Blinking Cursor

[webster72n]

What can be done about the blinking cursor in the upper left corner of a
dark screen, with no possibility to take any other action than shutting down
via the power button and , when restarting (with the button), all I see is
the Dell Logo, without windows startup to proceed, but instead the cursor
blinking.
It all happened unprovoked while getting ready to shut down.
Before the browser (IE7) froze completely, I received a message in a dialog
box, telling me that my Google (Tool) Bar stopped working. The tool bar is
installed, but disabled to be used only for specific purpose. (Not sure
whether it said 'google tool bar' or 'google bar' only.)
OS is Windows Vista Home Premium w. SP1 and IE 7, as mentioned before.
I don't seem to be able to do anything and the F8-key refuses to work also.
Any possible recovery solution/s in this case is/are much appreciated.

Harry.

 

[TomV]

What can be done about the blinking cursor in the upper left corner of a
dark screen, with no possibility to take any other action than shutting down
via the power button and , when restarting (with the button), all I see is
the Dell Logo, without windows startup to proceed, but instead the cursor
blinking.
It all happened unprovoked while getting ready to shut down.
Before the browser (IE7) froze completely, I received a message in a dialog
box, telling me that my Google (Tool) Bar stopped working. The tool bar is
installed, but disabled to be used only for specific purpose. (Not sure
whether it said 'google tool bar' or 'google bar' only.)
OS is Windows Vista Home Premium w. SP1 and IE 7, as mentioned before.
I don't seem to be able to do anything and the F8-key refuses to work also.
Any possible recovery solution/s in this case is/are much appreciated.

Harry.

Harry,

If your system is relatively new (which I think it is) and still under
warranty, it my be best for you to contact Dell technical support.

T

 

[webster72n]

Harry,

If your system is relatively new (which I think it is) and still under
warranty, it my be best for you to contact Dell technical support.

It is still under a 90 day warranty and I have already contacted the seller,
asking for a replacement in case of no available, workable remedy.
After having it for nearly a month I just finished installing all WU's and
my own preferences to the point where everything was working like a charm,
when this happened. Any ideas of what could be wrong?

 

[webster72n]

It sounds like the information in the master boot record was lost. When
setting a raw unpartitioned, unformatted hard drive as the default boot
device you will see a blank screen and blinking dash sitting up in the
top left hand corner as well. You may have a bad drive there.

Is that possible in a new machine (man. date Dec,2007)?

 

[LesleyO]

Is that possible in a new machine (man. date Dec,2007)?

I believe it's more than possible. Electronics will usually fail quickly if
they are going to fail for reasons other than 'old age'.
Lesley

 

[oscar]

Yes, it is possible. The average failure rate of electonic components (large
or small) within the production industry is anywhere between 3-7%. You may be
one of the unlucky few to get a faulty component (hard drive in this case.)

 

[webster72n]

Yes, it is possible. The average failure rate of electonic components (large
or small) within the production industry is anywhere between 3-7%. You may be
one of the unlucky few to get a faulty component (hard drive in this case.)

Right click..., on what? (just curious).

 

[webster72n]

It sounds like the information in the master boot record was lost. When
setting a raw unpartitioned, unformatted hard drive as the default boot
device you will see a blank screen and blinking dash sitting up in the
top left hand corner as well. You may have a bad drive there.

After running diagnostics on the drive, it passed on all fronts.
Since the drive is okay, I should be able to restore the system.
With the help of Dell Support I got to this point.
Supposedly a corrupt system file caused my dilemma.
Thanks for your and everyone involved's assistance.

Harry.