Blinking cursor on black screen

harvick29

Distinguished
Aug 24, 2011
2
0
18,510
im having trouble getting my computer going after what i believe is a improper shutdown. im getting a black screen with blinking cursor to the left...i cant get to safe mode with f8..only f1 and f10....and i cant find my windows xp disk..any advice??
 

harvick29

Distinguished
Aug 24, 2011
2
0
18,510
i got the side off and it was a little dusty so i cleaned that up and pulled the battery for 30 min then put back in and its the same thing....i tried moving the boot sequence around in f1 and that did nothing different either. i tried unplugging the power cord and re attaching...i tried holding the power on button in for 30 seconds....im at a lose...i have been researching everything i can on the internet and feel i have tried everything i can with the exception of changing harddrives out or fooling around with motherboards??..im not very good with computers but i can follow instructions....im afraidit may be more than a simple fix.