Black screen with non-flashing cursor for at least 10 minutes on boot

[PatrickGSR94]

Just awhile ago my PC was running a bit slow, so I decided to reboot it since it's been probably several weeks since it was last rebooted. After the power cycle, the screen just sat there on a black screen with a non-flashing cursor in the upper left corner of the screen. I did several hard resets and power cycles, and even tried to boot from the Win7 DVD to try to reinstall Win7. Nothing.

Then after the last time I power cycled the machine, I started doing something else, and suddenly after 10 minutes or more, the Intel splash screen appeared (Intel motherboard) as normal, and finally the Windows 7 Welcome screen.

What would cause it to sit there for so long on the black screen before doing anything? I thought the BIOS was completely toast or something since it wasn't able to boot to anything. No F2, no F8, no F12, nothing. Thoughts?

 

[Golden]

Very odd! Does it reboot normally now?

 

[PatrickGSR94]

Yeah it's fine now, black screen with cursor comes up for about 5 seconds and then the Intel splash screen, which is normal. It's done this a few times in the past, and I always get this sinking feeling every time because I think I'm going to have to either reformat or reinstall Windows, or worse replace dead parts.

 

[Golden]

Lets try a few things.

1. Check the system files for corruption:

1. Click Start

2. In the search box, type cmd
3. In the list that appears, right-click on cmd.exe and choose Run as administrator
4. In the command window that opens, type sfc /scannow and hit enter.

Report the output from the command window once it finishes.

More detail: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

2. Check the hard disk for errors:

Install the standard version of Crystal Disk Info. When you open it, it will shows the health status of the disk. Post a screen capture image of what you see.