by Larry,
I ran into the same problem, and think I found a solution. First, a
little background: I have a Dell Dimension XPS-R400 with an after-market HP
8100i CD-RW drive installed. I was trying to create a no-frills Windows 2000
installation that I could image with PowerQuest DriveImage 3.0. A
plain-vanilla Win2K installation did not have the problem with freezing at
the blinking cursor, until I began installing additional software. After
re-imaging the plain-vanilla Win2K installation and progressively installing
additional software, I was finally able to narrow the problem down to the
likely culprit: Adaptec DirectCD 3.01c.
This version of DirectCD is supposed to be Win2K compatible. However, I
discovered that if I installed DirectCD *without* also installing its
companion Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4.02, I would get the blinking cursor;
when I uninstalled the standalone DirectCD, the problem disappeared (albeit,
the initial reboot after installing DirectCD didn't reveal the
blinking-cursor problem, just as the initial reboot after uninstalling it
didn't clear up the blinking cursor; only a successive reboot revealed
either the problem or its elimination). And, preliminary testing seems to
show that installing Easy CD Creator *first*, and then installing DirectCD
will avoid the blinking cursor problem.
I assume that other misbehaving applications are also able to cause this
problem, but in my case, it appears that a standalone installation of
DirectCD 3.01 was, in fact, the culprit.
hth,
James Aylard
Quote:> Machine does not shut off, only a blinking cursor. Does this on
> Shutdown or reboot.