Cannot get past black screen, No Windows XP Load Screen

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Tanion

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I kinda know what the problem is but I have no clue on how to solve it. When my computer loads up, it gets past the bios fine and what not but when it tries to load into the Windows Xp loading thing, I get a black screen. I tried to boot and repair it with a windows xp cd install but it keeps giving me a black screen! I want to know if maybe I can just reformat the whole thing but I don't know how to start the computer with a command prompt.

Mind you, I cannot get past the windows xp load screen so I can't get access to start: go into dos etc etc. I am pretty much stuck and I would like to know if there is a way to get a command prompt without loading windows. I tried f8 but it just gives me a boot sequence. Thank you for the help.
 
If you think that your master boot record is corrupt you can boot off of the WIndows XP cd. Make sure the cd drive is set as the first boot device in the bios, start the computer with the cd in the drive and when prompted press any key to boot off of the cd. From there you can either format and reinstall Windows or do a repair of the current installation. If yo have a floppy drive you can download a and create a BartPE disk or an Ultimate Boot cd and run some tests.
 
that's the kicker. When i try to boot from the CD it will still go to a black screen. It would say "press any key to boot cd..." Then i would press whatever, it would then go through "setting up your hardware configuration" and then it would go black and not continue with the process. I'm guessing I should just reformat and start over because I think it's corrupted. But what is the key to press to get the command prompt? Its not f8 because that gives me a boot sequence.
 
You need a bootable floppy to get a dos prompt in XP if you can't get in through the F8 option). Try www.bootdisk.com or the BartPE disk. That's what I use and it works well.
 
I remember there was some key that I would press to enter MS-DOS from just starting up the computer but all I remember is the stupid boot sequence. There is no other way aside from getting a floppy drive to do this?
 
Hi Tanion, don't reformat or change your Hard Disk yet. Go to the BIOS and reset everything to default. After this, change the bootsetup in the bios to boot to the cd rom. atfer this try again booting with the windows xp cd.
 
Download BartPE on another computer and follow the directions to create a basic BartPE boot disk then boot you computer from that disk (It's a cd). It will let you access a dos environment and it will let you run some tests. www.bootdisk.com has XP start up disks that you can burn to a cd. I don't have a floppy drive either and haven't for years. You don't need it for this.
 
I will try the bootdisk thing. It will take me a bit. I apperciate the help fastco and pracheck. I tried to reset the bios to default boot sequence but no dice either. For the love of god, I want to get into MS-Dos but f8 isn't doing it for me. Either way thank you for both for the help. Gonna give the bootdisk a go before I kill something. =)
 
same problem

I have the same problem. Do you by chance have a Gigabyte GA-7DXE motherboard? I tried the boot disk, graphics card, hard drive, memory, bios ubgrade, and nothing works. The only thing that I have not substituted is the motherboard. Let me know if you find anything out
 
Yes, and I too have the problem. I checked out Microsoft's view on the matter but even after making a boot disk like they said it didn't work. Because I have to just turn it off each time every time I start it it'll ask what mode I want to boot in even with the bootdisk. Then I get a black and white loading bar at the bottom that once it completes gives only a black screen.

However, this happened to me during disk changeovers. The new hard drive I'd ghosted onto doesn't want to boot it seems and I would at least like to run my old one. I'd been changing things in BIOS (Only disk stuff nothing drastic, it's a Dell so there's nothing in BIOS that could go wrong anyway.) So basically somewhere along the line of switching and testing hard drives this problem has arisen.

I can though boot in safe mode and with an XP install disk and these are the things I have learned in my particular case:

System resstore in safe mode does not seem to repair the problem
Neither does CHKDSK repair in recovery console
And neither does FIXMBR


That's what Microsoft told me to do, so I'd give it a go but for me the problem still exists.
 
Hi Guys, have you tried to reset all your BIOS settings to default? This same thing happened to my older PC (XP Pro, ASUS MOBO, P4) and this what I did. I rebooted and it was fixed and this problem hasn't happen again (5 months now). Since then I have updated the drivers of my NVIDIA 5200, BIOS and MOBO. Can you try this before going to the more rigorous tests? And since you can go to safemode, you can also view your event logs in the computer management console to see if it logged what ever is causing this black screen.
 
For my Dell Dimension 3000 there is no default reset feature in the BIOS. Unless I'm not looking hard enough, but I'm pretty sure. Right now I really just have standard settings apart from having disconnected all my optical drives and the only drive enabled is my hard drive.
 
resetting bios is either acheived by looking for 3 pins, of which its titled "CMOS RESET" and you simply have to (while the pc is turned off and unpluged of course) just switch the jumpers to the alternate pin for a few seconds, then back again. Alternatively, look for a button battery on the mobo and pull that out for a period of time then reinsert it.
 
I had a similar problem which turned out to be a very simple "my bad." Have you added a video card to your system. I had added a second PCI video card in addition to my AGP card everythng ran fine. I made some other changes and reinstalled windows. I would get to the same screen then blank. I had left a lot of things unattached to simplify windows installation and only had AGP attached to a monitor. Well in the bios it defaulted to "primary grahics adapter: pci" but since no monitor attached I saw nothing. Took longer for me to figure out then it should have "DOOH":knock:
 
I have reset teh BIOS as well as updated the BIOS and nothing. I have tried one other bran new AGP card and still have the same problem. I have tried without a hard drive and with two other hard drives. I am ready to junk this one and call it a day.
 
jonaslc said:
I am ready to junk this one and call it a day.

I wouldn't advise that. You guys are absolute lifesavers, I just pulled the battery out of the motherboard and replaced it. It had a couple errors at first and I thought, "Here we go again" However it just carried on, I was so relieved to see the Winsdows loading screen. Thank you!

Jonaslc, I would try taking out at replacing the battery on the motherboard as previously suggested. It's so simple yet it worked for me.
 
jonaslc said:
I have reset teh BIOS as well as updated the BIOS and nothing. I have tried one other bran new AGP card and still have the same problem. I have tried without a hard drive and with two other hard drives. I am ready to junk this one and call it a day.
Jonaslc, even if symptoms are similar to one already started in this thread, every answer is going to be different, depending on troubleshooting applied. To recap you've done:
-Reset/update bios
-Boot disk
-graphics card changed

Things i want you to expand on:
-HDD >repair, fixmbr, etc?
-memory >1 stick/swap, memtest, etc?
-"and nothing works" :D

Also, have you tried:
-replacing the bios battery as posted previously?
-tried the other video port, if you have an onboard VGA on your mobo?
-check your PSU is functioning properly?
-gone back to barebones setup > mobo/cpu, psu, 1 ram, onboard vga/sound?
-remember what changes you did or what you were doing at/before the problem started?
-any other methods of troubleshooting you've done. Just so we're up to speed on whats what. If you do get a chance, and none of these work (or you've done all that already) then swap the mobo with another one...
 
I'm new at the forum and you can only imagine why I'm here.

I have an older computer running XP pro. When I start up, the screen is black from the moment I push the button. The screen stays black for 5 to 15 minutes before finally showing the login. The time frame is getting longer and I've gotten to a point were I hit restart and turn on and off the power 3 and 4 times. Not sure if this does anything constructive but I'm from the generation that would bang the side of the Black and white TV to get better reception.

Today for the first time I waited a few minutes and then I typed my login code into a black screen and windows came on as if it was running in the dark waiting for me. It's running fine right now, BUT tomorrow morning when I turn it on I'll be typing my login code into a black screen again. BTW, I've changed nothing and added nothing.



Any Ideas?
 
Doug G said:
I'm new at the forum and you can only imagine why I'm here.

I have an older computer running XP pro. When I start up, the screen is black from the moment I push the button. The screen stays black for 5 to 15 minutes before finally showing the login. The time frame is getting longer and I've gotten to a point were I hit restart and turn on and off the power 3 and 4 times. Not sure if this does anything constructive but I'm from the generation that would bang the side of the Black and white TV to get better reception.

Today for the first time I waited a few minutes and then I typed my login code into a black screen and windows came on as if it was running in the dark waiting for me. It's running fine right now, BUT tomorrow morning when I turn it on I'll be typing my login code into a black screen again. BTW, I've changed nothing and added nothing.



Any Ideas?


Yup, it's looking like a graphics card to me....
 
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