Emachine blinking cursor problem

cadensdad · 01-31-2006, 02:07 AM

here is a little background to my proble. I bought a new sony dvd burner today and I was going to simply replace my cd writer with this. I hooked it up as instructed. Very easy. Just hooked everything up the way the cd drive was. I then went to turn the pc on and it started to boot then went to a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left hand corner. I tried it a few more times and the same thing. I then took the pc apart again thinking I had the dvd burner hooked up wrong. I then turned it on and it booted up to the desktop fine. I then messed around a little with software and when it asked me to reboot I got the blinking cursor thing again. I have had the pc apart several times and every once in a while it boots up fine. I have cleaned it out fairly good and tried to tighten everything in place. Yet it still wants to boot to the blinking cursor, most of the time. I have tried to put the old cd burner back in and its the same thing. I have looked everything over and I can't figure it out. Any ideas? The pc is an older emachines desktop model #s1940. about 4 years old. I am operating windows xp.

suprasteve · 01-31-2006, 01:29 PM

it might be tryng to boot from the cd/dvd drive even though there's nothing in it, it should then go to booting from the hard drive but it might have something still going wrong. Go into your bios and make the hard drive the first boot device and see if that helps

cadensdad · 01-31-2006, 03:33 PM

It is set to boot from hard drive first. Could it be a video card issue?

suprasteve · 01-31-2006, 05:33 PM

I doubt that it has anything to do with video, it should have been plug and play, maybe a few drivers on disk, but obviously something isn't right. I'd try putting in the old cd drive and restoring windows, then maybe try reinstalling the burner.

computerhakk · 01-31-2006, 07:33 PM

well, what you can try is unhooking any hardware that you might not need and try booting windows that way to see if they are the cause of anything. if it works, try putting them back in one by one.

however, it sounds like it can be the bios. have u tried resetting the CMOS battery? there is also a different way with 3 pins that is for the cmos setup i believe (dont hold me to that though), capped with a white cap (usually). try taking it off and putting it back. your motherboard manual should be more in depth about it.

cadensdad · 01-31-2006, 07:44 PM

I put the old cd burner back in. It is in there right now. Yet the pc still boots up to the blinking cursor. If I can't get it past the blinking cursor I can't even try to restore windows. I don't know very much about bios. But I believe I haven't changed anything.

cadensdad · 02-01-2006, 02:37 AM

I tried to go into my bios like instructed here but it asks me for a password. I have never put a password in for this. It says something about bios guard needs to be disabled? I can't seem to do anything. Keeps coming up to the blinking cursor otherwise.

suprasteve · 02-01-2006, 03:11 AM

you probably need to e-mail emachines and ask for the bios password, or search google for it, maybe you'll get lucky

Vampiric Rouge · 02-01-2006, 05:38 AM

Or on the mother board pop out the battery and reboot or use jumper 14 (In most pcs) in most cased to reset the bios. That should remove the password and put the boot order and every thing back to defalt settings.

**Praetor** · 02-01-2006, 04:02 PM

Quote:

here is a little background to my proble. I bought a new sony dvd burner today and I was going to simply replace my cd writer with this. I hooked it up as instructed. Very easy. Just hooked everything up the way the cd drive was. I then went to turn the pc on and it started to boot then went to a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left hand corner.

Sounds like you have a master slave issue
HDD 101

01-31-2006, 02:07 AM	#1 (permalink)
cadensdad New Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Pa. Age: 41 Posts: 5	Emachine blinking cursor problem here is a little background to my proble. I bought a new sony dvd burner today and I was going to simply replace my cd writer with this. I hooked it up as instructed. Very easy. Just hooked everything up the way the cd drive was. I then went to turn the pc on and it started to boot then went to a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left hand corner. I tried it a few more times and the same thing. I then took the pc apart again thinking I had the dvd burner hooked up wrong. I then turned it on and it booted up to the desktop fine. I then messed around a little with software and when it asked me to reboot I got the blinking cursor thing again. I have had the pc apart several times and every once in a while it boots up fine. I have cleaned it out fairly good and tried to tighten everything in place. Yet it still wants to boot to the blinking cursor, most of the time. I have tried to put the old cd burner back in and its the same thing. I have looked everything over and I can't figure it out. Any ideas? The pc is an older emachines desktop model #s1940. about 4 years old. I am operating windows xp.

01-31-2006, 07:33 PM	#5 (permalink)
computerhakk VIP Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: THOJhakk county Posts: 3,635	well, what you can try is unhooking any hardware that you might not need and try booting windows that way to see if they are the cause of anything. if it works, try putting them back in one by one. however, it sounds like it can be the bios. have u tried resetting the CMOS battery? there is also a different way with 3 pins that is for the cmos setup i believe (dont hold me to that though), capped with a white cap (usually). try taking it off and putting it back. your motherboard manual should be more in depth about it. __________________ "Remember, wrong advice may be worse than no advice at all." ::COMPUTERHAKK:::

02-01-2006, 02:37 AM	#7 (permalink)
cadensdad New Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Pa. Age: 41 Posts: 5	Bios problem now! I tried to go into my bios like instructed here but it asks me for a password. I have never put a password in for this. It says something about bios guard needs to be disabled? I can't seem to do anything. Keeps coming up to the blinking cursor otherwise.

02-01-2006, 05:38 AM	#9 (permalink)
Vampiric Rouge Platinum Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Philadelphia, Pa Age: 21 Posts: 625	Or on the mother board pop out the battery and reboot or use jumper 14 (In most pcs) in most cased to reset the bios. That should remove the password and put the boot order and every thing back to defalt settings. __________________ MAIN PC: Intel G965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard\ Intel Core 2 Quad E6700\4gigs of samsung ddr2 ram @ 667\Antec neo 480watt power supply\Nvidia GeForce 7950 gt\400 gigs of Seagate Barracuda 7200, 750 gigs of Western Digital Caviar and 320 gigs of Maxtor\Benq FP202W 20.1" 8ms Widescreen LCD\ RAZOR copperhead\ flexglow gaming mousepad Laptop:ASUS Eee PC 8G - Galaxy Black

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01-31-2006, 01:29 PM	#2 (permalink)
suprasteve Diamond Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Atlanta Posts: 1,355	it might be tryng to boot from the cd/dvd drive even though there's nothing in it, it should then go to booting from the hard drive but it might have something still going wrong. Go into your bios and make the hard drive the first boot device and see if that helps

01-31-2006, 03:33 PM	#3 (permalink)
cadensdad New Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Pa. Age: 41 Posts: 5	It is set to boot from hard drive first. Could it be a video card issue?

01-31-2006, 05:33 PM	#4 (permalink)
suprasteve Diamond Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Atlanta Posts: 1,355	I doubt that it has anything to do with video, it should have been plug and play, maybe a few drivers on disk, but obviously something isn't right. I'd try putting in the old cd drive and restoring windows, then maybe try reinstalling the burner.

01-31-2006, 07:44 PM	#6 (permalink)
cadensdad New Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Pa. Age: 41 Posts: 5	I put the old cd burner back in. It is in there right now. Yet the pc still boots up to the blinking cursor. If I can't get it past the blinking cursor I can't even try to restore windows. I don't know very much about bios. But I believe I haven't changed anything.

02-01-2006, 03:11 AM	#8 (permalink)
suprasteve Diamond Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Atlanta Posts: 1,355	you probably need to e-mail emachines and ask for the bios password, or search google for it, maybe you'll get lucky