Question Black screen with flashing cursor on boot up

[SBF76]

Not sure if this is in the right place,; if not feel free to move it!

So, for the past few days when booting my system up, I have noticed that it's hanging on a black screen with a flashing white cursor. Sometimes, it'll then go to the BIOS screen and then hang there for ages before finally booting Windows 10. Sometimes it does nothing and I have to restart it myself. What's going on here and how do I sort it out?

Thanks!

 

[rocktalkrock]

Have you checked in the BIOS to see if Fast Boot is set to Enabled? Fast Boot was likely enabled previously but has switched back to the default.

Fast Boot
Enables or disables Fast Boot to shorten the OS boot process. Ultra Fast provides the fastest bootup speed. (Default: Disabled)

 

[SBF76]

Have you checked in the BIOS to see if Fast Boot is set to Enabled? Fast Boot was likely enabled previously but has switched back to the default.

Fast Boot
Enables or disables Fast Boot to shorten the OS boot process. Ultra Fast provides the fastest bootup speed. (Default: Disabled)

Thank you for that, I'll check it after work. The only change I've made recently is replacing my system SDD with a bigger one, as C:/ was almost entirely out of space. This issue didn't happen immediately, but could such a hardware change cause the BIOS to mess with Fast Boot settings?

 

[rocktalkrock]

Thank you for that, I'll check it after work. The only change I've made recently is replacing my system SDD with a bigger one, as C:/ was almost entirely out of space. This issue didn't happen immediately, but could such a hardware change cause the BIOS to mess with Fast Boot settings?

Since this motherboard was released about 9 yeas ago it's possible the CMOS battery is weak and that caused the BIOS to reset if the PC is unplugged.

On boot-up a flashing white cursor indicates the BIOS is searching for a piece of hardware other than your boot drive, like a DVD drive or USB drive. Check your "Boot Option Priorities".

 

[SBF76]

Since this motherboard was released about 9 yeas ago it's possible the CMOS battery is weak and that caused the BIOS to reset if the PC is unplugged.

On boot-up a flashing white cursor indicates the BIOS is searching for a piece of hardware other than your boot drive, like a DVD drive or USB drive. Check your "Boot Option Priorities".

Thanks for your reply.

Tonight, it booted up fine, in fact it seemed faster than usual! After dinner, same thing. Just now though I restarted it again and now... Nothing. The fans are going, but the screen is completely blank - not even the flashing cursor now. If it's the CMOS battery, is that something that can be easily changed? I really don't need the expense of a new motherboard at this point, especially as that will also mean new CPU and RAM as well. Presumably everything else would fit on a new motherboard, like GPU and soundcard etc.

Oh - never mind - it's back up and running! I wonder if I should just put it into sleep mode now instead of completely shutting it down as I've got a feeling that motherboard is going to pack up completely any day now...

 

[Zerk2012]

Thanks for your reply.

Tonight, it booted up fine, in fact it seemed faster than usual! After dinner, same thing. Just now though I restarted it again and now... Nothing. The fans are going, but the screen is completely blank - not even the flashing cursor now. If it's the CMOS battery, is that something that can be easily changed? I really don't need the expense of a new motherboard at this point, especially as that will also mean new CPU and RAM as well. Presumably everything else would fit on a new motherboard, like GPU and soundcard etc.

Actually it's looking for your boot drive.
That screen is saying no boot drive found then it finds it.
Did you install windows with only one drive installed/connected?

EDIT the battery is easy to change or replace although for a board just that old should not be dead yet, but could be.
Unplug your drives and see if you can boot into BIOS.