My computer will not go past the blinking cursor

Hello

 

I had a Norton update, Friday. It said must reboot to take effect. now or wait. I was busy so choose 12 hours. then 12 hours again. Finally I said restart. came back to computer,  computer was stuck at the blinking cursor.  I cannot even get to safe mode.

 

Tried the xp disc. I get to repair. choose windows system enter admin password. Does not reconise  (reboot)

WHat else can I do? I tried dozens of helps from Google searches.  HELP PLEASE

I have done that yes  thank you. many times. tried over and over pulled ram. unplugged all drive cables. thinking maybe a concidence. nothing. 

 

It was immediate after an update restart.

This has probably made things worse now.

 

Tried the xp disc. I get to repair. choose windows system enter admin password. Does not reconise  (reboot)

WHat else can I do? I tried dozens of helps from Google searches.  HELP PLEASE

 

Good Luck

 

Quads

 

Thanks Quads,  most were pull hard drives any perferials  try chkdsk . check bios.  reboot (which did not work) Nothing was changed in the hard drive config.  Can't  

"tried over and over pulled ram. unplugged all drive cables"

 

Used Anti Static Gear??

 

Quads

Anti static gear, Yes!  I rubbed my feet on the carpet touched the chassis, then proceeded with removal  :smileyhappy:

 

I can smile and joke NOW :manvery-happy:

 

Is it called redundancy  or Hoarding? I have an old dell dimensions 2100  opened it up, replaced the cd with  the HDD in question.   The dell found it as a new drive. I can get to ALL my files & folders. Happy? Yes; my last back up was the end 01/13

 

Next step, I disconnected the drives and installed the questionable drive in the first slot on the dell.  It failed, blinking cursor as it did in my main tower.

 

Swapped one more time. It again found the drive and I can retrieve all my data.

 

So what ever the update was from Norton it  fouled windows startup.

 

After the data transfers are complete and checked I will rebuild the drive and have Norton  do the reinstall FIRST before I proceed with all other program installations.

 

thank you for your advice folks.

 

Again Thank you!

 

"Anti static gear, Yes!  I rubbed my feet on the carpet touched the chassis, then proceeded with removal  :smileyhappy:"

 

That is not good practise,  Not using anti static gear,  I havr the mats straps and earthing cables, also without the proper gear, component manufactures then no longer honour any waranty.

 

Blinking White cursor on boot is a symptom of mainly one thing, I have repaired a few, due to corruption or Malware, where part of the infection is removed but the system still points to it..

 

Just one reaso shown here http://community.norton.com/t5/Tech-Outpost/Rootkit-Boot-SST-b-is-NOT-coming-off-PLEASE-help/td-p/588858

 

Quads

 

 

Example of code that causes the Blinking cursor on boot

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------

--OFFSET-- 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-A-B-C-D-E-F- 0123456789ABCDEF

 

0x00000000 31C08ED0BC007C0E1F0E076660881600 1À.м.|....f`...
0x00000010 7EC606047E1EB448BE047ECD13B0500F ~Æ..~.´H¾.~Í.°P.
0x00000020 827B01812E13041400A11304C1E006A3 .{.......¡..Áà.£
0x00000030 027E81EC0E0068100089E5BEA17DB905 .~.ì..h...御}¹.
0x00000040 006631DBE8F800FF36027E078C46068C .f1Ûèø..6.~..F..
0x00000050 5E04E8090081C410006661061ECB6660 ^.è...Ä..fa..Ëf`
0x00000060 5766FF36147E668F460866FF36187E66 Wf.6.~f.F.f.6.~f
0x00000070 8F460C668B451066406629460866195E .F.f.E.f@f)F.f.^
0x00000080 0C8B4514894602B4428A16007E89EECD ..E..F.´B...~.îÍ
0x00000090 13B0520F82070131C0BA0404BEB27D88 .°R....1Àº..¾²}.
0x000000A0 9F427EFEC375F88A8F427E0204E87E00 .B~þÃuø..B~..è~.
0x000000B0 46FECE750429D688D6FEC375EA31C089 FþÎu.)Ö.ÖþÃuê1À.
0x000000C0 C38B5602C1E2098B7604FEC38A8F427E Ã.V.Áâ..v.þÃ..B~
0x000000D0 E85B0000E930ED89CF8A8D427E26300C è[..é0í.Ï..B~&0.
0x000000E0 464A75E65F668B4D18660FB7560481F9 FJuæ_f.M.f.·V..ù
0x000000F0 FF7FB0530F87A60066FF751C6631C066 ..°S..¦.f.u.f1Àf
0x00000100 89451C66F7D0266732026642B30866D1 .E.f÷Ð&g2.fB³.fÑ
0x00000110 E8730666352083B8EDFECB75F1E2E766 ès.f5 .¸íþËuñâçf
0x00000120 F7D0665B6639D8B04375736661C300C8 ÷Ðf[f9Ø°CusfaÃ.È
0x00000130 89C78AAD427E88AF427E888D427EC366 .Ç.­B~.¯B~..B~Ãf
0x00000140 60BF00808C4E06897E046689D8408945 `¿...N..~.f.Ø@.E
0x00000150 14660FB706B67D66894510B82000E8FD .f.·.¶}f.E.¸ .èý
0x00000160 FE8B7E048B5518FC60F3A6817DFE5C00 þ.~..U.ü`ó¦.}þ\.
0x00000170 740EE30E6101C729C277EDB04EE91E00 t.ã.a.Ç)Âwí°Né..
0x00000180 414E5F81C40E006089FEBF227E595789 AN_.Ä..`.þ¿"~YW.
0x00000190 C1F3A461E303E9C5FF59576661C3F4EB Áó¤aã.éÅ.YWfaÃôë
0x000001A0 FD5C626F6F7400000000000000000000 ý\boot..........
0x000001B0 0000C625EF232C85E494E49400008001 ..Æ%ï#,.ä.ä.....
0x000001C0 010007EFFFFF3F000000C152A8040000 ...ï..?...ÁR¨...
0x000001D0 00000000000000000000000000000000 ................
0x000001E0 00000000000000000000000000000000 ................
0x000001F0 000000000000000000000000000055AA ..............Uª

---------------------------[ MBR ]----------------------------

MBR_CODE : Possible MaxSS.sst MBR Code
MD5 : 11E829629259F6716B929DD004CAC281
SHA1 : EB04AE363ED2377D11D577298EF51EC9C4303B1D
PARTITIONS : 1
DISK_SIGNATURE : E494E494
SIGNATURE_ID : AA55h

 

Quads

A missing or corrupted MBR will also do that.

Happens to me every time I restore an image into a new virtualPC.

 

I boot to a windows 98 boot disk (floppy disk made into an ISO actually)

and do a: fdisk /mbr

 

Note that this works only with XP and you cannot do it with Vista\7 because it needs a different boot sector.

Regardless of what the problem is, a Norton update does not touch the MBR of the hard drive.

 

Dave

 

edit- I forgot to mention it, but there is a rather well known problem with the XP recovery console not "taking" the admin password.  It happens on preinstalled systems that were deployed using sysprep (the majority of OEM systems).

You have to use a XP disk that has SP 2 or 3 integrated into it to get it to take the correct password.

 

 

Quads again thank you for your assistance today.

 

I do have a strap, that I attach to my arm that has an alligator clip that you attach to a grounded chassis.

 

As for the issue,  it has to be Norton. it was the only new software update I had.  the computer was PERFECTLY fine until the update. It was fine until NORTON said restart to make the necessary update.

 

 

I appreciate everyones expertise. it helped!

 

"As for the issue,  it has to be Norton. it was the only new software update I had.  the computer was PERFECTLY fine until the update. It was fine until NORTON said restart to make the necessary update."

 

We won't know that it was due to the update as you did your own thing instead changing things, so will never know.

 

There is a way Norton could cause this but it is not the update that caused this, it is another reason", which Norton also completed at the same time during restart.

 

Quads

Hello

 

I had a Norton update, Friday. It said must reboot to take effect. now or wait. I was busy so choose 12 hours. then 12 hours again. Finally I said restart. came back to computer,  computer was stuck at the blinking cursor.  I cannot even get to safe mode.

 

Tried the xp disc. I get to repair. choose windows system enter admin password. Does not reconise  (reboot)

WHat else can I do? I tried dozens of helps from Google searches.  HELP PLEASE