I don't post much but I wanted to share this story with you guys. I've been building pc's for awhile and this one stumped me. It was a fresh build average specs, powered up for the first time to install windows. It would recognize the windows(vista) cd, start unpacking install files, then instead of entering windows setup, go directly to a black screen with blinking white cursor. As I tried to troubleshoot the problem via restart, the pc began to freeze at bios and not go past. I'm thinking a hardware issue so of course I start scouring my supplies for backups of everything and testing them.
Tried all these things to no avail:
-different ram in different slots
-new psu
-different dvd drive
-xp cd instead of vista
-different cables
-mobo reset
-other random small changes
After 3 hours of this, still it would not enter windows setup. I don't like to go to bed with unsolved issues at hand, but it was late and I had no choice. The following day, I figured I'd change out the keyboard I was working with to a working one. Let me explain - the keyboard I had been using the entire time was a broken ps2 - only a few of the keys worked, such as the F# row and some others - just enough to get the pc configured. It was closest to me when I finished building it so I didn't think twice about hooking it up. So, this following day, knowing I would have to change to a fully-functional keyboard anyway for final setup, I pulled out a working ps2-based keyboard and plugged it in. You ready for this? ALL my problems vanished. Windows loaded right up, setup went smooth, and before I knew it, I was installing drivers and updates. All these hardware-malfunctioning-like symptoms were being caused by this one faulty keyboard. I wanted to take it out to a field and destroy it, Office Space style. I hope this helps anyone who encounters a similar situation in the future...definitely would have saved me a few hours of headache.
-Steve
Tried all these things to no avail:
-different ram in different slots
-new psu
-different dvd drive
-xp cd instead of vista
-different cables
-mobo reset
-other random small changes
After 3 hours of this, still it would not enter windows setup. I don't like to go to bed with unsolved issues at hand, but it was late and I had no choice. The following day, I figured I'd change out the keyboard I was working with to a working one. Let me explain - the keyboard I had been using the entire time was a broken ps2 - only a few of the keys worked, such as the F# row and some others - just enough to get the pc configured. It was closest to me when I finished building it so I didn't think twice about hooking it up. So, this following day, knowing I would have to change to a fully-functional keyboard anyway for final setup, I pulled out a working ps2-based keyboard and plugged it in. You ready for this? ALL my problems vanished. Windows loaded right up, setup went smooth, and before I knew it, I was installing drivers and updates. All these hardware-malfunctioning-like symptoms were being caused by this one faulty keyboard. I wanted to take it out to a field and destroy it, Office Space style. I hope this helps anyone who encounters a similar situation in the future...definitely would have saved me a few hours of headache.
-Steve
