black screen with blinking cursor on startup

[Crimsonwrath22]

I just built my pc and when i start it up everything seems to start up and i can get into bios, but then it goes to a black screen with a blinking white cursor in the top left and i can't do anything else. I tried changing the boot order and booting with a win 7 install disk and a bootable usb, the optical drive seems to spin up on start up and then spins down and i get the same black screen with blinking cursor.

I have tried plugging the optical drive into different SATA ports to no avail.

Does anyone know what the issue is? :confused:

System Specs:

MSI P67A-GD65 (B3)

Intel core i-5 2500k

XFX Black Edition 750W PSU

Sony Optiarc AD-7260S DVD/CD ±RW

Western Digital Caviar Black WD7502AAEX, 750GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

G.Skill Sniper 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz

Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme Rev1 cpu cooler

MSI Twin Frozr II Radeon HD 6870

[zburns]

Crimsonwrath22, Welcome to the forums.

The problem you describe is very similar to one I have experienced; however, mine occured about 2 1/2 years after I built my first computer. Ultimately my problem was (unequivocally) partially defective RAM due to dust. You have a new build not functioning. Symptoms that I would normally ascribe to a defective or incompatible stick of RAM; however, I am not certain that is your problem.

I went to MSI Home to look for a RAM compatibility listing between your mobo and choice of RAM; I also looked up your RAM on Newegg, fairly inexpensive. I could never find a RAM compability listing within the MSI home page network or various webpages. However, I did find on your mobo support page, (this link: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/P67A-GD65--B3-.html#?div=BIOS ) under 'Download', then 'BIOS', seven updates to the BIOS.

Now, this seems like a lot of updates to the BIOS; so I become 'suspicious' of the BIOS as a cause of your problem (as opposed to the RAM). So my question is did you update your BIOS or not in accordance with MSI Support using the link I just gave you.

Using the link above for your Mobo home page, then click on "Download", then click on BIOS, you get a page with seven updates. Here is the latest update (top of the list):
Version 1.A
Type AMI BIOS Release Date 2011-03-30
Download 7681v1A.zip File Size 4.23 MB
Note N/A

Note that this release is not even a month old. I assume this BIOS update release contains all 'prior releases'. So in order of 'solving your problem': First, be sure the BIOS is updated to Version 1.A. If this does not work try running on one stick of RAM only (I assume you have two sticks, each 2 Gbyte). When you use one stick only, look in your MSI manual for 'which slot' to use for only one stick (maybe labeled 'slot # one).

Ultimately, if none of the above works, you might consider new RAM -- before doing this you should talk to MSI support first -- seven updates on BIOS in a six month period seems a little much.

EDIT-- If anything about the above is not clear, please say so before doing anything. I also found this on the BIOS webpage close to the top: "We suggest using Chrome, Firefox 3.0 or IE 8.0 above browsers to download BIOS, Drivers, etc". Do you have any of this capability on the older computer you are using?

(2nd EDIT) -- I may be confusing things. You have to update the BIOS from within the BIOS to do the above. I will look in your manual on line and try to be more specific about how to update the BIOS. Maybe you have already updated the BIOS to the latest version. Have you?

(3rd EDIT) -- I just looked at the MSI webpage for downloading the manual on your mobo. Version 1.0 is the latest release date while Version 1.1 is the earliest release date -- something is wrong! EDIT, 3rd: The latest date should be for the latest update version, ie. 1.1 I am going to call MSI myself to try to get my mind clear on what I am saying to you!

[Crimsonwrath22]

I have not update the bios, I tried to use the cd that came with the mobo to update the bios there is also a Live Update function in the bios which i tried. It prompts for you to insert the cd that came with the mobo, but then nothing happens... I'll try again later. Also, i ran the memory test in the bios and my ram passed. I even tried booting with only one stick of ram(i tested it twice, once with each stick) and it still didn't work. This leads me to think that the ram is fine...either that or both sticks are bad?

[zburns]

I am not trying to alarm you with this comment. Your BIOS, as I read the data, on your mobo BIOS has had seven updates in a matter of six months -- that is just a lot of updates, but I would assume the large number probably means nothing significant.

But the number of updates is large enough that I think you should read into it, that it is very important to get the updates current and I would concentrate on that right now. If I can get your manual downloaded, I can find out in the manual 'much better' how to suggest to you specifically what you have to do to update your BIOS.

The BIOS stuff on your CD is probably the original version -- I do not see its relavance- unless something else is telling you that the BIOS on that CD should be downloaded for some specific reason. Again, you have seven updates; I assume if you download the latest version into the present BIOS, that the BIOS will then be correctly updated -- however, I would like to see your manual first. Hopefully, later today I can say some more!

[Crimsonwrath22]

Ok, I tried updating my BIOS through the Live Update function in the bios menu. It prompts me to insert the mobo driver disc that came with the mobo, but when i insert the disc and select Live Update, it just goes to the black screen with blinking cursor again.

[zburns]

I may have made a mistake in the way I started my posts to you.

I automatically assumed you are following Rob's Assembly Web Pages Step by Step Instructions. If you are doing so, let me know where you are at in the step by step instructions. If you got to the point of being ready to load the OS, then you should have successfully run the Data Lifeguard Utility tests. What were your results for the Data Lifeguard tests? Have you loaded the Win 7 OS?

In saying what I did about the BIOS and updates, I was completely ignoring the possibility that you had not followed Rob's instructions. I am not 'fussing' at you. I am trying to find a starting point still.

When you load the Win 7 OS, you will be prompted to load drivers and Win 7 will direct you to Windows supplied drivers for all or most of your components. If you have not yet loaded Win 7, then you have not loaded drivers, therefore you will have the black screen. Win 7 has nothing to do with your BIOS and therefore, you can see the BIOS screens on your monitor. But this does mean in all probability that the mobo, cpu, video card and monitor are working ok.

So get me clear on exactly what you have done, and I can go from there! Dealing with the updates comes after all of the above. Thanks!