help pc hangs at hp screen

[dsawan 624]

Hi, guys. Sorry to post here but I was playing sf2 the previous day. Today, suddenly, the pc hangs at the hp logo screen and stays there without going to Vista. It is doing it constantly. I tried unplugging and replugging the wires back in and no go. tried rebooting and nothing. have done this between 10-20 times. Also, the keyboard is unrsponsive. The light does not come on and you cant get into bios via f10 key. However, the keyboard does work as I am writing this on another pc. Could it be my Hard drive going? Any help appreciated. thx.

[dsawan 624]

This is what I am getting. see link below:

 

http://img106.imageshack.us/i/whyvistaff0.jpg/

 

I also, tried to disconnect the cable to the card reader as described in this post here but no good.

 

http://www.fixya.com/support/t1664352-hp_pavillion_freezes_up_hp_invent_splash

 

Only thing I did this past week was install silent hunter 2 and rollback my nvidia drivers to the prev ones but it was working fine after that rollback.

 

 

 

pc specs:

HP core 2 duo 2.4 ghz,2.4

nvidia geforce 8300gs

2gb ram

320gb hard drive and exyernal drive for 1tb

windows vista 32 bit

[Fubar512 1,350]

You did not give us much to work with, other than mentioning that it's an HP. Is it a notebook? A desktop?

 

When a PC's first powered up, it goes through the POST cycle (Power On Self-Test).

 

First, the CPU initializes, and looks to the system's ROM BIOS for instructions which are stored in CMOS. These instructions direct it to find a video adapter, set bus clock speeds, and then check for installed RAM. Then it queries other harware addresss, such as the keyboard controller, drive adapters, ports, etc.

 

Normally this activity is displayed on the monitor during the POST and boot cycles, but some PC manufacturers (HP,Dell,Acer, etc) hide this behind a splash screen....dumb idea, as now one doesn't really know at which point in the cycle the unit is hanging up at.

 

If I were to take a guess, I'd say try reseating your system's RAM modules and and add on cards (Video, Sound, etc.)

[dsawan 624]

Hi, you mean the memory cards on the motherboard, just take out and put back in. i did not see anything loose in the motherboard. this was very sudden that it happened. yes it is a desktop hp pavilion with notherboard a6244n. Iam suspecting the hard drive but ZI do not hear any noises indicating it is dying and cant use a disk integrity checker as the keyboard does not respond, unless you know of one that starts when inserted. I used to have one on floppy disk years ago but cant remeber the program let alone if there is one to burn to cd-ro and make it start.

Edited January 1, 2011 by dsawan

[Fubar512 1,350]

Hi, you mean the memory cards on the motherboard, just take out and put back in. i did not see anything loose in the motherboard. this was very sudden that it happened. yes it is a desktop hp pavilion with notherboard a6244n.

 

 

Actually, that model HP sports an ASUS P5LP-LE motherboard:

 

http://www.esaitech.com/cgi-bin/showimg.pl?url=/objects/catalog/product/image/img476921.jpg

[dsawan 624]

ok. but thi seems to be a common issue for hp pcs's. I am hoping its not a hard drive failing as some mods have yet to be backed up to my external drive or dvd's

Edited January 1, 2011 by dsawan

[dsawan 624]

just an update. i tried taking out the battery to motherboard and put back in and disconnected the external cables leading to hard drive and put back in. reseated the RAM. I did not see a light on the motherboard though but the fan and PS light work. The pc is making a beeping noise though and cant get it to stop. Any ideas? I left the cover off and tried connecting the cables back on and it still gives an internal beep. Any help apprec. Forgive as i normally dont fool around with the insides of the pc.

[Fubar512 1,350]

Check the RAM modules again. It sounds like they are not properly seated.

[JediMaster 451]

HP's site should have the beep codes/error codes for your model to tell you exactly what you're hearing.

Another trick is to disconnect everything that's not needed to boot just to see what happens...ie disconnect mouse, KB, HDD, all of that, just leave mobo w/RAM and CPU, video card, and monitor. You should go from the main splash screen to a screen with an error about how it cant boot. If it doesn't do that and keeps beeping, you know the problem is either the CPU, RAM, mobo, or PSU (it could be giving out insufficient power).

[Fubar512 1,350]

HP's site should have the beep codes/error codes for your model to tell you exactly what you're hearing.

If it doesn't do that and keeps beeping, you know the problem is either the CPU, RAM, mobo, or PSU (it could be giving out insufficient power).

 

If it was the CPU, he would not even get as far as the splash screen, JM. Remember the POST cycle: CPU, Video, RAM, etc.

 

The beep sequence for HPs since 2001 is:

 

1 Long Beep: Memory problem

 

1 Long, then 2 Short Beeps: Video error

 

1 Long, then 3 Short Beeps: Video error

[JediMaster 451]

If it's dead, no. If it's overheating due to faulty fan/HS it may.

[Fubar512 1,350]

If it's dead, no. If it's overheating due to faulty fan/HS it may.

 

look at the specs, JM. That processor will NOT overheat, even if one were to remove its heatsink.

[JediMaster 451]

You don't think a C2D @ 2.4 GHz will overheat without a heatsink working properly?

 

The one in my laptop sure spits out a lot of heat.

 

 

[Fubar512 1,350]

You don't think a C2D @ 2.4 GHz will overheat without a heatsink working properly?

 

The one in my laptop sure spits out a lot of heat.

 

In a word, no.

 

Intel CPUs have had thermal protection (throttling) in hardware, since 2000. Besides, the CPU could not overheat until it started loading the OS.

 

Here's a video of one running in windows (albeit at 1.2 GHZ), sans any cooling at all: