Black screen and single flashing cursor

[Arismac]

Good morning all. I have downloaded and successful installed Windows 10 on one of my two computers. When I downloaded to second computer it hung on the installation re-boot. Now machine will only display BIOS splash screen and then shows a black screen with a single fast flashing cursor.

I tried putting the original Windows 7 install disk in the DVD but could not boot that way either. Any assistance greatly appreciated. I can not get in contact with Windows support in Australia and have not been able to find an email address.

Thanks.

 

[Trouble]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
If your computer is unresponsive and you're unable to do anything with it you'll need to use another computer and obtain the installation media from one of these resources and use that to boot your computer from a DVD or USB ThumbDrive and attempt some of the troubleshooting / repair options.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

[Arismac]

Thank you so much for your answer. What you suggest is something I have never done before. I do have one computer operational on Windows 10 and the second computer is as I described. I do not have a DVD of Windows 10 but I did try to recover the computer with the original Windows 7 install disk.

I was unable to reinstall Windows on any of the four disks on the faulty computer. Every time I tried I got a message that said the disk format was wrong. There probably is no way I can obtain installation media from the working computer. Is it available for download any where.

Thanks again for your assistance. I shall now study the links you kindly gave me.

 

[Trouble]

Is it available for download any where.

If you are talking about Windows 10, I provide two links from which you can download an ISO and produce installation media.
If you are talking about Windows 7 and you have a product key then you should be able to get it from here.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery

 

[Arismac]

I followed your links, thank you and am now downloading Windows 10. I will report back.

 

[Trouble]

Good luck.
Use it to boot the computer and attempt some of the repair / advanced troubleshooting options.

 

[Arismac]

It is starting to look more and more as though the BIOS on my Gigabyte GA-X99-UD4 MB has crashed. At least it is still covered by warranty.

Again, many thanks for your help.

 

[Trouble]

It is starting to look more and more as though the BIOS on my Gigabyte GA-X99-UD4 MB has crashed.

I suppose that, that is a possibility but I would think, probably rare.
Don't those Gigabyte boards have dual BIOS which allows to run from either BIOS chip and a reset / clear BIOS button right on the board?
I know by Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming7 board does although I have no experience with the X99 boards.
Check your User's Manual / Documentation.

 

[Arismac]

I use the machine for Prepar3D outside working hours and had a similar experience about two years ago with an earlier board. In this case I can access the Boot Order (F12) but can not get into the BIOS using (Del). When I set the Boot Order to USB the BIOS simply moves the screen to black, no cursor. Tomorrow is Monday where I live and I will be in contact with the MB distributor first thing.

 

[Trouble]

I will be in contact with the MB distributor first thing.

OK.... good luck and keep us posted on how things progress.

 

[Arismac]

I certainly will and thanks again

 

[Arismac]

As promised. I finally managed to get the BIOS up to date but I am afraid the problem remains. I now know that Windows 10 is on the computer because I was able to access the maintenance and repair screens. I even tried to install Win 10 from a flash drive but it stubbornly refuses to the accept the Win 7 key in order to activate Win 10.

So I have two scenarios. If I boot the machine normally the BIOS flash screen appears and then it moves to a black screen with flashing cursor.

If I stop the BIOS and boot from a USB drive with a WIN 10 download, I can get to the maintenance screens but no further because it will not accept my Win 7 Key.

Any ideas will certainly be appreciated. I am becoming desperate enough to pay for a download of Win 10 but am in no way certain that I would be able to install. My other machine is working well in Win 10.

 

[Trouble]

Have you been able to boot the machine into safe mode?
This could still be an issue with the GPU driver.... maybe.

I now know that Windows 10 is on the computer because I was able to access the maintenance and repair screens

If you haven't been able to get into safe mode using any of the advanced trouble shooting options, there is one more trick we might be able to try to get you into safe mode, but.....
If safe mode produces the same results then your other options are severely limited and it's time to backup your critical data and consider a reset.

 

[Arismac]

Again, my sincere thanks for mentoring me on this one. The Win 10 startup does not seem to give me the Safe Mode boot option that you get with Win 7. I honestly believe that I originally had BIOS problems and that is now fixed with Q Flash. But I am left with some sort of a legacy that means that Win 10 can not accept my Win 7 Registration Key.

The fault first appeared during the Win 10 upgrade at the time when it was going through a re-boot. With my the other machine, now on Win 10, the re=boot is when the Win 10 startup screen first appears. But in this case I get the Win 10 startup screen BUT it asks to install Win 10. Then of course it asks for the Key which it then says is the wrong key.

 

[Arismac]

Another episode. I have now got to where I can display Windows 10 "Troubleshoot" I then select "Keep my files". The next screen says "The drive where Windows is located is locked. Unlock the drive and try again"

How do I do an unlock, please?

 

[Arismac]

If I select "Remove everything ..." I get "Unable to rest your PC. A required drive partition is missing" and forces me to cancel. There also six "Advanced options" I tried going back to the previous build but am told "We ran into a problem ... "

I can not get anywhere with "System Restore" or System Image Recovery" or "Start-up Repair"

I am not brave enough to try "UEFI" or the "Command Prompt" without your assistance. Perhaps I should use the Command Prompt to format the C:\ drive and then use the DVD I purchased to install a new copy of Windows 10? If so how do I do this? Thanks

 

[Arismac]

I was finally able to get MS Support on the telephone. They guided me through deleting the C:\ partition and creating a new partition. Windows 10 is now installing. I had not realised that the partition types are different.

Thanks again.

 

[johnthrmonk]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
If your computer is unresponsive and you're unable to do anything with it you'll need to use another computer and obtain the installation media from one of these resources and use that to boot your computer from a DVD or USB ThumbDrive and attempt some of the troubleshooting / repair options.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Yes!! Followed instructions . Every thing back.Thanks Big Time