[NTLUG:Discuss] blank screen with blinking cursor in upper left

[Leroy Tennison]

Fred James wrote:
> All
> The symptom is "blank screen with blinking cursor in upper left" on boot 
> - also cannot ssh to the box
> Action so far - I figured now was as good a time as any to move the box 
> from Mandrak 9.1 to Mandriva 2007 - install went well, video looked good 
> all through it - on reboot however, returned the same symptom as above.
>
> Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to offer
> Regards
> Fred James
>
>
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>
>   
Examine xorg.conf closely and compare the values given for the monitor 
and screen sections with your monitor's specifications. I had this 
situation recently but fortunately my monitor displayed a message about 
invalid parameters. I ended up specifying a kernel parameter of 
screen=1024x768 to get around the problem. If you suspect the drive try 
vesa, it's performance isn't good but if it works then you have narrowed 
down the issue.

The inability to ssh sounds like another issue and I don't have any 
ideas there. If you are at the physical console of the machine can you 
Ctrl-Alt-F1 or F2 and get a text tty?