Blank screen w/ cursor before bios

Hey all,

I recently just got back from a trip out of the country and turned my computer on, and realized it was broken, my girlfriend just decided not to tell me she broke it hoping I would think I did it myself (thanks a bundle).

Anyway, I had 2 XP versions and a linux distro on my hd0, but was using a windows boot loader so just had the 2 xp versions on a list, if I picked any it would reboot the computer. Eventually I got into one of the versions after resorting to the "last known good config" option. I shut it down, and the next day I turned it on and before bios I just got a message on the screen saying something like "AVP569 something something 400e/500m" and then a flashing cursor. After some googling it looked like it might have been a problem with my video card. So I swapped the ATI x1650 out and replaced it with the card the computer came with, some low-end nVidia card. Now when I turn on the computer it doesnt load the bios either, but there is no error message, just a blank screen with a flashing cursor in the upper left corner.

I tried taking the mobo battery out to reset the bios config or whatever, and that didn't seem to work either. I've never encountered anything like this before and was just wondering if anyone knows what the problem might be, or how to go about solving it. At the very least it would be nice to be able to get into bios so I can at least take a look at things.

My girlfriend said something about a firefox install crashing firefox and then she couldnt get the computer back on. She has no clue about computers really so I have no idea what actually happened or if the system crashed or anything. I was able to get into windows somewhat normally yesterday but now, alas, the black screen feat. blinking cursor.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Check all connections, inside (with power off), if no start after that, check for beep, or , beeps as it goes to start.
As you have removed, and replaced battery, it should go to default setup, and if that old original card is in there, it should beep, unless something is loose- next point of check, remove and replace ram stick/sticks, (try one at a time,if more than one)to see if that gets it beeping.
Once you have a beep. or, beeps we can see more to help - just tell us if/what they are.

 

Thanks baklogic. Actually I had already disconnected mostly everything but a HD, the video card, and the ram, but I didnt remove any of the ram sticks as they were covered in IDE cable, etc. While waiting for a reply to my post though I started clearing out the case and got myself down to 1 ram stick, that got bios back up, and almost back into windows. Turns out I had a compounded problem, and needed to run chkdsk on my windows installation, to fix the reboot error, and it looks as though there was some dust in my dimm3 slot for one of my ram sticks, so after running that and cleaning the contacts for the ram everything seems to be working again.

Good suggestion on the RAM though as I was thinking the same thing, and that ultimately led to me fixing the problem!

 

Glad its fixed -

my favourite saying
Sometimes the obvious eludes us