Windows 7 Black screen with blinking cursor?

[Matthew Holley]

I was installing windows 7, when it restarted and stopped at a black screen with a blinking cursor! What can I do?

I wasn't using a CD, I used an ISO image...
Also I Can't access the BIOS because it's locked with a password that I don't know

 

[patcooke]

If you want to access the bios you can invariably do so via one of the "backdoor" passwords - what bios have you got?

 

[Matthew Holley]

I have the PhoenixBIOS

 

[Matthew Holley]

If you want to access the bios you can invariably do so via one of the "backdoor" passwords - what bios have you got?

I have the Phoenix BIOS

 

[patcooke]

The Phoenix BIOS often uses one for the following backdoor passwords (case sensitive):

phoenix, PHOENIX, CMOS, BIOS

 

[Matthew Holley]

The Phoenix BIOS often uses one for the following backdoor passwords (case sensitive):

phoenix, PHOENIX, CMOS, BIOS

Already had tried those and they didn't work..

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

Where was the ISO image that you were installing from?

You may have to download one on another computer and write it to a DVD using ImgBurn to make it bootable and try installing again from there.

As far as getting into the bios I've been told that removing the CMOS battery for a few minutes will delete the password.
You might want to look it up and see if that's correct, for your motherboard, I've never done it myself.

Do you know if your DVD drive is in the boot order already?
If so you may not have to worry about the bios, just put in a DVD and start the install over again.

Mike

 

[Matthew Holley]

Hi

Where was the ISO image that you were installing from?

You may have to download one on another computer and write it to a DVD using ImgBurn to make it bootable and try installing again from there.

As far as getting into the bios I've been told that removing the CMOS battery for a few minutes will delete the password.
You might want to look it up and see if that's correct, for your motherboard, I've never done it myself.

Do you know if your DVD drive is in the boot order already?
If so you may not have to worry about the bios, just put in a DVD and start the install over again.

Mike

I used some sort of program that tricked the pc into thinking I was using a regular CD to install Windows 7.
Also, I think the boot order is HD first, because whenever I inserted a CD into the drive it wouldn't give me that option to 'press any key to boot from cd/dvd', it would just go straight into the OS..

I might try removing the CMOS battery for a couple of mins as you said, but I'm not that experienced when it comes to opening computers, so I'm afraid I might do something wrong that messes up everything.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I'd look online for your specific computer and see if you can find info on removing the battery.
Look up info about your motherboard and see if you can find something that says that, that will work.
I only know that I've always been told that that will work.

Here I found this, with pictures...

http://www.technibble.com/how-to-bypass-or-remove-a-bios-password/

If you have a local computer shop you might want to just take it in and let them do it, it should only take a few minutes.

You didn't say if this is a laptop or desktop, a desktop would be pretty easy to get into.

The way that you installed Windows may be the problem with you install, I've never heard of doing it that way but I don't know everything.

You can make an install disk if you can get the computer to boot to it.
Just download the correct ISO and use Imgburn to make a bootable install disk from it.

Mike

 

[Matthew Holley]

Hi

I'd look online for your specific computer and see if you can find info on removing the battery.
Look up info about your motherboard and see if you can find something that says that, that will work.
I only know that I've always been told that that will work.

Here I found this, with pictures...

http://www.technibble.com/how-to-bypass-or-remove-a-bios-password/

If you have a local computer shop you might want to just take it in and let them do it, it should only take a few minutes.

You didn't say if this is a laptop or desktop, a desktop would be pretty easy to get into.

The way that you installed Windows may be the problem with you install, I've never heard of doing it that way but I don't know everything.

You can make an install disk if you can get the computer to boot to it.
Just download the correct ISO and use Imgburn to make a bootable install disk from it.

Mike

Alright, I'll give a try in opening up the computer (it's a laptop btw) and try to reset the BIOS by jumping the BIOS chip or removing the CMOS battery for a while. I guess that's worth the shot because the PC is kind of old and I have no main use for it (just wanna get it to work). Thanks for the info! I'll post again to tell you how everything went.