Black screen with blinking underscore

[hjs7777]

Hello, i have a Packard Bell Easynote TJ68 laptop. When i turn it on it comes up with a black screen with a blinking underscore in the top left corner of my screen. F8 does not work and neither does F12 or F2, the menus come up for the latter two but anything i do just puts me back at the black screen again. i cant log in and ctrl-alt-delete doesnt work either. I also dont have any CD's for the OS, the laptop didnt come with any CD's. the laptop is a refurbished one if thats helpful, please help!

 

[Clinkz]

This normally happens when you have a device plugged in that the computer tried to boot from, i would start by going into the bios and making sure the HDD is the first device to boot in the boot order menu. Just looked then and the key you use to load the bios is F2 ( hopefully that is right) it will tell you briefly when you start-up he machine in any case.

The menu your looking for is normally Boot with a sub menu along the lines of " Boot Order" or "Boot Priority".

Sorry i cant be more specific about that part..

Anyway, give that a go and let us know.

 

[hjs7777]

thanks for replying! "IDEO: WDC WD3200BEVT - 22ZCT0-(PM)" is the first device in the boot priority order. there's a "USB HDD" which is 4th in the order. should i move that one up?