Comments on: Blinking Dash: The Sequel http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/ Utterly random, incoherent and disjointed rants and ramblings... Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:32:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: Luke Maciak http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/#comment-8213 Sat, 23 Feb 2008 21:11:40 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/#comment-8213 I think I accidentally left mine in the blinking cursor stage overnight - it never booted the way this guy describes it. But thanks for the tip. I'll dig through the search a bit and maybe I find something relevant. :) I think I accidentally left mine in the blinking cursor stage overnight - it never booted the way this guy describes it. But thanks for the tip. I’ll dig through the search a bit and maybe I find something relevant. )

]]> by: Kenny http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/#comment-8212 Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:46:43 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/#comment-8212 Just to help you with searching: "dell boot blinking cursor" returns 58,000 results. Something there might be relevant. For example one person claims that if you ctrl+alt+delete multiple times after waiting at the cursor that it'll eventually give you an error message (although his would boot if left alone for 7 minutes at the screen). Best of luck. Just to help you with searching:

“dell boot blinking cursor”

returns 58,000 results. Something there might be relevant. For example one person claims that if you ctrl+alt+delete multiple times after waiting at the cursor that it’ll eventually give you an error message (although his would boot if left alone for 7 minutes at the screen).

Best of luck.

]]> by: Luke Maciak http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/#comment-8206 Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:20:30 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/#comment-8206 <strong>@Ben</strong> - nope but I don't actually own a voltmeter, or whatever you would use in this circumstance. It does make some sense though - I replaced the Video card with a more powerful one and added a secondary HD in that box. But that was like 3 years ago and I haven't had this problem until this December. Also, I can easily boot from the CD, and when I do I get full access to the HD. I'm actually backing up my data using Knoppix right now. If this was a power supply issue I don't think I would be able to do this, no? @Ben - nope but I don’t actually own a voltmeter, or whatever you would use in this circumstance. It does make some sense though - I replaced the Video card with a more powerful one and added a secondary HD in that box. But that was like 3 years ago and I haven’t had this problem until this December.

Also, I can easily boot from the CD, and when I do I get full access to the HD. I’m actually backing up my data using Knoppix right now. If this was a power supply issue I don’t think I would be able to do this, no?

]]> by: Ben http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/#comment-8202 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:03:54 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/#comment-8202 Have you checked the rails on the power supply? Make sure you're getting steady power at the right levels? I saw this sort of wacky behavior w/ a bad power supply once. Have you checked the rails on the power supply? Make sure you’re getting steady power at the right levels? I saw this sort of wacky behavior w/ a bad power supply once.

]]> by: Luke Maciak http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/#comment-8201 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:28:13 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/#comment-8201 Hmm.. First thing I did was to remove all the USB appliances from the damn thing but it didn't help. I had that happen on another computer with a KVM too. Once I removed the KVM and connected PS2 mouse and keyboard the thing started booting again. Simillar thing happened to one of my servers at work. I used a 320 GB LaCie drive to do some backups and left it plugged in. When the server rebooted, it wouldn't come back up until I unplugged the USB drive. This time it didn't work. :( I will try the /sos thing when I get home though. There are some other switches there worth trying like /basevideo, /sageboot and etc. You have given me a glimmer of hope. :) Thanks for the tip! Hmm.. First thing I did was to remove all the USB appliances from the damn thing but it didn’t help. I had that happen on another computer with a KVM too. Once I removed the KVM and connected PS2 mouse and keyboard the thing started booting again.

Simillar thing happened to one of my servers at work. I used a 320 GB LaCie drive to do some backups and left it plugged in. When the server rebooted, it wouldn’t come back up until I unplugged the USB drive.

This time it didn’t work. (

I will try the /sos thing when I get home though. There are some other switches there worth trying like /basevideo, /sageboot and etc. You have given me a glimmer of hope. )

Thanks for the tip!

]]> by: Will Sheldon http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/#comment-8200 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:12:29 +0000 http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/02/22/blinking-dash-the-sequel/#comment-8200 My computer does this if you try to boot it with a USB flash drive inserted. What happens if you (boot with knoppix and) edit the c:\boot.ini file and add /sos to the end of the long line with "Microsoft Windows Professional" in it, so it looks similar to this: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /sos see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTLDR for details, but the sos option just gives you more output, so you can see which driver (if any) is giving you grief. My computer does this if you try to boot it with a USB flash drive inserted.

What happens if you (boot with knoppix and) edit the c:\boot.ini file and add /sos to the end of the long line with “Microsoft Windows Professional” in it, so it looks similar to this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /sos

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTLDR for details, but the sos option just gives you more output, so you can see which driver (if any) is giving you grief.

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