Black screen at startup of Windows XP

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Harry

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I have a desktop HP computer using Windows XP Home Edition. When I tried to
boot up today, I saw the HP Expanding Possibilities power on self test (POST)
followed by a black screen with a blinking cursor. It never continued to the
Windows XP logo.

In using an article from www.support.microsoft.com entitled "Computer stops
responding with a black screen when you start Windows XP", it suggest two
methods to resolve this. The first called for starting up in Safe mode. Since
I never could get to XP, I didn't know how to do that.

I tried the second method - Repairing your Windows Installation. It appeared
that the Windows XP Setup repaired the installation files. It then tried to
restart Windows. If I leave my XP CD-ROM in the computer, I have to reboot
with it. It then sends me through the same repair loops over and over again.
If I remove the CD, I get the initial POST followed by the black screen and
it stops. I never get the Windows XP logo. I find myself back to where I
started. What am I missing? What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions?
--
Harry the Horse
 
Re: Black screen at startup of Windows XP

Harry wrote:
> I have a desktop HP computer using Windows XP Home Edition. When I tried to
> boot up today, I saw the HP Expanding Possibilities power on self test (POST)
> followed by a black screen with a blinking cursor. It never continued to the
> Windows XP logo.
>
> In using an article from www.support.microsoft.com entitled "Computer stops
> responding with a black screen when you start Windows XP", it suggest two
> methods to resolve this. The first called for starting up in Safe mode. Since
> I never could get to XP, I didn't know how to do that.
>
> I tried the second method - Repairing your Windows Installation. It appeared
> that the Windows XP Setup repaired the installation files. It then tried to
> restart Windows. If I leave my XP CD-ROM in the computer, I have to reboot
> with it. It then sends me through the same repair loops over and over again.
> If I remove the CD, I get the initial POST followed by the black screen and
> it stops. I never get the Windows XP logo. I find myself back to where I
> started. What am I missing? What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions?

To get into Safe Mode, hit the F8 key repeatedly before you get to the
black screen with the cursor.

There's repair and then there's repair. See this for more:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Alias

P.S. If it were my computer, the first thing I would try after hitting
F8 is to choose "boot with last known good configuration" instead of
going into Safe Mode. If that doesn't work, do the repair install as
outlined at Michael Stevens' web site above.
 
RE: Black screen at startup of Windows XP

Thier's only 1 repair method by windows xp cd,it reverts to original
contents,
all updates are lost,basically its almost the same as new install.At that
point,why
not take the extra 15 minutes & have xp format the hd before,hence you get
a clean install w/o the old problems.Also,boot to xp cd,select recovery,one
might
fix a(the) problem.Read kb307654 for cmd options.

"Harry" wrote:

> I have a desktop HP computer using Windows XP Home Edition. When I tried to
> boot up today, I saw the HP Expanding Possibilities power on self test (POST)
> followed by a black screen with a blinking cursor. It never continued to the
> Windows XP logo.
>
> In using an article from www.support.microsoft.com entitled "Computer stops
> responding with a black screen when you start Windows XP", it suggest two
> methods to resolve this. The first called for starting up in Safe mode. Since
> I never could get to XP, I didn't know how to do that.
>
> I tried the second method - Repairing your Windows Installation. It appeared
> that the Windows XP Setup repaired the installation files. It then tried to
> restart Windows. If I leave my XP CD-ROM in the computer, I have to reboot
> with it. It then sends me through the same repair loops over and over again.
> If I remove the CD, I get the initial POST followed by the black screen and
> it stops. I never get the Windows XP logo. I find myself back to where I
> started. What am I missing? What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions?
> --
> Harry the Horse
 
Re: Black screen at startup of Windows XP

Alias,

I tried to hit the F8 key repeatedly immediately after restarting the
computer up to the time that the black screen appears. I did this twice. I'm
hitting the key with a frequency of about 2 to 3 times/second. I'll look at
your referenced material. Any other options?

--
Harry the Horse


"Alias" wrote:

> Harry wrote:
> > I have a desktop HP computer using Windows XP Home Edition. When I tried to
> > boot up today, I saw the HP Expanding Possibilities power on self test (POST)
> > followed by a black screen with a blinking cursor. It never continued to the
> > Windows XP logo.
> >
> > In using an article from www.support.microsoft.com entitled "Computer stops
> > responding with a black screen when you start Windows XP", it suggest two
> > methods to resolve this. The first called for starting up in Safe mode. Since
> > I never could get to XP, I didn't know how to do that.
> >
> > I tried the second method - Repairing your Windows Installation. It appeared
> > that the Windows XP Setup repaired the installation files. It then tried to
> > restart Windows. If I leave my XP CD-ROM in the computer, I have to reboot
> > with it. It then sends me through the same repair loops over and over again.
> > If I remove the CD, I get the initial POST followed by the black screen and
> > it stops. I never get the Windows XP logo. I find myself back to where I
> > started. What am I missing? What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions?
>
> To get into Safe Mode, hit the F8 key repeatedly before you get to the
> black screen with the cursor.
>
> There's repair and then there's repair. See this for more:
>
> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
>
> Alias
>
> P.S. If it were my computer, the first thing I would try after hitting
> F8 is to choose "boot with last known good configuration" instead of
> going into Safe Mode. If that doesn't work, do the repair install as
> outlined at Michael Stevens' web site above.
>
 
RE: Black screen at startup of Windows XP

Andrew E.,

I would have XP format the hard drive but I have considerable data that
would be lost. Most of it has been backed up within about the last couple of
months but I would prefer to avoid that unless I am out of options.

As for how I ran the repair, do you see any procedural errors? Should I
remove the XP CD-ROM during the automatic restart from the Windows XP Setup
application or leave the CD in place? If I leave it in place, what are my
next steps? It always appears that I'm starting the repair process over
again. Any advice or direction?
--
Harry the Horse


"Andrew E." wrote:

> Thier's only 1 repair method by windows xp cd,it reverts to original
> contents,
> all updates are lost,basically its almost the same as new install.At that
> point,why
> not take the extra 15 minutes & have xp format the hd before,hence you get
> a clean install w/o the old problems.Also,boot to xp cd,select recovery,one
> might
> fix a(the) problem.Read kb307654 for cmd options.
>
> "Harry" wrote:
>
> > I have a desktop HP computer using Windows XP Home Edition. When I tried to
> > boot up today, I saw the HP Expanding Possibilities power on self test (POST)
> > followed by a black screen with a blinking cursor. It never continued to the
> > Windows XP logo.
> >
> > In using an article from www.support.microsoft.com entitled "Computer stops
> > responding with a black screen when you start Windows XP", it suggest two
> > methods to resolve this. The first called for starting up in Safe mode. Since
> > I never could get to XP, I didn't know how to do that.
> >
> > I tried the second method - Repairing your Windows Installation. It appeared
> > that the Windows XP Setup repaired the installation files. It then tried to
> > restart Windows. If I leave my XP CD-ROM in the computer, I have to reboot
> > with it. It then sends me through the same repair loops over and over again.
> > If I remove the CD, I get the initial POST followed by the black screen and
> > it stops. I never get the Windows XP logo. I find myself back to where I
> > started. What am I missing? What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions?
> > --
> > Harry the Horse
 
RE: Black screen at startup of Windows XP

Harry wrote:

> I would have XP format the hard drive but I have considerable data that
> would be lost. Most of it has been backed up within about the last couple
> of months but I would prefer to avoid that unless I am out of options.
>
> As for how I ran the repair, do you see any procedural errors? Should I
> remove the XP CD-ROM during the automatic restart from the Windows XP
> Setup application or leave the CD in place? If I leave it in place, what
> are my next steps? It always appears that I'm starting the repair process
> over again. Any advice or direction?

Harry, the first thing to do is retrieve your data. This can be done even if
you can't boot into Windows (see below). After your data is safe, do some
hardware testing. If you're not even getting through the POST and Windows
doesn't load from the hard drive, then one or more hardware components have
failed and you need to troubleshoot accordingly.

A. Data retrieval

1. Pull the drive and slave it in a computer running a working install of
XP/Vista. Depending on the target drive's characteristics, you may need a
drive adapter; i.e., laptop-to-IDE or a SATA controller card, etc. A
usb/firewire external drive enclosure works very well, too. Use the working
Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard drive and
then burn the data to cd or dvd.

2. Often XP/Vista will not boot with a slaved drive that has a damaged file
system. In that case, boot the target computer with either a Bart's PE or a
Linux live cd such as Knoppix and retrieve the data that way. Here is
general information on using Knoppix for this:

http://www.knoppix.net
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder

B. Hardware troubleshooting:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!
 
Re: Black screen at startup of Windows XP

On 12 Apr, 17:39, Harry <Ha...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> I have a desktop HP computer using WindowsXPHome Edition. When I tried tobootup today, I saw the HP Expanding Possibilities power on self test (POST)
> followed by a black screen with ablinkingcursor. It never continued to the
> WindowsXPlogo.
>
> In using an article fromwww.support.microsoft.comentitled "Computer stops
> responding with a black screen when you start WindowsXP", it suggest two
> methods to resolve this. The first called for starting up in Safe mode. Since
> I never could get toXP, I didn't know how to do that.
>
> I tried the second method - Repairing your Windows Installation. It appeared
> that the WindowsXPSetup repaired the installation files. It then tried to
> restart Windows. If I leave myXPCD-ROM in the computer, I have to reboot
> with it. It then sends me through the same repair loops over and over again.
> If I remove the CD, I get the initial POST followed by the black screen and
> it stops. I never get the WindowsXPlogo. I find myself back to where I
> started. What am I missing? What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions?
> --
> Harry the Horse

Hi,
I've had this problem a few times in the past and never worked out a
satisfactory way to solve it. I have a Toshiba Tecra M1 running XP
SP2. About 3 or 4 times in the last few years it just fails to boot
and I get the blinking cursor. I don't have an XP cd, only the restore
CD that Toshiba supplied. Each time it happens, I can pop the HD into
a caddy, connect to my spare desktop and confirm that all my data is
safe. My only option in the past has been to copy the data to my other
machine and restore XP. Once reinstalled, everything seems fine until
it packs up again a few months later. Is there a more efficient way of
getting it working again? I've tried the F8 thing, but never managed
to get into Safe mode.

The reason I'm asking now? It's donw it again tonight :-(
 
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