Black screen on startup?

johnish · 18 Jul 2011 at 11:11

Hey all,

So upon turning my computer on it goes to the usual screen advertising my motherboard. Then it goes to a black screen. With one flashing "_" sign. As if it wants me to type something. No keys do anything but when I hit ctrl alt del I get a "no input signal" then it repeats the process.

Im seriously stuck. Any ideas?

Plec · 18 Jul 2011 at 11:14

What's your full spec and is it a new build or has it suddenly developed the fault?

Pete.Dakota · 18 Jul 2011 at 11:20

johnish said:
Hey all,

So upon turning my computer on it goes to the usual screen advertising my motherboard. Then it goes to a black screen. With one flashing "_" sign. As if it wants me to type something. No keys do anything but when I hit ctrl alt del I get a "no input signal" then it repeats the process.

Im seriously stuck. Any ideas?

Seen this quite a few times. For me it's usually meant the hard drive can't boot Windows. Possibly BOOTMGR is corrupt, or any manner of HDD issue. Try swapping out the cable/new SATA input.

Could be a lot of reasons. I've seen this happen before because a CPU wasn't seated properly.

johnish · 18 Jul 2011 at 11:24

Its a reasonably newish build, (a few months)

Quad core rated at 2.66GHz
2GB DDR2 Ram
EAH5750 Formula Gfxcard
P5QPL -AM -----

EDIT - I removed my usb stick with readyboost and it now works.
Herpaderp. Oh well sorry for wasting your time.

Plec · 18 Jul 2011 at 11:25

johnish said:
EDIT - I removed my usb stick with readyboost and it now works.
Herpaderp. Oh well sorry for wasting your time.

Hehe, no worries - at least it was an easy fix.