Blinking underscore - simple solution - why does it work?

[Logrono]

hello everyone,

i surfed on over here in an attempt to solve my "blinking underscore on startup" problem that i was experiencing on my nearly brand-new laptop running 64-bit vista.

i was reading the thread titled: "Black screen with white blinking underscore, means...." (sorry, i'm new, i can't post the link) and found this advice from Hemantdhyani:

We get a blinking cursor when cust is not able to locate the oprating system- And when its blinking it is searching for the os- If u leave the computer on the same for a long time it will boot back to the desktop screen-
Posible resons- If there is any external hard drive / Flash drive / Even if a usb printer can cause the same issue- to get it fixed accessed BIos and look for an option for boot other device and change it to disable-

i did this and it worked! (i'd tried nearly all other options to no avail)

i was wondering if someone could tell me more about this problem and solution - what does it mean to have not have external devices booting? what can i do to avoid this in the future? it's such a simple solution for a seemingly big problem that i'm curious to know more.

thanks, and also thanks for this forum, i have read a lot of great advice delivered in a refreshingly friendly way!

-natalie

 

[Logrono]

I spoke too soon. After starting this thread, running spybot, and updating windows, I did a restart and i am experiencing the same problem once again.

Back to browsing the archives for a solution.

Sorry.

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

i was wondering if someone could tell me more about this problem and solution - what does it mean to have not have external devices booting? what can i do to avoid this in the future? it's such a simple solution for a seemingly big problem that i'm curious to know more.

I think what it means is that the motherboard is searching through any external storage points for the OS it may boot. Searching through flash drives, usb external harddrives, and hardware aside from your default harddrive takes extra time. You will want to remove those to boot properly.