Flashing cursor on reboot Norton Ghost 12

Over the past 12 months I have replaced the hard drive in my Inspiron 6000 four times. No added software, no driver updates, no changes to the system. I use Ghost 12 as a backup system. When the problem occurs the machine will start the Dell bios screen and then go to a black screen with a flashing cursor in the top left corner.

Each time I have removed the hard drive and attached it to a working computer via a USB cable and all the data is fine. Nothing wrong with the hard drive but I have replaced the drive anyway and use the old one(s) as an external USB drive.

I have tallked to Dell - Reload OS

I have talked to Microsoft - "Talk to Dell"

Cant talk to Norton without $$

I thought that something was happening to the boot.ini or NTldr file and suspect it is Ghost. This last time I had to go to a 10 day old backup and it restored. All 9 other more recent images resulted in the same problem of not booting and the flashing cursor. The prior 3 ocasions I reloaded the OS (XP Pro). I have run the MBR fix program no difference. I have checked the boot files on the working and non working images and drives and they are identical.

Then I thought it was windows up date because I leave my computer on all the time and the problem shows up on a reboot. Sometimes windows update will reboot the computer through the night. Microsoft said call Dell since the OS didn't even load, it's not the OS.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?