Computer does not boot, blinking underscore

fokogrilo

New member
Local time
10:30 PM
Messages
12
Good night for everyone!

About two hours I was doing a recover in my hd (with Acronis true Image 2010) when at 1/3 of the process the computer rebooted. I thought it was normal, but soon after the image of the motherboard appeard, a blinking underscore emerged and the boot does not proceeded. I have tried changing the boot to dvd and hd (in the bios), also I tried to put the windows disk but the option to boot from cd does not appears.:shock: ie, the PC starts, the image of the motherboard appears and then immediately the undersore flashing.

Solutions?

Regards,
Fokogrilo
 

My Computer

OS
Windows 7
Why were you restoring an Image? was it malware? There has been some talk recently of a BIOS infecting virus.

You could try disabling the BIOS splash screen to read any error messages. Also seeing if USB Drives are still bootable.
 

My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Self Build
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
Intel Core2 Quad Q8300 2.5Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P5QD Turbo
Memory
Kingston HyperX 4x1GB DDR2 1066Mhz
Graphics Card(s)
Asus/Nvidia 9500GT 1GB
Sound Card
On-Board HD
Monitor(s) Displays
22" Widescreen TFT
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
2x 320Gb Seagate SATAII RAID 0
2x 80Gb Seagate SATAII RAID 0
1x 1tb hybrid (8gb ssd)
PSU
650w
Case
ATX
Cooling
140mm front, 120mm Rear, 80mm Chipset + stock CPU and GPU
Keyboard
Plastic one
Mouse
Plastic one
Internet Speed
4Mbps
Other Info
Laptop: HP Elitebook 2560p
i5 @2.7Ghz 4GB DDR3
Thank you for the replay. :D

The reason why I had to use an image was: today, without installing anything, whenever I opened a youtube video the screens (dual monitor) shook (like when we pressed the demagnetize button in the old monitors, but this in a soft way). I tried to update the graphic card, install the new adobe flash player and restart the PC sometimes all without effect.

"You could try disabling the BIOS splash screen to read any error messages"

How does that work?
 

My Computer

OS
Windows 7
In the BIOS there will be an option (probably under startup) to show a splash screen / boot logo. Turning the logo off will allow you to see the info posted by the bios, are the drives all detected etc
 

My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Self Build
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
Intel Core2 Quad Q8300 2.5Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P5QD Turbo
Memory
Kingston HyperX 4x1GB DDR2 1066Mhz
Graphics Card(s)
Asus/Nvidia 9500GT 1GB
Sound Card
On-Board HD
Monitor(s) Displays
22" Widescreen TFT
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
2x 320Gb Seagate SATAII RAID 0
2x 80Gb Seagate SATAII RAID 0
1x 1tb hybrid (8gb ssd)
PSU
650w
Case
ATX
Cooling
140mm front, 120mm Rear, 80mm Chipset + stock CPU and GPU
Keyboard
Plastic one
Mouse
Plastic one
Internet Speed
4Mbps
Other Info
Laptop: HP Elitebook 2560p
i5 @2.7Ghz 4GB DDR3
The setting if available (BIOS is virtually the same as mine) is in:
View attachment 188420

But you can achieve the same thing by hitting [TAB] as soon as the display initializes, Both the optical drive and hard disk were detected at start-up.

Is the image stored in a seperate partition on the primary drive or another source?

The blinking cursor generally means there was no bootsector found on the first device, this usually proceeds onto the next device in the sequence.

Is your windows disk written properly/damaged (e.g. known to be bootable previously or in another machine).

You should be able to boot if you can get Acronis True Image bootable iso on a CD/DVD/USB Drive you should be able to serlect this as the boot device and begin the whole recovery process again.
 

My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Self Build
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
Intel Core2 Quad Q8300 2.5Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P5QD Turbo
Memory
Kingston HyperX 4x1GB DDR2 1066Mhz
Graphics Card(s)
Asus/Nvidia 9500GT 1GB
Sound Card
On-Board HD
Monitor(s) Displays
22" Widescreen TFT
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
2x 320Gb Seagate SATAII RAID 0
2x 80Gb Seagate SATAII RAID 0
1x 1tb hybrid (8gb ssd)
PSU
650w
Case
ATX
Cooling
140mm front, 120mm Rear, 80mm Chipset + stock CPU and GPU
Keyboard
Plastic one
Mouse
Plastic one
Internet Speed
4Mbps
Other Info
Laptop: HP Elitebook 2560p
i5 @2.7Ghz 4GB DDR3
Oh yes, i get it now. The image is in my external usb disk (with other stuff in there). But in the Bios Device Priority there is no option to select USB. In the other hand in the Hard Disk Drives menu there is this (MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service) but it doesn't matter if i put the USB Hitachi on first or in second drive :confused:

more photos here

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh yes, i get it now. The image is in my external usb disk (with other stuff in there). But in the Bios Device Priority there is no option to select USB. In the other hand in the Hard Disk Drives menu there is this (image4) but it doesn't matter if i put the USB Hitachi on first or in second drive :confused:

more photos here
 
Last edited:

My Computer

OS
Windows 7
Just waiting for mega-upload (p.s. if you scale the pics down you can upload them here)
 

My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Self Build
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
Intel Core2 Quad Q8300 2.5Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P5QD Turbo
Memory
Kingston HyperX 4x1GB DDR2 1066Mhz
Graphics Card(s)
Asus/Nvidia 9500GT 1GB
Sound Card
On-Board HD
Monitor(s) Displays
22" Widescreen TFT
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
2x 320Gb Seagate SATAII RAID 0
2x 80Gb Seagate SATAII RAID 0
1x 1tb hybrid (8gb ssd)
PSU
650w
Case
ATX
Cooling
140mm front, 120mm Rear, 80mm Chipset + stock CPU and GPU
Keyboard
Plastic one
Mouse
Plastic one
Internet Speed
4Mbps
Other Info
Laptop: HP Elitebook 2560p
i5 @2.7Ghz 4GB DDR3
Although the USB Drive contains the image, It is probably not bootable (unless you wrote the image to the drive instead of just storing it on there and added the other data later).

You should also keep your internal drive set as the "First Drive" in drive order, because this is the drive windows will install it's system information on, even if installing to another drive.
View attachment 188531

Although swapping these around should make the USB drive appear in the boot device menu if thats something you wanted to try.

There does not appear to be a fault with your BIOS so booting from a CD should be possible.
 

My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Self Build
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
Intel Core2 Quad Q8300 2.5Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P5QD Turbo
Memory
Kingston HyperX 4x1GB DDR2 1066Mhz
Graphics Card(s)
Asus/Nvidia 9500GT 1GB
Sound Card
On-Board HD
Monitor(s) Displays
22" Widescreen TFT
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
2x 320Gb Seagate SATAII RAID 0
2x 80Gb Seagate SATAII RAID 0
1x 1tb hybrid (8gb ssd)
PSU
650w
Case
ATX
Cooling
140mm front, 120mm Rear, 80mm Chipset + stock CPU and GPU
Keyboard
Plastic one
Mouse
Plastic one
Internet Speed
4Mbps
Other Info
Laptop: HP Elitebook 2560p
i5 @2.7Ghz 4GB DDR3
I did it! :D The PC detected the CD, but it was weird, like if the hamachi is in the 2nd in the drive order the cd is bootable, but if in internal HD is in 2nd it is not :shock: Anyway the windows is being installed on the internal HD so looks like there's not going to be any more troubles :)

Many many thanks!!
and
Happy Holidays!

Regards,
Fokogrilo
 

My Computer

OS
Windows 7
The best way is to keep the external drive disconnected when turning on to install windows, that way it HAS to be first.
 

My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Self Build
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
Intel Core2 Quad Q8300 2.5Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P5QD Turbo
Memory
Kingston HyperX 4x1GB DDR2 1066Mhz
Graphics Card(s)
Asus/Nvidia 9500GT 1GB
Sound Card
On-Board HD
Monitor(s) Displays
22" Widescreen TFT
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
2x 320Gb Seagate SATAII RAID 0
2x 80Gb Seagate SATAII RAID 0
1x 1tb hybrid (8gb ssd)
PSU
650w
Case
ATX
Cooling
140mm front, 120mm Rear, 80mm Chipset + stock CPU and GPU
Keyboard
Plastic one
Mouse
Plastic one
Internet Speed
4Mbps
Other Info
Laptop: HP Elitebook 2560p
i5 @2.7Ghz 4GB DDR3
Back
Top