screen going black with a cursor :(

hey guys, my friends laptop was giving her problems so she reformatted it, and i wasnt there when it happend but she later said it wouldnt do right, so i got to her house and when it came to ghe logon screen, after a coupleseconds, it went blank with a blinking cursor in the top left corner.

so i tried to reformat it, and during the last steps of installiation(saving settings) it goes black with a cursor in top left. what is causing this? id really like to get this fixed.

thanks
joshua

 

Are you loading Windows XP? You may want to visit the hard drive manufacturer's web site, and download and run thier diagnostic tool....

hopperdave2000

 

yes i is winn xp, pro to bespecific, but i cant runany tools because it wont get poast the xp setup, it does it right before its done. does this soundl ike a harddrive malfunction?

 

any one have any ideas?

 

Seems to me that it's a hard drive problem or maybe a RAM problem. If you download a hard drive diagnostic from the maker's web site, it will be a bootable prgram. Usually, they'll have a bootable floppy version, and .iso version to burn to CD to create a bootable CD. Also, you can try the Ultimate Boot CD; it's a bootable collection of diagnostics: RAM, hard drive, system info tools, partition tools, whatever, and it's PRICELESS for any type of diagnostics. It's FREE! Here's the link: http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/ Visit the web site, read the info and the instructions on how to create the CD, and boot to it. You can check the HD, RAM and other areas of the PC for thier overall health and integrity. Ultimate Boot CD is commonly known as the UBCD. Check it out!

hopperdave2000

 

ok, once i have it what steps do you suggest? afim running the HD diagnostics right now and its found alot of errors, what is next? how do i fix them?

 

Hi Josh,
You really need to give us more information please.

What were your friend's original problems?
What exactly did she do that you call 'format'?

How did you 'reformat' it? What disk were you using to Reinstall?

It sounds to me as though you have a failed installation, not hardware and need to use the XP disk to delete the old partition and create a new one. Then setup should run normally.

To do this boot the pc FROM the XP CD at the first screen press R for repair
It will list the drives
enter the number against your C drive
enter the old admin password, this may be lost since the format
So if need be try again with return
at the C:> prompt enter diskpart and follow the instructions.


Studio T

 

im sorry your right i didnt really exlplain myself well.

From the beginning she told me that it would randomly go to a black screen with a cursor.

but i rember when she first told me about it, i had them put in the xp pro cd from compaq, and then reinstall window's(w/ wipeing the drive). she did that(successfully) then it started happening again at the sign in screen(for xp).

so i figured maby she didnt do something rightin the reinstallation of windows. so i put in the xp cd, then it went through all the steps, and when it gets to the very last ones(after it installed the setupfiles in dos and restarted) it was on the "saving settings" task and it would do it at about 75% complete.

and this is where im at.


I ve just enter the xp setup again(after deleteing the partititions via the steps you told me to do)

it tells me that the partitition is unable to be formatted, and that the disk may be damaged.

does this mean the HD is toast?

 

Did you run the HD diagnostics? It'll tell you if the drive is bad and in some cases it'll give you the option to repair...

 

yeah i put one doing last night, and it stoped cuz i woke up and it was not moving at all. which one do you reccomend using? i went to one way at the bottom(on ubcd) and it seemed to be for general hd's cuz i didnt know this one was a toshiba HD

 

Try using Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test. I've used it on Toshiba and other non-Hitachi drives many times. It also offers an option to repair faulty sectors if any are found. Run the Advanced Test as it includes the Quick Test and a deeper, more exhaustive diagnostic. If a different HD diag locked up, there's a good chance the HD is indeed toast

hopperdave2000

 

hmmm. i was on mhdd scan, and during the scan it says drive has been disconnected...?

 

the hitachi one failed to haha toast?

 

When you replace the drive remember to also address the reasons for its failure. That is was the position or condition (cleanliness) inside the pc causing overheating and promoting failure?


Studio T

 

yeah, good idea, thanks. this is why i love you guys. plutonicly.