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XP+Bootcamp on MBP = Blank Screen With Cursor

Unplug the bits

The reason the Mac wont boot is usually because a USB or similar device is causing the flakey EFI->BIOS portion of the boot sequence to not function correctly.

If you get the whole black screen on boot thing, either from the Windows install CD or after it has put the base files on the HDD. try these three things.

1. Unplug every USB connection to your Mac save for the keyboard and mouse.
2. Do not try and boot to a FAT32 device (USB or HDD)
3. Make sure you have cleared the PRAM (command+option+P+R)

lastly, try installing rEFIt to give you a decent bootloader instead of having to worry about holding down the option key at boot.
 
koop79 said:
Hi, I tried bootcamp out for the first time. It didnt go too well.

Created the parition, selected "Start Installation". MBP re-boots and tries to install from the windows xp (pro) cd but all that happens is that I get a Blank Black screen with a blinking white cursor in the top left corner. I tried this cycle a few times but get the same results every time.

I have seen some threads in the past describing this problem but there were no solutions that worked for me.

MPB is new 2.4 pen with latest EFI installed + leopard updates.

Any ideas?

Cheers
Koop
Click to expand...

Hi!

I've the same problem...I own a 13'' macbook early 2008 and when I try to install WIN 7 via bootcamp on my macbook the same thing happens.
After I create a partition in Bootcamp 3.0 I insert the WIN 7 DVD and click on "start installation". Then the macbook restarts and boots from the dvd drve. But nothing happens.. I see just a black screen and a white blinking cursor in the top left corner.

Does anyone have an idea how I/we can solve this problem???
 
hei
i had the same problem....blinking cursor on left upper corner..when i select windows to start....
u have to waite upto 4 minutes...dont do anything
then...windows start...
idont know if this is normal..(4min) is a long time!!
but windows 7 starts on my macbook pro...and everything works fine..
 
hurayen said:
hei
i had the same problem....blinking cursor on left upper corner..when i select windows to start....
u have to waite upto 4 minutes...dont do anything
then...windows start...
idont know if this is normal..(4min) is a long time!!
but windows 7 starts on my macbook pro...and everything works fine..
Click to expand...

hmmm... my problem is that i can't install windows cause my becbook doesn't want to start the installation..... the only thing I see is the black screen with the blinking cursor. I waited many times 15 minutes...30 minuts... up to one hour, but nothing happened :S
 
I had the same problem, this solution worked for me, I have a macbook early 2008 with 4gb ram, just leave 1 dimm 2gb or if you have only 1gb, then proceed to install windows and works fine, once you finish the installation put again your ram and your ready, it works for me
 
Thanks to the hint about USB related problem.
My issue was similar. I had well functional Mac Mini with Snow Leopard + Boot Camp with Windows 7 (RC). Suddely the other thay the Windows would simply not boot.
Blank screen. Sometimes a flashing cursor. One time I managed to get the 'Press any key to boot from CD' while trying to boot from the inserted Windows DVD.
Tried to re-create a boot.ini. Parameter ram reset.

Then finally, i realized that I had a separate 4-port USB hub (from Targus) connected. Remove it, restart and voila ! Back in business.
 
Ladohierro said:
I had the same problem, this solution worked for me, I have a macbook early 2008 with 4gb ram, just leave 1 dimm 2gb or if you have only 1gb, then proceed to install windows and works fine, once you finish the installation put again your ram and your ready, it works for me
Click to expand...

This worked for me too.... except now windows 7 won't boot again once I put the RAM back in. Am I missing something?! 27" 3.06 iMac with 2GB.

EDIT: Nevermind, I was just being impatient, takes about to minute on this black screen and then it boots fine.
 
Hi everyone, my first post here.

I have had a similar problem for months now on my 2008 Mac Pro and just cant get through it.

I dont get a blinking curser or anything. When I try to install vista I get a blank grey screen for a second or two and then the screen goes black, not just blank it goes totally black, the light on the front dims like when the computer is asleep and it is totally dead. The vista CD spins up really fast in the drive and makes a lot of noise for about five minutes and then is stops and the hole computer goes dead as well.

I've tried all the remedies people have suggested in this thread and some other people have put forward, like re-zeroing the hard-drive, but non of them worked.

Please can anyone help?

P.S. This happened on leopard and still happens now I have upgraded to snow leopard.
 
removing ram worked

On my macbook I tried someone's trick of removing all the ram but one chip, that allowed installation to work. I'm scared to put the chip back in!
 
my poor macbook does not like windows

I hope someone can help me.

I have read over this thread and so far nothing has helped.

I have a macbook pro 10.6.3 and I tried to install windows xp via boot camp.

It began the install correctly and then just give me the black screen with the blinking white cursor.

I tried to reset the pram... nothing.

I tried to hold down the alt button as I turned it on and it only gave me the windows choice. I select the windows partition and it takes me to the black screen again.

I do not have my disks with me as I am on vacation,. I found some one who has a macbook 10.4 disk and I thought maybe I could insert his disk and try to boot from his disk and go to disk utilities and delete the new partition but when I try to start from disk it shows up as a choice next to the windows but when I select it, it just goes back to the black screen with white cursor.

I would appreciate any tips to get my baby working again.


I wanted to know if I bought the new install snow leapoard disk would I be able to do something different then from these borrow disk, or would be the same.

Something I want to add is I might have caused this by only selecting 5GB of space for my new partition.


Thank you in advance.
 
my poor macbook does not like windows part 2

Hi,

Ok today I got my hands on some snow leopard install disc and I tried to boot from disk and all it did was bring up the apple screen with the wheel turning round and round finally a message appeared saying I needed to hold the powerbutton until it powered off and then press it again to turn it on. it said this in english, spanish, french, and like 10 other languages. Thats all it does.

I took it to someone who does apple repairs and they said they thought it was either there hard drive or the mother board...

Any ideas or suggestions of what I can do to see if its the mother board or hard drive. I am so desperate. I dont care about losing any of my data. I just want my macbook to be functional again.

Thank you in advance.


:apple:
 
my poor macbook does not like windows part 3

Update...

I tried to install the mac os x install disc on another mac to an external drive and boot my macbook pro giving me the black screen and cursor from the external drive.

I tried first to boot holding down C but nothing happened but again to te black screen.

Then I tried to power on holding down the alt/option button and it brings up the windows drive and the external drive. I click on the external drive and guess what..... back to the stupid black screen with the white cursor.

I dont know what else to try. Any help would be soooo appreciated.


Thank you in advance.


:apple:
 
My partition has been working perfectly fine for the last 12 months. Out of nowhere, randomly, my partition stops working last night. I had been using the partition to play video games roughly 8 hours earlier with no problems, and I didnt make any software changes.

I was on my OSX and I needed to access a couple of files I had on my Bootcamp (Windows Vista) partition.

I didn't want to reboot into windows, put it on a flash drive, and reboot to OSX so I navigated to the Bootcamp partition in OSX, and opened one of the files I needed to access. This was a .rtf document being kept in Users -> Admin
I copy and pasted some information from this, and then closed it without saving changes.
Next I opened a .wmv and .avi file stored in C:\ -> Downloads

Later in the evening I reboot my computer, hold option/ALT like normal, select my Windows partition, and boom I've wound up at this black screen with the blinking underscore in the top left.

I've tried booting from my MAC OSX Install DVD (never works for me) I've tried booting from Windows Vista Recovery Disk, from Windows XP Install Disc, and from the Windows Vista Upgrade disc i used to upgrade my windows partition from XP -> Vista.

In MAC OSX I put in my Mac Install DVD and nothing happens... it just automatically ejects. When I put in my WinXP Install disc it says I have inserted a blank disc. when I put it into my desktop PC the Windows XP install screen comes up...

No idea how to fix. I've tried resetting PRAM but nothing.
 
I was experiencing the same flashing underscore issue during a bootcamp install of Windows 7 32 bit and found a solution that worked for me. I tried everything suggested on this forum and it still did not work. I eventually had to install Windows through an external USB DVD (Blu-ray actually) drive. It seems that the Windows 7 instal disc did not have a driver for my internal macbook superdrive or for some other reason could not detect it.
 
One thing that has always worked for me is running the following:

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.
 
mac boot xpsp2 to win7

Hi. I'm wondering if this can be done -> bootcamp win xp sp2 with my macbook os x 10.5 afterwhich i upgraded the win xp sp2 to win 7 ultimate.

reason I'm asking is because after which i upgraded and restarted. i have the blinking cursor at the black screen. unpluggin my usbs and the control+command+p+r does not seem to work. Please enlighten and Thanks in advance.
 
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