Black screen with blinking cursor at startup, repair and recovery did nothing.

supersimple

New Member
I have a 2.5 year old Toshiba Satellite L300-04N, which has decided to crash during exams. :D

Earlier today when I brought it out of sleep everything was frozen. I couldn't get into Task Manager so I turned it off using the power button.

When I turned it back on, it said that there may be disk errors it wanted to do a disk check (I don't remember the exact message). I've had this problem before, but usually it does the disk check and all is fine. This time it never started the actual disk check, so after waiting a while I hit the power button again.

Now when I try to start it, I get the Toshiba start up screen but then it gets stuck on a black screen with a flashing cursor in the top left corner. When I press any key it makes angry bleeping noises at me.

I've tried doing a startup repair (a couple of times) with the recovery disk. The first time it did a repair, now when I do a repair it tells me it can't detect a problem. I tried to do a system restore, but it told me there are no restore points. I searched the forums for a while, but I couldn't find any other ideas.

I am more or less competent with computers, but I don't know a lot of computer jargon. Thanks in advance for your help!

EDIT: I also tried F8 at startup. Did nothing. :(
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite L300-04N
Your computer did a repair, so at what stage is it at?
Does Vista boot, do you get the flashing cursor?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Self Built
    CPU
    I5 3570K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z77-DS3H
    Memory
    4 x 4GB corsair ballistix sport DDR3 1600 Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte Geforce GTX 660 TI
    Sound Card
    creative x-fi
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Primary CiBox 22" Widescreen LCD ,Secondary Dell 22" Widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    Both 1680 x 1050
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500G HD (SATA) 1 x 2TB USB
    PSU
    Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Complient PSU
    Case
    Antec 900 Ultimate Gaming Case
    Cooling
    3 x 80mm tri led front, 120mm side 120mm back, 200mm top
    Keyboard
    Logik
    Mouse
    Technika TKOPTM2
    Internet Speed
    288 / 4000
    Other Info
    Creative Inspire 7.1 T7900 Speakers
    Trust Graphics Tablet
The first time I tried it, I completed the repair and restarted the computer. It didn't fix the problem though. I tried the repair again, but it tells me there's no problem and won't do the repair.

There was a change after the first repair, though. The first time I did it there was no operating system listed and I just clicked "Next". Now when I go to System Recovery Options the operating system says (recovered), with a partition size of 229298 MB and location C: .

I don't think Windows loads at all when I turn it on. The Toshiba startup screen comes on, but after that all I get is the black screen with a text cursor (like the one in you see in DOS). I don't get to the Microsoft loading screen.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite L300-04N

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Self Built
    CPU
    I5 3570K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z77-DS3H
    Memory
    4 x 4GB corsair ballistix sport DDR3 1600 Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte Geforce GTX 660 TI
    Sound Card
    creative x-fi
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Primary CiBox 22" Widescreen LCD ,Secondary Dell 22" Widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    Both 1680 x 1050
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500G HD (SATA) 1 x 2TB USB
    PSU
    Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Complient PSU
    Case
    Antec 900 Ultimate Gaming Case
    Cooling
    3 x 80mm tri led front, 120mm side 120mm back, 200mm top
    Keyboard
    Logik
    Mouse
    Technika TKOPTM2
    Internet Speed
    288 / 4000
    Other Info
    Creative Inspire 7.1 T7900 Speakers
    Trust Graphics Tablet
From what I understand, the first solution from that thread is a startup repair (which I tried already) and the second is restoring the computer to factory settings.

I have the recovery discs, so I could do a full restore (and I have twice already this year!). The problem is that (1) I haven't backed up some of my files, and (2) my computer would be out of commission for the next couple days while I install/update all the software. Normally that's not an issue, but I have two chemistry exams in the next two days. O_O

Is there anything else I can do that doesn't involve losing all my files, or is that my only option?

Thanks!

Update: My files are still there. When I click "Load Drivers" at the System Recovery Options window I can see my C: drive and the folders on it. I can't see the files themselves, but I can copy a folder to a flash drive and transfer the files to another computer. Would this suggest it's not an issue with the hardrive?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite L300-04N

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    a6530f Desktop
    CPU
    HP-PAVILION
    Motherboard
    M2N68-LA (Narra3)
    Memory
    8 Gigs of Ram/DDR2 PC2-6400 MB/sec
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
    Sound Card
    Intergrated Realtex ALC888S Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W40 series widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1600 X 900
    Hard Drives
    1 640 GB Sata transfer rating: 3.0 Gb/sec speed: 7200 RPM
    PSU
    300W
    Case
    Mid-Size ATX
    Keyboard
    HP Multimedia Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000
    Other Info
    Processor: AMD Phenom X3 8450 Operating speed: Up to 2.1 GHz, Number of cores: 3, Socket: AM2+, Bus speed: 3600 MHz HT3 (clocked down to 2000 MHz)

    Modem: 56K WinModem/

    Supermulti: 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X Ram (+/-)R DL Lightscribe SATA Drive

    Menory Card Reader: 15-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader

    Media Drive
I can get there, but I can't do a system restore. When I try to do one it says there are no restore points, which is strange because there should be some.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite L300-04N
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