A technician is troubleshooting a PC that boots to a black screen with a blinking cursor after the BIOS screen. The system has a single SSD with the OS installed. The BIOS detects the SSD. What is the most likely cause?
Trap 1: The SSD is not properly formatted
If the SSD were not formatted, the BIOS would not see it as a bootable device; it would likely show 'No bootable device'.
Trap 2: The RAM is faulty
Faulty RAM would cause POST failures or random crashes, not a specific blinking cursor after BIOS.
Trap 3: The power supply is underpowered
An underpowered PSU would cause shutdowns or instability, not a consistent boot to a blinking cursor.
- A
The SSD is not properly formatted
Why wrong: If the SSD were not formatted, the BIOS would not see it as a bootable device; it would likely show 'No bootable device'.
- B
The bootloader is corrupted
A corrupted bootloader prevents the system from loading the OS, resulting in a blinking cursor.
- C
The RAM is faulty
Why wrong: Faulty RAM would cause POST failures or random crashes, not a specific blinking cursor after BIOS.
- D
The power supply is underpowered
Why wrong: An underpowered PSU would cause shutdowns or instability, not a consistent boot to a blinking cursor.