Blank screen with flashing cursor upper left corner

Computer is HP with XP. I was downloading drivers for my cell phone USB
cable. After it downloaded it said I must re-boot for it to take effect. I
did this and now when it turns on there is a blank screen with a flashing
cursor in the upper left corner. Nothing else. What can I do? I must have
downloaded a virus or something, who knows. How can I get it to boot up so I
can see what is wrong?

Restart and press the F-key for the Advanced Boot Menu (on my computer it is
F10). Choose Last Known Good Configuration and see if that resolves the
restart problem.

"Damalulu" <Damalulu@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BF07B5AC-8705-4F32-AB84-B1644BAC8694@microsoft.com...
> Computer is HP with XP. I was downloading drivers for my cell phone USB
> cable. After it downloaded it said I must re-boot for it to take effect.
> I
> did this and now when it turns on there is a blank screen with a flashing
> cursor in the upper left corner. Nothing else. What can I do? I must
> have
> downloaded a virus or something, who knows. How can I get it to boot up
> so I
> can see what is wrong?

Correction: That's the F8 key, not F10. Sorry about that.

"Colin Barnhorst" <c.barnhorst@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:C1494C27-DE56-48E3-AA9E-6AB3FF55D33D@microsoft.com...
> Restart and press the F-key for the Advanced Boot Menu (on my computer it
> is F10). Choose Last Known Good Configuration and see if that resolves
> the restart problem.
>
> "Damalulu" <Damalulu@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:BF07B5AC-8705-4F32-AB84-B1644BAC8694@microsoft.com...
>> Computer is HP with XP. I was downloading drivers for my cell phone USB
>> cable. After it downloaded it said I must re-boot for it to take effect.
>> I
>> did this and now when it turns on there is a blank screen with a flashing
>> cursor in the upper left corner. Nothing else. What can I do? I must
>> have
>> downloaded a virus or something, who knows. How can I get it to boot up
>> so I
>> can see what is wrong?
>

Hi,

I have a PC with 4 drives + an MO drive inside.
Vista Ultimate 64 permanently running - 24/7

At random times in Disk Manager, one of the drives - complete with
logical drives on it, goes to Read Only. The whole drive hardware is now
read only.
Shut down, start up again from cold and its OK.
I haven't logged yet whether its only one drive or if it swaps to
another of the four.
Can anyone assist ?
Tried Microsoft but cannot find any results that match.
The newsgroup has one thread about files & folders but mine is the whole
drive, as in the hardware driver seems faulty.

Gigabyte 965 m/b
4gb Ram
Gigabyte ATI 3870 graphics card
All drives & single DVD writer is Sata, mix of Sata 1 & 2

Thanks for any sugestions

Mike