Windows 7 boot problem blinking cursor

I have the same question Report abuse. Details required :. Cancel Submit. SpiritX Volunteer Moderator. Hi, References to Vista also apply to Windows 7. Try Startup Repair - What are the system recovery options in Windows 7? How satisfied are you with this reply?

Click on the next screen to boot into BIOS. You cannot use a mouse so only a keyboard is allowed. Use the arrow and Enter or Esc keys to move around. You will find instructions at the bottom of the screen, but it is pretty simple so don't worry. Also, check the boot order under the Boot menu and make sure that it is set to boot from the Hard Drive first and pen drive or other external drives second.

That will make sure that the problem won't reappear when you connect a pen drive during the boot process ever. Well, if you've come this far without success then you have exhausted all other options. If you have a backup of your data or use cloud storage for everything, you have nothing to fear.

Restoring the computer won't delete your personal files anyway. That's what reinstalling the OS does. That's why I recommend you restore the computer first and see if that helps.

It will help 9 out of 10 times. If the above method is not working for you, use the installation media disk that you may have created on a CD or pen drive. Check Microsoft's site on how to create an installation media.

Alternatively, you can visit your nearest support center. Here are two pieces of advice that can save you a lot of trouble in the future and they are both really simple. Reset BIOS to defaults? Make sure SATA emulation is set appropriately I second philip's stategy. Boot without the hard drive. If it posts and stays up then you can get into the bios and it is most likely either a configuration problem in bios or the hard drive.

If it black screens with the blinking cursor again than it is most likely a memory module. In this case leave the hard drive out and one memory stick in and try to boot to post again. Do it with each memory card until you find the culprit. Forgot to mention all the other troubleshooting I had done. I have run SpinRite in Recovery and Maintenance modes with no errors. I have run Memtest with no errors. The hard drive is readable via external USB HDD dock so I can recover data, but the knuckleheads did not make a recovery disk - thank you very much Dell - and so they have no way to reinstall the OS.

No beeps. Just a white blinking cursor on a black screen. TierneyColo is an IT service provider. Dell likely put a small partition on the disk which provides configuration for the system.

What are the system recovery options in Windows 7? If nothing works you can do a repair installation. Use these methods to replace the registry with a backup. Boot with a Windows 7 disk. Both of the below accomplish restoring a registry backup. Was this reply helpful? Yes No. Sorry this didn't help. Thanks for your feedback. This computer was ordered for me by the VA for my schooling.

Norton Anitvirus came with the computer and was installed when I received it.