It worked! Thanks a bunch you guys. I was on the 2nd to last BIOS, so I updated to the last one, and now the blank page with the blinking cursor disappears after 2 seconds. Thanks also to everyone else who suggested other ideas too.
The only thing that still bugs me is that the Windows 7 logo...
First, here's some maybe relevant details about the build with the problem:
- Mobo: Asus P5E-VM HDMI (the cable and ports are SATA 3gb/s, but the SSD is 6gb/s)
- 4 sticks of 2GB ddr2 ram
- SATA DVD drive
- SATA mechanical hdd (disconnected)
I put a new SSD (which I've verified to work...