HP laptop won't boot up - help!

[swee'pea99]

My daughter's HP was getting flakey - slow, juddery, sometimes froze. So I downloaded softpaq manager from HP, and sure enough some of the drivers were old. So I downloaded the recommended new ones. Fine. Except that one of them was big and took a long time to install, so I left it to run while I went off and did something else.

When I got back, there was one of those 'Windows encountered an error and needs to close' messages. I checked using task manager - sure enough, nothing was running, CPU at 0%. So I shut it down. When I tried to restart it, it got as far as the HP invent screen, then stopped. And that was that.

I tried starting in safe mode. Wouldn't play. No response to 'repeatedly hitting the f8 key'. Same HP invent screen.
I tried disconnecting everything including the battery, holding the power key for 20 seconds, then trying again. Same difference.
I tried reseating the RAM. Same difference.

I had a brainwave, and replaced the hard drive with the (same model) from my old HP laptop. Same difference.
When I installed her HD in my laptop, it started up fine.

So, the laptop can't access the HD, right?

To confirm, I went into BIOS and ran the HDD self-test, expecting it to fail. But no! It ran the (Quick) test, reporting 'Test succeeded'. Then it went into the (Comprehensive) test.

Completed - screen says Test succeeded. Also Test 3 (S.M.A.R.T.) Test succeeded.

So I've gone out of BIOS, and....same difference. Powers up, gets to HP invent screen, then stops.

Decided to try reinstalling Windows from a CD. Went into BIOS and changed boot order to make 'multibay' first boot device (there is no CD option on these laptops...they call it multibay). Nothing! Nothing but nothing will persuade it to get past that damn HP invent screen.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

 

[swee'pea99]

Incidentally, I don't know if it's relevant or useful, but it takes an age to get into BIOS. The HP invent screen says press f10 for startup, so you do, and it sits there doing nothing for two or three minutes - quite literally - then suddenly beeps and asks for a password. There isn't one, so I just hit rtn, and again it just sits there, this time for maybe 20 seconds...then BIOS starts up.

 

[swee'pea99]

It gets weirder....I powered it from dead, with the boot order set to multibay, then just left it, thinking maybe like the boot to BIOS it will get there eventually. Two or three minutes later it beeped and went to its Drivelock multibay screen - then after I hit return (there is no password) it thought about that for a bit, then suddenly came up with 'No system disk or disk error - replace and strike any key when ready'. But this is a kosher WinXP install disk (which I've used many times before with no problems). So I simply hit return and...nothing. It's just sitting there sulking, with that message on screen and the cursor blinking away. I tried opening the tray (and the CD was spinning), then shut it again and hit return. But nothing. Still that same Non system disk error message. Now the drawer won't respond to the button either. Weirder & weirder...

 

[KneesUp]

Download a Linux boot disc, burn it on the other laptop, remove the HDD from the dead one and try and boot (presumably if there is no HDD it will eventually boot from another source?)

 

[crazyjoe101]

It sounds suspiciously like a hardware problem if it's having a hard time getting past the HP screen, as if the motherboard won't boot the components properly (normally you get a black screen with pixelated white text detailing the components as they are loaded/booted); doesn't sound like HDD issues if it works in another PC. I'm no expert though . I assume you've had a Google already, you may do well to post on a computer forum. If you feel really adventureous you could check inside for anything that looks amiss, such as a loose heatsink.

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks. It does have a hardwarey feel, except that it seems a bit of a coincidence for it to happen exactly when it crashed during the driver-update. I do find it odd that it won't access the HD or the CD, but it can run a HDD check. I like the Linux idea. I don't have any great faith that it'll run from a disc, but I think I'll try making a Linux USB stick and see if that might work.

Thanks again. And if anyone else has any ideas, I'm all ears.

 

[KneesUp]

It sounds like something has gone wrong with the BIOS to me. If so, I'm stuck!

(Windows lasted a week on my HP laptop)

 

[ian turner]

Not exactly coincidence as according to your original post "My daughter's HP was getting flakey - slow, juddery, sometimes froze" prior to this.
Wonder if this is a cmos battery issue.

 

[swee'pea99]

Not exactly coincidence as according to your original post "My daughter's HP was getting flakey - slow, juddery, sometimes froze" prior to this.
Wonder if this is a cmos battery issue.

Good point. I hope you're wrong tho' - I've changed CMOS batteries in this model before...getting to the source of the Nile would be easier.

 

[swee'pea99]

Well, the Ubuntu memory stick hasn't worked out - seems no more enthusiastic about booting from the stick than from a CD. Doesn't want to boot...period. Looks like it might be time to go in after that CMOS battery. *sigh*.

 

[swee'pea99]

I spoke too soon! The Ubunutu USB stick has worked - it's fired up into Ubuntu. Now what do I do? (I've played around with Ubuntu very briefly in the past, but really don't know what I should do from this point. Is there a way I can get the CD to run, effectively starting the WinXP install from inside Ubuntu?

 

[KneesUp]

Hopefully this might help - http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16666/diagnose-hardware-problems-with-an-ubuntu-live-cd/

 

[swee'pea99]

Hmmm....thanks but I don't actually need to test anything, just to get the CD spinning. I thought there may be an easy 'My Computer'-type way to do that, but having done a bit of googling (and consulted a mate) it appears that ain't the case.

 

[ian turner]

You could try going for the reset to factory defaults option in the bios setup and see if that makes it boot quicker as the entire slow booting says either the basic config is scrambled or something on the motherboard is damaged resulting in it waiting for timeouts before progressing.

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks but there doesn't seem to be any such option. It seems to be a very basic BIOS. I'm leaning more & more towards the CMOS battery theory - after all, the thing is a decade old give or take, and they do go eventually. It's just a bit of a drag, because HP in their infinite wisdom made these laptops so you have to all but disassemble them to actually access the CMOS battery.