My computer has a black blank screen with a flashing curser

xjoannexxx

Thanks so much for everyones help, is there any way I can do it without making a disk just as I don't have another pc to make one on

macman

No, because you need to be able to boot from the disk!

xjoannexxx

Would I be able to buy one?

macman

Surely you have a friend/neighbour (or internet cafe) where you can burn a CD)?

xjoannexxx

I have got one what option do I choose when the disk options load I have tried boot from windows xp from hard drive but it doesn't work

Figment

Start from "Steps to perform on the problem machine:"


http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?showtopic=95574

pob1976

Try unplugging your dvd rom, if your hard drive boots up, there maybe a conflict or faulty cable.

Simplistik

Exactly as you described happened to me just a couple of weeks ago.
At first i thought the hard drive had failed but on checking with a boot disk i could see the drive and full contents, so i knew it wasn't that.

So i re-booted and entered BIOS setup.
on my pc that's done by tapping F2

This BIOS menu system obviously shows things like System Date and System Time, also the Boot sequence and other menu items,

But the one of interest is the listing of your drives,
i.e. Primary and Secondary and whether they have anything listed on them, such as
DVD-Rom, or a Hard drive.

Mine look like this:


Primary Drive 0 DvD-Rom

Primary Drive 1 Hard Drive

Secondary Drive 0 Hard Drive

Secondary Drive 1 OFF




All the problem was on mine, it had lost the correct drive setup, meaning when you go down the menu to highlight the drive, then click 'Enter'
The actual setup had slipped, it was using the wrong setup.
Various preset drives could be selected, showing various cylinder, head, sectors, etc

but further along in the menu after about 40 of these presets was an 'AUTO' option.

Selecting, 'AUTO' then rebooting, restored the correct settings automatically for that particular drive.



Is this ringing any bells?

I think you have been into setup menus but maybe not the actual BIOS?




The earlier posts about the 'BIOS' battery are correct, of course.
Eventually that's what i did on mine, but you should get away with just restoring the settings for the time being.

xjoannexxx

I can't seem to get the check disk to run it just says its locked

Figment

What is the exact error message please?