I am really stuck and could use your guys' help. Heres the deal: I am fixing a computer for someone and they've had this comp for a few years now. One day it just happened to not boot. What happens is this - after doing a POST and BIOS check it goes straight to a black screeen with a blinking underscore at the top. Windows doesn't load or anything. I tried a different HD, no luck. I tried booting to CD-ROM and A: drive. NO LUCK. I haven't replaced the Power supply because it uses one of those older power supplies that connects to the mobo with 2 pieces. I dont have an extra one of those.

Try this boot cd. Looks like its time for a new machine. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download518.html Please post back within 24 hours or I will delete the post from my follow up list. Thanks. It would be a courtesy if you would post back and let us know if the fix worked or not.

You are troubleshooing with no plan in mind. Just dropping in drives doesn't confirm or deny you have a problem. You first step should have been to boot up on a floppy boot diskette containing fdisk. Use fdisk. Does it see the drive? If it says no fixed disk found you have a hardware/configuration issue. Make sure the cable is connected, drive properly configured and its listed in the bios. If fixed disk is found are there partitions? Exit fdisk and see if you can go c: or d: [if multiple partitions]. You could just be missing the master boot record [usually what it means when you have a flashing cursor upper left corner but no boot]. Depending on OS restoring the boot record and recovering the system is easy.

I booted to CD-ROM with a XP CD and also used an diskette with FDISK on it when booting to a: drive already. Nothing. Basically, after it does the POST, you can't get anwhere. It has nothing to do with the OS. P.S. Wanderer, although I do apprectiate you replying, it is obvious I do have a plan - getting this fixed. When trying to fix a computer like this you have to try everything, think of all odds and ends, and cancel problems out as you go along. I'm not really sure what you're trying to get at when you said I didn't have a plan, but maybe you should leave those remarks out of responses as they have no relevance to this topic at all. Thanks again

i think i have the same problem: the machine will not boot xp from the hard drive, the cd drive or the floppy drive. it will not boot win 98, me or even dos from the floppy drive. it always shows either a blank screen or a blinking cursor. has anyone found a solution to this yet?

same problem xp pro dual 3.06 xeons 2 gigs ram fx3000 after the bios posts blinking under score or just a blank screen - components test good in other system bios sees ide hd and cdrom/dvd reset bios pins, poped out battery, rotated cpus, solo cpu, different video power up get blink then reset then blank fricking driving me nuts

possible solution to blank or underscore after bios post The culprit for me was heat at the cpus, i cleaned the cpu tops and heatsink - knife and alcohol, then applied a film like layer of heatsink and pressed heatsink to cpu. i have had cpus heat up from dead fans before and cause the system to just hang so i should have known. of course the bios post is off chip meanwhile the cpu draws current, heats and then hangs. i used the default heatsink pad from the manufacturer...that almost got the better of me....