Blank screen with Blinking _

[severetiredamage]

I guess I should have used the search funtion.

As the title says, I get the blank screen with blinking curor on the top left corner of the screen.

Instead of taking it to a technician, I would like to know what the problem is and see if I could fix it myself without hurting my wallet.

Information so far;
HP
Windows Vista
I cannot access Bios
I cannot access System Restore
I can access Set up
I can access Diagnostics
I can access Boot Menu
I do not have OS disc.

I thought the problem was the power supply and unplugged everything. It didn't work.
I checked Diagnostics for the Harddrive, but everything seems fine.
I opened the case; everything seems fine.

 

[MindoverMaster]

You can't go into BIOS? The blinking "-" is after POST.

That blinking line often means your OS is corrupted. Something that you last installed messed it up. Can you get into safe mode?

 

[severetiredamage]

Sorry for the late reply.
I do not have access to Safe Mode.
I last remember Windows updating, something came up, and so I stepped out for a few minutes.
I came back and the blank screen was there.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Can you boot up with the Vista DVD, and run diagnostics?

 

[severetiredamage]

I do not have the Vista DVD.
I can run Diagnostics (F9)
Everything passes.

 

[deius]

Hello I have the same problem aswell with another person's computer that I have been trying to fix over a week. He told me that he had just normally turned off the computer and when he tried to turn it back on it stopped working. Well I tried turning it on and I had the same black screen with the blinking underscore. I tried going into bios and try to select another boot drive but when I tried either it just takes me back to the same screen. I also tried taking out the cmos battery and resetting it which caused the issue of it being set to default and believing that there is a diskette drive. I just want to know if this is just a hardware problem or what. Also, I have tried starting up the computer with no hard drive or cd-drive attached and still the same problem.
The computer is a Dell Inspiron 530S. And like always it just gave problems when the warranty stopped... Figures.