Can't boot Windows - Black screen, blinking underscore.

mgsolidus

mgsolidus

Enthusiast
Hi.

I've seen this issue posted everywhere, yet I cannot fix this. I can access the bios, but nothing after that. Windows (8) will not boot and I only see a black screen with a blinking underscore.
I am unable to boot from a cd drive or usb either.
CMOS has been reset, and I've tried booting with some drives connected, some not.
Drives are:

60gb Kingston v300 ssd.
500gb Seagate HDD

Please help.
 
tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
damn, prima facey suggests that the ssd has died.

Go into the bios, advanced, boot, and try and find your SSD. IF its not there it's probably failed.

Also, worth checking for Mobo Led's? Are any on a solid red? if one is on, see if it says boot device led.

Looks like you need to give PCS a bell.
 
mgsolidus

mgsolidus

Enthusiast
The SSD is listed in bios, and I still can't boot when I disconnect it.
All mobo led's are on. (not the red ones though, the blue ones which should be on)
 
D

dogbot

Bright Spark
Hope I am not being too dumb if I ask if the boot order is correct, that is, DVD drive first then the SSD.

If the bios could not direct to the SSD then I would have thought you would get the 'Please insert a bootable media' message. As it is it looks like the system reserved partition might be corrupted (maybe) which leaves repairing with the W8 repair disc.

I am probably taking you over old ground though.
 
D

deh-cheesekake

Bronze Level Poster
Here is an idea. Seeing as you have access to the BIOS, set your PC to boot from CD drive and burn yourself a ubuntu boot disk (its a CD/DVD with the linux operating system reay to run, no install needed). That way you will be able to tell if your SSD is faulty by checking if you files are still there from within the ubuntu operating system.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
deh-cheesekake said:
Here is an idea. Seeing as you have access to the BIOS, set your PC to boot from CD drive and burn yourself a ubuntu boot disk (its a CD/DVD with the linux operating system reay to run, no install needed). That way you will be able to tell if your SSD is faulty by checking if you files are still there from within the ubuntu operating system.
Click to expand...

Booting the Windows install disk would do just as well. Select the Repair option, in there there is a command prompt (amongst other things) and you could give your drives a quick look over from there. You could (should?) also run the Startup Repair tool from the Repair option on the Windows install disk too, that often fixes issues like this.
 
mgsolidus

mgsolidus

Enthusiast
I cannot boot a cd under any circumstance.
I have tried booting,

- with hdd disconnected
- with ssd disconnected
- with both disconnected

and the boot order is definitely correct. The SSD has always been #1 except recently when I put cd drive to the top.
 
mgsolidus

mgsolidus

Enthusiast
Sorry, forgot to reply to that. It's probably not an option any more, right? I have added my own parts so they can't/won't help, I guess.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
mgsolidus said:
Sorry, forgot to reply to that. It's probably not an option any more, right? I have added my own parts so they can't/won't help, I guess.
Click to expand...

Give them a call and see what they say. They can only say no. ;)

Do you get any POST beeps when you boot?

What new parts did you fit? And when? Has it booted ok since you fitted the new parts?

This could be a really bad RAM card. Have you tried removing all but one and seeing how you get on then? Obviously you should also swap the single one left out too in case it's that one. ;)
 
mgsolidus

mgsolidus

Enthusiast
I have never had any POST beeps, and it worked great before.
I have fitted a new motherboard, a better motherboard, about 10 days ago. It booted just fine.
Yes, I've also tried using just one ram stick. Same issue.

The only possible thing I can think caused it is me overclocking the graphics card, I think it happened around about then, but I've done this before and it worked fine. I haven't updated any display drivers or anything. OR the TRIM tool I used, "forcetrim", but I've used this before as well with no problems, and I was definitely able to boot after using it for a few days.
 
mgsolidus

mgsolidus

Enthusiast
Would the BIOS still display if it were the graphics card? I'm hoping that is the problem, I was going to buy a new card anyway. Will get a cheap GT card to test.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
I don't believe the BIOS uses (or needs) a graphics card. You should be able to pull the graphics card out and still boot to the BIOS.
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
Yes it should as Ubuysa has said, assuming you can plug your display into your motherboard still :)

On this note however, I have noticed this problem sometimes (infrequently) but a 'restart' sorts it out for me... Not that this helps you of course :(
 
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