[SOLVED] How do you troubleshoot and resolve a boot to an unblinking underscore?

[Zodiac_Potato]

Every time I attempt to boot my PC with or without an external boot device (a USB with Windows), I get a black screen with an underscore and can’t even reach the BIOS to attempt to repair my boot drive (a WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD M.2 2280). I know it’s in the correct slot because it’s been fine for 2 months.

I left my PC alone for an hour and it went to sleep. Pretty standard there. I then usually have to restart because my monitor can never detect any input after waking my PC up from sleep (although that’s a separate issue altogether). This time, it booted to an unblinking underscore.

I tried taking the SSD out and booting to a USB (which works) but when I put my SSD back into my motherboard it just black screens and sits there with that underscore. Is the SSD corrupt?

 

[kerberos_20]

that underscore thing is incorrect boot record, ie tryin to boot from something which doesnt have valid boot data...old bioses atleast said no boot record or insert floppy or something....
if your boot drive is that external USB, then u will need to change boot order in bios settings.
If you cant get to bios, reset cmos with jumper

 

[Bob.B]

Every time I attempt to boot my PC with or without an external boot device (a USB with Windows), I get a black screen with an underscore and can’t even reach the BIOS to attempt to repair my boot drive (a WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD M.2 2280). I know it’s in the correct slot because it’s been fine for 2 months.

I left my PC alone for an hour and it went to sleep. Pretty standard there. I then usually have to restart because my monitor can never detect any input after waking my PC up from sleep (although that’s a separate issue altogether). This time, it booted to an unblinking underscore.

I tried taking the SSD out and booting to a USB (which works) but when I put my SSD back into my motherboard it just black screens and sits there with that underscore. Is the SSD corrupt?

Unplug the usb.
Connect the ssd.
Try to boot while pressing f12........what happens?