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Boot Camp Windows 7 - Stuck on "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD"

M

MrTravis

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 15, 2010
4
0
Hello,

I am trying to install Windows 7 Ultimate onto my Mac Mini using Boot Camp Assistant. On the Windows 7 install it reboots three times. On the third time, it boots to black screen with "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...." When I try to hit any key on my Apple Wireless Keyboard, it does nothing. Same thing when I hook up a wired USB HP keyboard to the mini. It is entirely unresponsive. I have tried letting it run for a while to see if it would move on. I have tried changing the startup disk in Mac OS X to the Windows partition but I get nothing but a blank black screen with a flashing underscore.

Does anyone have any ideas? I have tried googling but I have found nothing (so far).

And yes, for God's sake, I have pressed ANY KEY. I have pressed every freakin key on both the keyboards, no luck.

Thank you for your help.
 
MrTravis said:
On the third time, it boots to black screen with "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...."
Click to expand...

After the first time you don't want it to boot from the CD/DVD you want it to boot from the HDD where you have installed Win7.

Try not pressing a key or even removing the install CD or hold Alt/Option to force a boot from the HDD.

B
 
I have the same screen with flashing underscore, if I leave it for a minute then Win 7 boots up. I suspect this is something to do with EFI instead of a bios.
 
Rodus said:
I have the same screen with flashing underscore, if I leave it for a minute then Win 7 boots up. I suspect this is something to do with EFI instead of a bios.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, I have the same flashing underscore, but it doesnt go anywhere, left it for 10mins

any tips?
 
Hi I had the same issue and solved it hope this helps!

I had the same issue and I searched endlessly for an answer and never found one, But with a lot of fiddling around around in-between pulling my hair out :confused: I managed to solve this problem! :)

1.When you get to the point where it freezes restart your mac leaving the windows 7 disk in the drive.

2.please do now "press any key to boot from disk..."

3.carry on with the installation screens until you are greeted with the option of repair my existing installation.

4.select your installation from the list.

5.Use the lower option opting for the command prompt.

6.Type,

bootrec.exe /fixmbr

you should receive a nice message stating success.

then type

bootrec.exe /fixbr

same again...

7.Restart holding down the option key on ur :apple:mac keyboard.

8.eject the windows disk and select the windows partition.

9.Enjoy windows 7 on Bootcamp which I find is far more stable then vista in this environment.:cool:

Let me know how you get on if any one tries this method.

Chow for now!

p.s This will run as a normal Bootcamp setup now. i.e you wont need to do this every time.
 
Try a USB keyboard !

MrTravis said:
Hello,

I am trying to install Windows 7 Ultimate onto my Mac Mini using Boot Camp Assistant. On the Windows 7 install it reboots three times. On the third time, it boots to black screen with "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...." When I try to hit any key on my Apple Wireless Keyboard, it does nothing. Same thing when I hook up a wired USB HP keyboard to the mini. It is entirely unresponsive. I have tried letting it run for a while to see if it would move on. I have tried changing the startup disk in Mac OS X to the Windows partition but I get nothing but a blank black screen with a flashing underscore.

Does anyone have any ideas? I have tried googling but I have found nothing (so far).

And yes, for God's sake, I have pressed ANY KEY. I have pressed every freakin key on both the keyboards, no luck.

Thank you for your help.
Click to expand...

Same issues for me a while ago..... use a USB Keyboard and you are good to go. My guess is that the Bluetooth support is not baked fully into the hardware and needs the OS support...... therefore the BT keyboard presses may not be recognised at this point as there is no OS running. Give it a go.
 
Rodus said:
I have the same screen with flashing underscore, if I leave it for a minute then Win 7 boots up. I suspect this is something to do with EFI instead of a bios.
Click to expand...

MDJCM said:
Hmmm, I have the same flashing underscore, but it doesnt go anywhere, left it for 10mins

any tips?
Click to expand...


1) Run Boot Camp Assistant, make the Windows partition, and when you come to the screen asking you to insert your Windows disc, do it. Insert the Windows disc and choose the option that has you restart to install Windows.

2) At this point, it'll either work or you'll get the dreaded forever blinking cursor. If everything works, great! You're good to go obviously, if you get the blinking cursor though, go to step 3.

3) Hold down the power button for 5 seconds or until you Mac powers off. Wait for the Windows disc to stop spinning completely. Now unplug the power cable. If you have a laptop, unplug the battery as well, and leave all that unplugged for 10 seconds. Now plug everything back in and start up the machine.

For whatever reason, doing this cleared something in RAM that allows you to proceed to install Windows and gets rid of the dreaded forever blinking cursor. This has always worked for me, hopefully it helps someone else.
 
reuben.seph said:
May I ask, what exactly does bootrec.exe /fixbr do?
Click to expand...

Hi This was meant to be /fixboot (I had been awake far too long sorry!) but is not necessary just a precautionary measure I always do when I use /fixmbr

By saying "Same again..." could have confused things (my bad) But I meant it will give you a nice completion message again. Sorry for any confusion.

But in saying that I have actually had issues in the past where strangely I have had to fixmbr twice for it to actually fix the mbr so that can also be true.

I actually left my mac unplugged all night to see if this made a difference and when I turned it on the next day I still had the blinking cursor.

Ime not saying that it didnt fix your issues I am just saying that this issue I was having was resolved using the steps I posted earlier.
 
Last edited:
Sorry to revive a dead thread, but wanted to say thank you to benswana, you lifesaver!

I'd tried installing windows 7 on my new iMac 3 times this morning, but kept getting the "press any key" black screen after the last restart. Really weird as I'd never had this problem on previous Macs using the same Windows 7 DVD...

Anyway benswana, your instructions worked a treat so much appreciated! Just an FYI for anyone else with the same problem, after you click the "repair" option and you're asked to select your Windows partition, if you installed the x64 version then it may not let you select it - it's something to do with the repair tools only being 32-bit. All you need to do is don't select the partition, but still click next and continue with benswana's instructions, they still do the job ;)
 
benswana said:
I had the same issue and I searched endlessly for an answer and never found one, But with a lot of fiddling around around in-between pulling my hair out :confused: I managed to solve this problem! :)

1.When you get to the point where it freezes restart your mac leaving the windows 7 disk in the drive.

2.please do now "press any key to boot from disk..."

3.carry on with the installation screens until you are greeted with the option of repair my existing installation.

4.select your installation from the list.

5.Use the lower option opting for the command prompt.

6.Type,

bootrec.exe /fixmbr

you should receive a nice message stating success.

then type

bootrec.exe /fixbr

same again...

7.Restart holding down the option key on ur :apple:mac keyboard.

8.eject the windows disk and select the windows partition.

9.Enjoy windows 7 on Bootcamp which I find is far more stable then vista in this environment.:cool:

Let me know how you get on if any one tries this method.

Chow for now!

p.s This will run as a normal Bootcamp setup now. i.e you wont need to do this every time.
Click to expand...

Should this item somehow get promoted into a sticky on top of this bootcamp category for people to find easier?

I did not run into any significant problems with setting up bootcamp on my mba but it sure seems like this is something a lot of people are running into.
 
Don't mean to drag this back up but neither Windows boot up (stuck on blinking cursor even before the Windows logo) AND on the DVD's press any key to boot.

I cannot get to the point to type in bootrec /fixmbr. I tried two DVDs, both are original pressed discs. After leaving it alone in that state for 30 minutes, its still stuck there.

I am on an early 2011 MBP (first to have the Thunder bolt) so I am not using a Bluetooth keyboard. Just the built in keyboard on the laptop.

Any ideas?

Right now I just paid for Win clone 3.4 and made a backup. I wonder if it will repair during the backup and restore process. Need it to resize the partition.

PS: this problem started after upgrading to Mountain Lion it seems. It was happening before I even resized any partitions.
 
In my experience, if you have the files you need, save yourself some lifetime and just format and start from scratch with Windows. You could burn another 20 hours figuring it out or just 2 hours re-installing. How much is your time worth?


Bah! So glad I'm not using windows day-to-day any more, I don't miss the time-sink at all
 
Almost the same problem, Jesus

i have a mac mini 2012. So i tried to install win7 with bootcamp. I had windows on deamon tools and i forgot that i can fake a cd drive but when installing, the app wont be working cuz the OS X isnt gonna be working. Now when i boot my mac, it doesnt boot OS X. it boots win7 screen that says "insert the installation disc and press any key to continue". i also have a dvd with windows on it and an external dvd drive that i plugged in my mac and pressed any key but nothing happened. i tried those key combinations with the keyboard when mac was booting with the white screen but that didnt work. i tried plugging out all of the cables from it and reconnecting it but that didnt work too. PLEASE HELP, I CANT USE A BRAND NEW MAC :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
 
I know you've probably resolved this, but I find it's unreliable/unpredictable getting the "hold key at startup" thing to work on a wireless keyboard.

Wired keyboard or Apple Remote is more consistent
 
Stridder44 said:
3) Hold down the power button for 5 seconds or until you Mac powers off. Wait for the Windows disc to stop spinning completely. Now unplug the power cable. If you have a laptop, unplug the battery as well, and leave all that unplugged for 10 seconds. Now plug everything back in and start up the machine.

For whatever reason, doing this cleared something in RAM that allows you to proceed to install Windows and gets rid of the dreaded forever blinking cursor. This has always worked for me, hopefully it helps someone else.
Click to expand...

Hi guys,

2016 here... Still having this issue. I'm installing Windows 10 on a 2010 Mac Pro that I just upgraded to Sierra. (I have a nVidia GTX 980 in it that I use to game with on the Winblows side).

I have a wireless Blue Tooth keyboard (that works sometimes) AND a wired USB keyboard plugged in. I recommend using just a wireless keyboard. I too am getting the dreaded blinking cursor, and I too am unable to use the other "repair windows" fix mentioned here because I am stuck in the middle screens in an infinite loop that leads only to a blinking white cursor.

ANYWAY...

It was Stridder44's post that worked for me, EXCEPT! You need to do one more thing...

Step 1 : Shut down.
Step 2 : Unplug your computer (Not sure this works with laptops but I think it does).
Step 3 : (the missing step) while the computer is unplugged, HOLD DOWN the power button for 5-10 seconds and release.
Step 4 : Plug your computer back in and hit the power button to restart. This clears out the SRAM I believe.

The computer should boot back into the CD, but this time when you get that message with the cursor pressing any key should work.

Good luck and Godspeed.
 
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