Boot Problem

Been having a problem with Windows 7 for about a month or so. It's not a big deal, but when I boot this one PC, the screen goes black with a blinking cursor if I don't hit F8. F8 gives me a box containing all the options for selecting a boot drive. I just select the main drive, and the PC boots fine.

Is there an adjustment that can be made to boot.ini or something that will correct this problem?

By the way, I have tried everything to get to the Advanced boot options screen...F10,F2,F5,F12. I was assuming this had to do with a messed up boot, too...

 

You can't do anything about this once Windows has booted because the problem arises before Windows boots, i.e. it's about BIOS settings. Is this an older PC that you have installed Win 7 on or is it a new pre-installed system?

 

Hey Earthling...

Thanks for responding. It's a 2010 PC, that I installed W7-64 on using the key on the case. It came without a hard drive.

The black screen looks like it's waiting for instructions from someplace (I thought maybe boot.ini) to begin the boot into Windows.

Weird thing is I think this issue started after I restored from a Paragon B&R system image. It may have been more than a month ago. I was in a zone about something, and I just remember thinking "OK, this is not good". I felt lucky to get into Windows. It may have been after a power outage, too. I can't remember which. I had my mind on a bunch of other things at the time.

I've been experimenting with security software, and there was a restore I ran around that time I think. After tinkering with security tests, I felt like I wanted to make sure I had all the settings in the security programs back to before those tests. This was the only time I have restored on this PC with W7 installed.

This PC has a strange (to me) BIOS. It's an aftermarket PC (Transource), and the BIOS posts to screen normally with options, then cuts off. The options are a little bit strange, Del for BIOS setup and Tab to see boot drive options. After the post, a black screen comes up, and after a few seconds something about searching for a device. A few more seconds go by, then it says "No any device" in red. Then the BIOS post screen flashes by again for a second or two, and the boot starts. Could this have been a custom BIOS for a customer, given that it is an aftermarket PC?

 

Had something similiar a while back. Machine wanted the boot options key every time to start up. Didn't think of it for a while then it got on my nerves. Found out that "somehow" the bios flipped to my second hard drive which isn't a boot drive. Changed the boot order to proper and straightened it out. You probably do need to get into that bios.

 

Thanks for the replies...

I just realized how my last post could be easily misunderstood. When I say this:

I mean that the aboive is with a normal functioning boot. Right now all of this happens, but it all ends with the blinking cursor, instead of the boot. The BIOS has always been unusual with two BIOS screen posts and the "No any device" message...

Sorry about confusion this may have caused.

Now that I think about it, I think this may have been after an abnormal boot (power outage/graphics driver exception or something). I do recall being a little bit upset with myself about something. I may have been playing around with some Netgear adapter driver software (uninstalled now...couldn't get it to work on another PC but got it going eventually).

Appreciate the suggestion Imany Mann, I will take a look around in BIOS and see what I can see...

 

Not a standard pc at all going going by your description. But the answer to this, if there is one, is definitely in the BIOS boot settings.

 

Thanks guys...

You were both right. I somehow had the backup drive set first in the boot order in BIOS. No idea what I did to cause the problem, honestly.

I should have checked BIOS earlier, but I just got around to looking into this today, and, when I was booting, the order of the drives in the small F8 BIOS Window was correct with the main OS drive on top. I made the mistake of assuming that it was set that way in BIOS...

So, Earthling, when you said that it is uncorrectable, did you mean using F8 to boot to "Advanced boot options". I used msconfig to boot into safe mode, and it worked perfectly, but F8 during BIOS currently brings up a small BIOS version window of the boot drive options, instead of MS' ABO list. As you said, Earthling, just a quirky BIOS I guess...

 

You may also find this useful if you ever dual boot:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/...efault-operating-system-for-startup-multiboot

 

the mekanic...

Thanks. Yes, I think I will use that at some point.

Just now Looking in the Advanced System Settings, and I noticed there was no check box in "Time to display recovery options when needed". Could this be why F8 doesn't show recovery options during boot, or is the use for the F8 key likely something being controlled by BIOS on this PC? I guess another possibility is that this check box setting is not tied to a boot time key press? I recall having this on an old XP PC if that's what this does. The timer would count down with a choice to boot or go to ABO.

I would just try changing this setting, but I'm not sure I don't like having the list of disks available from the F8 key during boot, since I have a Win7 installation disk. Want to think it through, because I would rather not mess with it if it will work better for me long term...

 

F8 is pressed immediately after the BIOS splash screen, and is a function of Windows.

That option you specify is the "timeout" for how long that menu is displayed via F8 or after an error, such as a BSOD. Basically, it will boot to Windows if no key is pressed in the allotted time.