QUESTION: I have a VIA Epia M computer running Windows XP. I finally got around to installing Service Pack 2 (I'd heard it can cause problems, so I just skipped it), and everything seemed to go well at first — it installed, then told me to reboot. But on rebooting, I got a black screen with a flashing cursor — that's it. No BIOS/POST check, no Windows screen, nothing. I've rebooted many times, the same thing happens.
My big problem is that the EPIA M computer has a hard drive, but no built-in CD-ROM and only 1 single-port IDE channel internally for a single hard drive (it's a compact/fanless computer). It's made to take external USB CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives. As such, I can't boot from CD because the computer doesn't get to the point in bootup where it searches the USB ports for drives... Plus, the computer didn't come with a Windows XP disc, the reinstallation files are on a separate partition on the hard drive.
Is the flashing-cursor-on-boot issue a common one with Windows XP Service Pack 2 installation? I can't find anything about it on-line. And is there a way to revive my computer, or is it now a doorstop?
John
ANSWER: From what you have written it may be that the BIOS is the only place you can go right now. Not sure what the keystroke is but a reboot and try to access the BIOS with, DEL or ESC or F2 or F1 might get you into the BIOS. At this point you might be able to discern whether the BIOS has lost the hard drive settings and simply can not see the drive or if there is another issue. If there is a "Load Default Settings" item then you could try that. Essentially, as you have said, this is a No POST issue and without a POST we can't discern much. If you can get back to the point where you can see the BIOS at work and maybe get to the hotkey to do a system recovery then you might have a little more than a doorstop. If you have data on the disk which is important you may want to consider adding the disk to a second system as a second drive and see if you can retrieve and copy data off it to the host system that you have placed it in. That way you could save your data and restore to a recovered O/S.
Nerds On Site Support Team and Globetechnology.com
