Blinking Cursor Black Screen on Start Up

Hi and welcome to Discussions,

try the Safe Boot options as described here http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B315222&x=10&y=11

Especially Safe Mode and/or Enable Boot Logging might show if it is a driver or startup item problem.

Regards

Stefan

Suudsu wrote:
Thanks for the reply.

However, once choosing the partition it still goes straight to the blinking cursor. Holding f8 (I also tried holding the fn key with it) doesn't do anything. Any ideas on what I should try next?

Sounds not good I'm afraid.

And since you mentioned that the 'Repair Install' option is not avaiable there might not be too do now.

When you are in OSX and open the Windows XP partition in the Finder, do you get the "usual" files shown like: ntldr ; boot.ini ; ntdetect.com : bootfont.bin plus the folders ?

Stefan

Hi,

you should use the Finder (double-click on the Windows-icon on your desktop) to get the best results showing the Folders and Files of it.

It seems that the essential files needed for booting Windows XP are missing in your list.
(The Folders are almost the same as I have for my XP).

These are:

boot.ini
bootfont.bin
ntdetect.com
ntldr

If these files are indeed missing, then your XP is unable to be booted.

You might wanna try these instructions http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm to get your XP back to being bootable.

However, if not done already you should copy your essential and valuable files from your Windows XP partition to a save place, preferably an external harddisk or maybe an USB Memory Stick.

Regards

Stefan

I am having the self same problem, your help is greatly appreciated.

I have read through your links and they are informative. I have a small problem in that when I try to attempt to repair my XP by booting from disk it is not recognising my administrator password, which is a little frustrating.

However I am missing the bootfont.bin file, could this be the problem do you think, and is there a way of repairing this file without being able to access the repair menus??

F8 does not load the safe mode unfortunately, i get the same problem as the guy in this thread.

Hi Peter,

the bootfont.bin seems to be an 'optional' file since it is only neccessary when installing East Asia WIndows versions.

As for the password, maybe this can help http://www.ehow.com/how6799658reset-administrator-password-boot-disc.html

Regards

Stefan

Hi - I am having the same problem too since today morning. Have been using Windows XP for almost a year now with no hitches, but all of a sudden, I see only black screen and a cursor. Tried the following
1. F8 to start in Safe Mode - doesn't work on MBP - or may be I am doing something wrong
2. Inserted XP Install CD to repair - but it didn't do anything

Any effort to help is much appreciated.

Try this.. It should work..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMUsrtTFcWU&hd=1

Hi Savvy,

Thanks for the reply, but what you are suggesting is to be done from Windows as OS. My problem here is that I am not able to boot into Windows. When I try to do that, all I get is black screen with blinking cursor.

The file here is a '.exe' file which can be run only from Windows, and so suggest how to get this working in OSx.

Thanks again,
DC