Think this is a Windows Problem

fatgav

Hey guys. Hope I'm right in posting this here but I'm kinda desperate for help

My laptop is on the blink. It's aHP Pavilliion dv1600 and I'm running Vista Home Premium. I've got 2mb RAM and 120GB Hard Drive. When I turn it on the HP logo comes up as normal but the loading bar does not follow. After 1-2 minutes the HP logo (this includes the messages to get into SETUP and change boot order - it's the normal one) diappears and is replaced with a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left hand corner. I've tried leaving it on overnight but it was off when I woke up this morning, even though I had it plugged in. I don't believe the Windows login screen/logo/loading bar ever came up.

f I press the CAPS lock key it does light up.

I've tried removing and re-inserting the RAM but no luck.

About a month ago I had an issue where the computer would not power up correctly but this was solved by removing the internal clock battery and then turning it on. It's not given trouble since.

I've not been able to try anything with the VISTA cd but i will be getting my hands on one tonight.

Any ideas how I can fix this??

(sorry if some of my info was irrelevant or if I'm missing some. in work todya so will keep an eye on this thread and will answer any questions anyone has)

many thanks.

ttm

I'd be more inclined to think it was hardware. Take out the HDD and see if you get an error that indicates there something like no bootable media or no OS found, if you don't I say hardware. If you hadn't mentioned it I''d have said to take our the BIOS battery if you can get to it and take out the main battery and unplug before replacing the battery and trying again.

Don't think it wil help but you could try only one stick of RAM at a time they normally don't both go bad at the same time if the RAM is the problem.

fatgav

thanks man. obviously it'll be after work before i can do anything but i will try that. if there is something wrong with the hdd is a restore my only option?

ttm

The idea of pulling out the HDD is to prove if the problem is hardware related. If you get the same problem then the system isn't even bothered about whats on the HDD so you can rule out anything to do with software.

I doubt very much you'll get a missing OS type error with no HDD but great if you do as that would point to a problem with the HDD which is at least replacable.

Capt'n Midnight

go into setup and reset to defaults
if there is an option for diagnostics run them

unlikely to be windows try the vista boot cd

fatgav

i've reset the defaults cap'n. i also tried to run the diagnostics but it wouldn't run. i think... it's not in front of me.. that there was a message which said 'diagnostics not present/found...' that was in the actual setup.
(knew there was something i left out of my OP.)

fatgav

hey all. so i pulled the hdd out of the laptop and there's been a change. the the hp logo stilll comes up and then it goe to the same black screen but that now happens almost instantly, wheras before that was taking a couple of minutes. so am i right in thinking that it is a hd problem??

any ideas what i should do next??

ttm

You need to boot to something, so an XP or Vista CD is as good as any. Leave the HDD out and you should be able to at least boot off an OS CD and get an error saying no HDD found (or something similar). If you can get that far next stop is a new or S/H HDD.

fatgav

So I tried with the recovery discs. Now I should point out that these aren't the ones that came with my laptop, which may the reason behind what I'm about to say. It ran both with and without the HDD inside. The message I got was 'this pc will not work with the system reco very discs. you will not be able to continue to recover this system with these discs.' i guess my next move should be find the cd's that came with my own one but i said i'd post this anyways...

Capt'n Midnight

Yes you need branded disks or generic retail ones to boot.

or a linux live cd

is the machine making any strange clicking or clunking noises ?
if so not good

I'm moving to Laptops as someone there may have a link to a bootable diagnostics disk or how to do in the BIOS

fatgav

thanks for the move.

laptop does not, thankfuly, make any clicking noises, or any noises that seem to be unusual. when the HDD is in it even seems to spin every now and then. right now i'm willing to buy a new HDD and install it, but I don't know if that's the right course of action and I've no idea how to install an OS on it (i've no problem going over to Linux).

Supercell

Best bet is to find a bootable cd, any bootable cd, such as for example the Ubuntu Live cd and see if it boots off that.
If it does, your hdd needs swapping out with a new one.

fatgav

do i do that with HDD in or out?

fatgav

so i downloaded ubuntu... it's been in the laptop for over half an hour now - i tried loading off the cd - and no luck. it's the exact problem as i posted in the original post...

KatCookie

my Windows 98 computer has started doing the exact same thing!
(yeah, i know, why do people still have that peice of junk etc etc)

So i posted on a different webite, and i got a PM from someone telling me that it was an MBR -Master Boot Record Problem.-where this is failing to load or something, (im not too sure, wikipedia wasnt very helpful here) I thought it was the hard drive all along, but this guy says its a different problem

Does this sound possible? i didnt even know what an MBR is, but i'll post up some info he gave me if someone else agrees that this could be the problem!

Supercell

fatgav wrote: »

so i downloaded ubuntu... it's been in the laptop for over half an hour now - i tried loading off the cd - and no luck. it's the exact problem as i posted in the original post...

Have you checked the boot order in your bios (often f2 on startup), ie that cd rom is currently set higher than the hdd?

fatgav

i was doing it by pressing esc i think and going into the multi-boot order thing but i'll change that and do it your way later on. thanks supercell

Capt'n Midnight

pressing F12 on many laptops will give you a boot menu

fatgav

i went into the bios to put the cd drive ahead of the hdd in start-up order and it was already there. put it first but still no change.

KatCookie

So is my previous post definitely not going to help? (1st Page) i hear its common enough with Vista users..

Ghost Train

KatCookie wrote: »

So is my previous post definitely not going to help? (1st Page) i hear its common enough with Vista users..

could be the mbr... but could also be other stuff. On a windows 98 machine the hard disk has probably just as likely failed as the mbr getting messed up

repairing xp or vista booting will be a bit different to repairing 98

you could download the ultimate boot cd http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ , burn with iso writer and run some of the hard disk tools on it to see if it detects a problem with the disk if not then maybe try use some of the tools to repair the mbr

might be time to upgrade though, 98 isn't the best, could try run linux if you cant repair 98

97i9y3941

some laptops come with the recovery discs preinstalled on them,i.e they are linked to shortcut to the desktop in which you then burn them onto cd/dvd for safe keeping,have you pressed F8/F12 for safe mode in vista,even to get it for diagnostic?

you should try tapping the ctrl key when starting win98,might give you an option to start safe mode aswell,might be able to run a file check,by going into system file check in accesories,it will then check windows for any corrupt files,then ask for the windows cd

win 98 guide-
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188867

Guide to vista start up repair
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/5c59f8c1-b0d1-4f1a-af55-74f3922f3f351033.mspx

fatgav

i've tried pressing F8 but no luck. Windows just will not load on my machine.

fatgav

i don't have a system recovery disk. none came with laptop. is it worth ordering one from best2serve.com?? that's what's recommended on the HP website... is there a cheaper option?

ttm

Try ebay they sometimes have them.

Capt'n Midnight

ring HP, all you are looking for is media , you already have a license if you have a COA with the serial on the laptop

about 1% of hard drives fail every year, you won't be the first have been painted into the corner this way so HP tech support should be well used to it

KatCookie

Pity Dell or Microsoft couldnt sort me out, (ok, i didnt try, but they dont fix 10 yr old computers anyways)
Im kinda stuck, as I am missing original CD's cant write new CDs with this laptop, as its broken, so cant install Linux as someone suggested,
The computer wont go into Safe Mode and BIOS doesnt seem to work for me either
ive been looking for a new old one on adverts.ie in the mean time

Capt'n Midnight

KatCookie wrote: »

Pity Dell or Microsoft couldnt sort me out, (ok, i didnt try, but they dont fix 10 yr old computers anyways)
Im kinda stuck, as I am missing original CD's cant write new CDs with this laptop, as its broken, so cant install Linux as someone suggested,
The computer wont go into Safe Mode and BIOS doesnt seem to work for me either
ive been looking for a new old one on adverts.ie in the mean time

This thread should be split /

10 year laptop old won't run the more recent versions of linux you'd want at least 256MB
5 year old laptop with 512MB and yer laughing

Not getting into BIOS is a major problem.
it's F1 / F2 / Del depending on the age / model of Dell laptop (give us a hint )
if the HDD is dead it might take a few minutes to time out, but for older laptops you can download a dell diagnostic floppy disk or CD to test the hardware

you've said it does the same, but what exactly does it do ?
which lights are on , do you get text ?
does it say "missing operating system" or does it have a cursor _ flashing in the top left corner