Blinking " - " on start-up

I purchased a Gateway LT2016U non-working Net-book for $30.
When starting all I get is a Blinking " - ".
It has 1gb Ram, 160gb HDD, running Windows XP,
Manufactured in 2010. So I figured I couldn't go wrong for $30

Netbook will not start up. Will not go into recovery. I pulled hard drive and ran antivirus (AVAST) and Malewarebytes, also did a CheckDisk and everything is fine. I CAN access the hard drive thru another computer VIA USB.

Is there a way I can test the motherboard before I send for restore disks?
Restore Disks are $20. I don't have a problem getting them as long as the motherboard is ok.

I can go into Bios without a problem.
Starting Computer WITHOUT HDD Msg says No Bootable Device.
Starting Computer WITH HDD in I just get that Blinking " - ".

Pressing F8 on start-up to go into SafeMode/Recovery doesn't do anything.


A Little advice would Be AWSOME!!!!!

Thanks Again!.

Carmello

 

_ symbol (underscore) in the top left corner?

 

Yes. Underscore Top Left hand Corner

 

http://www.thecomputerparamedic.com/files/rc.iso -- Create a recovery Console CD for Windows XP.

Boot into the Recovery Console

How to use the Recovery Console command prompt

Once you are at the Command Prompt window, type in the following commands, pressing ENTER after each one.

• fixboot
• exit

After you type exit, your system will reboot, let it reboot normally (without booting off the CD again).

 

No CD Rom. Gonna try off of USB Flash Drive

Yes I will go into Bios and boot from my Device

 

Nope didn't work. Gonna have to get an External CD Rom tomorrow

 

Does that netbook have a recovery partition to reload the OS?

The reason I ask is that over-writing the MBR (which should fix the blinking cursor problem) will erase any instructions for booting to the recovery partition such as hitting a special key while powering on to open recovery options.

You are correct that the XP recovery console doesn't translate to USB flash. However, you could get a gparted CD ISO which will go on USB and use TestDisk to rewrite the MBR.

It is a matter of whether or not you think you have/need the recovery partition and whether or not you need the USB CDROM for other purposes.

 

It looks like Alt + F10 is your Factory Restore sequence during the Gateway screen. That would be equivalent to Recovery discs. If you have nothing invested in the current OS you might want to see if that will load. You don't have to do the restore you can always cancel but you can find out if the option is available.

So the XP recovery console and a USB external CD drive and fixboot might get you started.

TestDisk writing a new MBR might get you started but the Alt + F10 sequence will no longer work.

Alt + F10 might work to get you to Factory Default reload of XP.

 

It should go into recovery in a few different ways. F8 should give me a choice of Safemode OR... Recovery.
ALT+F11 Should go right into Recovery. It does not.
I removed the drive and connected it Via USB to my Tower and searched for Recovery. I got 2 floders. I copied the contents on the larger one on to usb and tried booting to it. It did not work. I also went into your RC.iso and copied it to the i386 folder in the (problem) drive over wrting when it asked me if I want to. Reconnected drive and I got the same. SOooooooooo............
I had a copy of XP that was downloaded and used it with Wintoflash. Booted to it and it started to install xp. It was about to open up the window where it askes you where you want to install windows, and the Partition choices..... then I got the "blue screen of death"

This tells me that the motherboard is probably ok if it got that far, you think?

should the copying of the recovery folder worked? (there was no partition in the drive) And yes I did have the "Show hidden folders" checked. See attached for Drive Contents

Just tryin different things here.

12:30AM here. Going to bed and will try other things tomorrow.
Thank you very much for your advice!
Carmello

 

To see what is available on the drive, have it connected to your Tower and then open Disk Management. Start>Run> type in DISKMGMT.MSC and hit enter. The graphs should show that drive and the partitions on it.

My quick look for you manual found lt20 rather than lt2016u so I may be wrong. But it says Alt + F10 is the recovery key rather than F11. Might give it a quick try.

 

Recovery files
Also I noticed in the drive contents there is a file named "ACER" Does Gateway make "ACER" or Vise-Versa? I have a couple Acer Recovery Disks from other computers. Also a Couple Dell Recoverys.

I kinda know what I'm doing but not as much as you. There are so many "Levels" of computer repair. I fix 4 or 5 computers a week. Mostly viruses and Malware. I am a couple seps a head of the peoples computers I fix buy you are 4 or 5 step ahead of me.

Once again I really appreciate the help.
ALSO..... I tried Alt+F11
I tried Alt+F10
I tried Alt+F12
F8 and Escape
It did nothing.

Take a look at my attachments and tell me what you think
Carmello

 

Recovery Mgmt ATTACHMENTS
If I don't get my *** to bed I am going to be worthless tomorrow morning. Gotta get kids up for school and all that good stuff. Will try more tomorrow. Let me know what you think "PQ SERVICE" is. Recovery?
And if so can I copy it to USB and boot to it?
OR Create a USB recovery Disk. I may have to go buy a External CD/DVD drive. I really don't have a use for one except for this.

 

I don't want to keep you up.

I think Acer and Gateway companies are connected now.

The PQService looks like the recovery to me. Tomorrow you can try setting it Active in Disk Management by right clicking it and selecting Set Active. Then put it back in the netbook and see if it boots to recovery.

I'll think about it overnight and Thisisu may come back with some suggestions. But there should be a way to do something without buying the CDROM.

Edit: It can't hurt to try setting that partition as active but now that I think about it that may not work if the boot sector is messed up.

 

Just thought, you have an XP installation disc on USB with wintoflash. Try using that and choosing R for Repair which opens Recovery Console then following Thisisu's fixboot command.

 

OK this is where I am at.
I tried to do the recovery from USB drive and got the message "Please insert Windows Reocvery CD" did that a couple times and realized it wasn't going to work.

I removed the CD drive out of my tower and put it in an External HDD Enclosure. I also removed the PQSERVICE partition using MiniTool Partition Wizard because after getting 5 blue screens that was the only thing I could see different from other drives. I have used this "TEMP) Windows CD before and has worked fine.

I am now reformatting the drive and I am going to try a "CLEAN" installation of XP.
I'll let you know how I make out.
Carmello

PS if I get the blue screen again I will write zeros to the drive and do a "CKDSK" on it to check the drive for errors.
Thats about all I can do correct?

 

Wow, you went nuclear. We could have just wrote a generic mbr to get the original XP to boot.

If you haven't started the fresh install of XP you could use Partition Wizard to try and recover the partitions you have deleted using the full disk and full scan options which might bring you back to where you started and then just fix the MBR and worry about the Alt + F10/F11 function later.

Or just go ahead and continue as you are and make sure when doing the clean install you use the Format to NTFS option rather than the Format to NTFS (Quick) option to do more thorough format.

 

Got a blue screen again SOoooooo...........

I have another HDD (Toshiba 400gb) that was doing a little clicking I was using as an emergency usb drive. I have never had any problems with it, I replaced it in one of my other laptops just because I was uncomfortable with the "Clicking". I will try a clean install on that one.

What I am trying to do here is trial and error to make sure my motherboard is bad. If I can get an install on this drive I will get the restore dicks from Gateway and get a new HDD, I just don't want to do all that to find out my board was the problem.
I'll keep you updated.
Carmello

 

BLUE SCREEN!!!!
So do I give up yet and assume its the board?


Also is using CCleaner to wipe free space the same as using WD Data Tools and writing Zero's to the drive?
I think for $30 I got a 160GB HDD and 1GB memory which isn't terrible I guess but that wasn't the plan.

THanks Again four your help!
Carmello

 

One thing you can do as far as testing the netbook's motherboard is download a small linux distro like puppy linux and put it on USB flash. Boot from that and test internet etc. Live USB creator is fairly simple. In the fourth step untick the box for "Use with Windows". And tick the other two.

***
A couple of things just be sure on the XP installation. You have the HD in the netbook and the installation CD on usb attached to the netbook and are getting the blue screens before choosing the install location? Just checking that you have the basic connections right. Maybe try and rewrite the USB with wintoflash in case there was an error there the first time.

The other thing is that I didn't realize external USB DVDROM had come down so much in price. Last I looked they were in the $70 range. They are much less now, so that might be a worthwhile purchase if you know the netbook works with Linux and will be using for a year or so. Having a reliable way to use CDs with the netbook would be a good thing.

 

I get the "Press any key to boot from CD" then it goes thru the load-up at the bottom asking if I want to install a 3rd party. Its Before it would usually ask you if "do you want to set up windows on this drive" and then "Create New Partition" I think this window is about to load.

 

I would try a Linux distro. Puppy is only 150mb, that program can download it and put it on USB flash automatically. Give that a try.

I really think using Partition Wizard to see if the original partitions and files are still available on the HD is a reasonable thing to try because the original problem looked like an MBR problem to me. Stop writing to the HD. When you have an hour or so, run Partition Wizard. Highlight the HD (Disk#), right-click it and select Partition Recovery. Choose Full Disk and Full Scan. See what comes up and if the free vs. used space match your original screenshots. Something like 10gb for the Pqservice with 6gb used, and whatever it was for the large partition. If so they are recoverable. You can tick the boxes and recover them. Worth a try just to give you more options. http://www.partitionwizard.com/help/partition-recovery.html

I'm not sure why the XP installation is blue screening. I would say SATA drivers if it didn't find a HD but am not sure about a blue screen. I'll see if I can find anything related to your model.

 

I formatted the drive. The Partition Recovery isn't going to work is it?
After I deleted Partitions I formated

When right clicking on Drive in Partition MGR it does not give me "Recovery" option

I am here. This sends me to another Directory which sends me to another directory
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/

 

After right clicking on drive in Partition Mgr
See attached

Sorry I know I am throwing a lot of things at you at once.

Running FULL SCAN in Partition Recovery

 

I only have one drive in this PC but you should be able to highlight the Disk 1 or Disk 2 to set focus on the disk. That makes Partition Recovery an option.

Try using the Disk option at the top of the window to select partition recovery according to that guide. You might be surprised at what it can recover. When it lists available partitions it found you can double click any of them in the list and it should show the file system for that partition. So the large one would show folders like Windows and Documents and Settings. That would indicate the files could still be recovered.

 

You have the E: partition highlighted you want to move over to the left and highlight the words Disk 2. That should make Partition Recovery available.

Edit: Either move up to highlight Disk 2 or in the top highlight Basic 149gb icon.

Edit: Sorry, I have some work to attend to. I'll check back in an hour or two.

 

Thats better?

 

GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!!

I have an ACER NETBOOK that I pulled the HDD out of and put in the Gateway.
IT BOOTED FINE!
Whats the easiest was to copy the OS from it using my tower?

 

HOW BOUT THIS?

http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en

I PRETTY MUCH TRUST ANYTHING WESTERN DIGITAL

Acronis True Image WD Edition Software

Acronis True Image WD Edition Software helps you to completely clone your current system drive onto your new WD hard drive. Cloning makes an exact copy of your old system drive on your new WD hard drive, including the operating system, applications, data, preferences, and email settings. Everything will be present and operate exactly as it did on your old hard drive. Acronis True Image WD Edition now supports WD Advanced Format Drives and ensures that all partitions are optimally aligned.

I THINK.........

Once its done I can the make OS Recovery and then go into recovery mode. OR........
just delete what I don't want off it update drivers and NOT PUSH MY LUCK!

 

Let's see that screenshot from PW was only at 1% so it is possible it could find more if given enough time.

I think WD acronis has to have at least one WD drive involved. Is either HD WD brand?

ToDo backup or Macrium Reflect should be able to clone one HD to the other. The problem would be connecting both the found Acer HD and the Gateway HD to the tower at the same time. You have an external enclosure do you have a second enclosure or an empty SATA cable in the tower?

 

I had them started but it was going to take 6 hours thru USB and I was going to delete most of it anyhow and I am WAAAAAAY to impatient, so I tried my acer Restore Disks in the Gateway. Acer has 3 disks. One is the Boot disk that sets everything up then the recovery disks 1 and 2. The First disk worked great and it even said "Gateway Restore Management". The next disks were't recognized and I asuming because they are DVD not CD's So I'm off to Walmart to get an External DVD Burner/Reader.

My other Idea was putting the NEW CLEAN drive in the acer then put restoring it. Same thing Wouldn't recognize Disk 2 so thats how I figured that it would work with a DVD Drive. I used to have a bunch but thrw them all out thinking I didn't need them and they were always cluttering things up.

I'll check back tomorrow and let you know how I made out.

 

That is fine, I'm curious how it works out.

One final thought is that powerdatarecovery might work with a quick scan to find the old partitions since technically you haven't written anything to the drive.

If you want to try it--when starting up make sure to click the I am a Home User box (otherwise it will ask for money). Then choose lost partitions option. And hit the recover button on the right. I just ran it through on this HD and the quick scan found two old partitions from 2009 (In 12 minutes). I didn't go through the actual recovery process but it might bring back the pqservice partition and then you could set that one active in Partition Wizard and see if it will boot into the recovery partition.

Edit: forgot to give link to old completely free version http://www.mediafire.com/?i4d4e2allk4ynd7

 

Skip powerdatarecovery it will not rewrite the partition table. Just tested it. It only lets you save files. I don't think it is what you need.

Go with the external and see how it goes.

 

OK ALL DONE!
I went to my local Computer Shop and got a DVD (Internal) Burner and mounted it in my External case. (I got the Internal so I can also put it in my tower if I wish) Used the ACER Recovery Disks and Wa-La! Just have to update and that will close another problem for the wonderful people at MajorGeeks!

Surprizing these so called "NetBooks" have large HDDs and a full GB of Ram! A Little more then a NetBook if you ask me!
Have a good day SACH and THISISU!

I always say I am a self tought guy but its people like you that SHOULD get the Credit!!!!
Thanks again not only did I fix it but I learned a lot in the past 24 hours!

PS~ now if we could figure out a faster way to do Windows updates we would all be better off!

 

I'm glad the install went so smoothly. Having a DVDROM you can hook up to the netbook when necessary, will be an asset in the long run. Everything may be going to USB but they are not there yet. No optical drive makes working with a netbook tricky almost every time.

Good work!

 

Still updating................
Its even longer when your internet connection is a "Cantenna" running 18Mbps.

Still better than (paying) RoadRunner!

 

Now, I've learned something new "Cantenna". :-D

Hmmm, I don't think my local library could be more than a quarter mile, as the crow flies, away from my house.

 

"CANTANNA"!
Works like a champ!

 

Also what do with these? Are they suspicious or no?

 

I don't see anything suspicious there. Where are they located (which folder/directory)?

All the .rtf are just rich text which is just a text file. Eula is End user license agreement. Maybe that deletetemp.exe will get rid of some of them. (It seems that deletetemp.exe has something to do with Microsoft VisualStudio so I think it would be safe to run. Not a definitive answer just what I would do.)