startup.

Before the problem started I was copying and uninstalling lots of software, if that should help figuring out....

Thanks for your help!

Alex

[TheOldMan]

The blinking cursor in the top left means that the bootmanger has lost where Windows is installed.  Probably because of the uninstalling of software.  From that info, the computer could be returned to normal by pressing the key indicated on the blue splash screen to enter "Recovery" , usually ( F11) on newer computers.  Check your screen when the first splash screen shows.

If the desire to fix the problem without going quite that far, try this:

http://download.cnet.com/EasyBCD/3000-2094_4-10556865.html

It will look to see what is wrong and offer to fix it, assuming the OS is not totally hosed.

[mawkwill]

This information was extemely acurate but whats next to get my video settings back to working in normal condition?

[Hanspuppa]

Hello mawkwill, Can you advise if the system is booting into the Desktop and otherwise working as it should except for the video settings?

If so, just place your cursor anywhere on a blank part of the desktop, not on an icon, and right click.

Then a menu should appear that offers Screen Resolutons, Personalize, and other options.

We really need to know which video settings you are referring to in order to point you to the proper menu.

[starg8]

I can't believe this was so easy. I am still suspisious that I have a boot sector virus so I'm scanning with Norton 360.

[Hanspuppa]

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starg8 wrote: I can't believe this was so easy. I am still suspisious that I have a boot sector virus so I'm scanning with Norton 360.

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Hello starg8, Brain surgery is easy when you know how to perform it.......... Just ask any Brain Surgeon.

But seriously, I would not be too concerned about any boot sector viruses, since there have not been any of these in a while and the newer anti-virus programs pickup on these quite well.

I would think, as TheOldMan suggested, the bootmgr may have just gotten confused as we all seem to do at times.