# [SOLVED] Black Screen With Flashing Cursor



## kitten831 (Apr 16, 2012)

Hello. I am having problems with my Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop with Windows 7. I had turned on my computer and the Dell logo came up and it went to a black screen with a flashing cursor. I was told by dell that the computer has a virus which caused this problem. They would not remove the virus unless I pay them $238.00 for warranty extension. Sorry that is way too steep for me.

I tried to do some of the following of what I had read from other websites:

1.) Tapping the F8 button a few times at dell logo screen to get to safe mode to access system recovery and restore (Didn't work I only have F2 and F12 functions at start screen)

2.) Turning on and off the computer to get to safe mode (Didn't work)
3.) Removed the battery and pressed and held down the power button for 30 seconds, replace the battery and turn on the computer (Didn't work)
4.) At the Dell logo screen pressed F12 function key, ran diagnostics, and it reads hard drive failure. First time the test said the hard drive pass but before it was normal. So I don't know what happened here.
5.) Under the same F12 function clicked on CD/DVD drive, nothing happened and it took me back to the black screen with flashing cursor. Before this happened I went here the first time and it ran some kind of test. So I don't know what happened here either.

6.) I tried re installing Windows 7 but nothing happened. The black screen was still there.
7.) I don't have system restore or recovery disk. 

My question is, is there anyway I can get my computer back to its normal state? I am pretty sure this is something very simple to remove without paying a big chunk of money to have this fixed but I could be wrong. Just frustrated. Thank you all for your answers.


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## Stephen Bowles (Jan 28, 2011)

*Re: Black Screen With Flashing Cursor*

Welcome kitten831.

You tried reinstalling Windows 7 but the problem persists? 

If you have the disc (which by the sounds of it you do), I suggest you boot to that disc again and go to Recovery Options, once in there, choose Command Prompt. Enter chkdsk c: /r

Might take a while...


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## AustrAlien (Jun 10, 2009)

*Re: Black Screen With Flashing Cursor*

Please try the following: You will need a USB drive/flashdrive and a new blank writable CD.

*Step 1:* *Please do the following on a working computer:*

Download *GETxPUD.exe* to the Desktop.
Run *GETxPUD.exe*
A new folder will appear on the desktop.
Open the *GETxPUD* folder and click on *get&burn.bat*
The program will download *xpud_0.9.2.iso*, and when finished will open *BurnCDCC* ready to burn the image.
_Please be patient: This could take awhile - download file size 63MB._
Click on *Start* and follow the prompts to burn the image to a CD.
*You will use this CD to boot the ailing computer from.*


*Step 2:* *Boot the ailing computer with the xPUD CD.*


_(You may have to configure the Boot Menu or BIOS Setup Menu to boot first from the optical/CD/DVD drive.)_
A *Welcome to xPUD* screen will appear.
Click on *File*.
Expand the *mnt* icon on the left _(click on the little arrow beside the icon)_.
sda1, sda2 etc. ...usually correspond to your HDD partitions
sdb1, sdc1 is likely to correspond to a USB flashdrive, external USB hard drive etc.

Click on the folder that represents your USB drive (sdb1 ?).
Click *Tool* on the top menu, and choose *Open Terminal*.
Type the following at the hash prompt:

*dd if=/dev/sda of=mbr.bin bs=512 count=1*


*Note: Leave a space between the following:*
*dd* ... the executable application used to create the backup
*if=/dev/sda* ... the device the backup is created from (the hard drive when only one HDD exists)
*of=mbr.bin* ... the backup file to create - note the lack of a path - it will be created in the directory currently open in the Terminal
*bs=512* ... the number of bytes in the backup
*count=1* ... says to backup just 1 sector
*It is extremely important that the if and of statements are correctly entered.*


Press the <ENTER> key.
After it has finished a file will be located on your USB drive named *mbr.bin*.

Remove the USB drive from the ailing computer.

*Step 3:* *On the working computer:*

Insert the USB drive, and navigate to the file *mbr.bin*
Zip-up the *mbr.bin* file:
Right-click on the file and choose *Send to ..* > *Compressed (zipped) Folder*.
A zipped folder will appear in the same location as the mbr.bin file.

Please *attach* the zipped file to your next reply.
This will allow the MasterBootRecord of your drive to be checked to see whether or not it is infected.


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## kitten831 (Apr 16, 2012)

*Re: Black Screen With Flashing Cursor*

Hi Steven, I did put the windows 7 cd in, but the computer did not do anything. No recovery options, no prompts, no nothing just the black screen with flashing cursor.


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## shawnpb (May 30, 2010)

*Re: Black Screen With Flashing Cursor*

Is your DVD Drive in the boot sequence? Go to Bios locate boot order and make sure the dvd drive is in the boot order perhaps the first boot device. Press F10 to save changes.


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## kitten831 (Apr 16, 2012)

*Re: Black Screen With Flashing Cursor*

Hi AustrAlien will do thanks


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## kitten831 (Apr 16, 2012)

*Re: Black Screen With Flashing Cursor*

Hi Jack, will do thanks


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## kitten831 (Apr 16, 2012)

*Re: Black Screen With Flashing Cursor*

Update: I moved the DVD boot drive to the top of the sequence in BIOS and reinstalled the Windows 7 CD. I got my computer back working again. Thank you Jack, AustrAlien, and Stephen for your responses


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## Stephen Bowles (Jan 28, 2011)

*Re: Black Screen With Flashing Cursor*

Well done, glad you got it working again.

Could you please set this thread as solved using the 'Thread Tools' menu at the top of this thread, thank you.


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## kitten831 (Apr 16, 2012)

Done


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## domhitsbig (Oct 7, 2012)

I have a Dell inspiron that is plagued with the same black screen with blinking cursor. I have tried reinstalling windows 7 but once I remove the start up disc it goes right back to black screen. I followed your instructions on the getepud.exe and have the file...would you mind looking at the file for me? thanks


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## Stephen Bowles (Jan 28, 2011)

Hello and welcome domhitsbig.

If the above did not help resolve your problem, please create your own thread with as much details as you can of your problem and situation, e.g., make/model, etc.

Thank you.

Regards
Stephen


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