funeral director for laptop?

[fateh]

after many dances my HP 2.53ghz, vista home premium 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, dual core laptop probably died! bought late 2008 in sydney. since yesterday when i start it gives me a black screen but never reaches the user logon page. it makes the noise, gives a black screen and an arrow with the cursor movement. nothing else. should i try to consult a repair shop or look for its funeral director? plz advise

[mpikenax]

since 2008? has been used for 4 years, maybe u need to buy new one dude. :-0

[gnuman]

Have you tried reinstalling Windows? If you get a cursor sounds like faulty Windows. Try a reinstall if it helps but you would need ot backup your data first.

F11 while booting will bring you to the recovery console to reinstall

[willy]

Try to boot up the system with Memtest CD or a "Live CD" ... ie. Ubuntu or something ...

[rageking]

It uses an Nvidia 8xxx video? If so then that could be the culprit.

[fateh]

need ur advice desperately. its not working........!

[0xffff]

need ur advice desperately. its not working........!

You were told to reformat and re-install your OS. Did you do it?

[number8888]

I think reformatting/re-installing the OS should be the last resort. Be careful since you would be wiping out ALL your data.

Try booting into safe mode and see if you can at least get in that way. If so then backup your data ASAP. Have you been updating the drivers and using Windows update?

Do you hear weird noises from anywhere on your laptop. If you hear some sort of clicking then the HDD might have gone bad.

[wilsonlam97]

Admit it guys. OP has a HP. Consider him lucky that it didn't die on the 1st year.

[AstonM]

+1 for it sounding like your windows install has failed. Try safe mode or you may need to reinstall windows entirely.

[Vacillator]

I'm confused. Do you see the post screens or not? In other words, do you get some kind of HP logo and information about the amount of RAM, etc. in the system, and then the screen goes black at the point where it should be booting windows? Or do you see nothing but a black screen and a cursor? If you were to provide the actual model number, I'm sure it would be helpful; somebody already pointed out that some HP laptops contained faulty NVIDIA graphics which are prone to failure. Nobody can help you based on the information provided thus far.

[ah802]

Yes not enough information.... op seems clear there is a cursor; which means graphics are up and some software is alive... as others speculate, it's the O/S and best test for all of this is a Ubuntu live if it has a DVD drive. Booting F8 into safemode would tell us a lot...

+1 on the HP message, had a 6 month old laptop visit the other day, and display is gone already, lucky there is warranty... so I guess it will last another 6 months, perhaps? Builds are just not what they used to be.

[fateh]

it has a recovery drive to re install windows instead of CDs (quiet advanced for 2008!). i am not a techie so asking-
reformatting didnt erase other drives unlike C when i did few months ago. i dont want to lose D, E drive contents. should i format or re install windows then? i would prefer formatting over re installing windows. however if necessary i'll go for that as last resort. plz advise

[mr_raider]

it has a recovery drive to re install windows instead of CDs (quiet advanced for 2008!). i am not a techie so asking-
reformatting didnt erase other drives unlike C when i did few months ago. i dont want to lose D, E drive contents. should i format or re install windows then? i would prefer formatting over re installing windows. however if necessary i'll go for that as last resort. plz advise

4 possibilities:

1. OS boot failure. If that's the case you can repair or re-install. Try booting from a Lnux USB stick, or windows recovery CD.

2. Hard drive failure: remove the drive and try it in your PC or an external enclosure

3. GPU failure, no POST; replace the laptop

4. Motherboard failure, no POST; replace the laptop


Until you eliminate steps 1 and 2, we can't help you.

[number8888]

it has a recovery drive to re install windows instead of CDs (quiet advanced for 2008!). i am not a techie so asking-
reformatting didnt erase other drives unlike C when i did few months ago. i dont want to lose D, E drive contents. should i format or re install windows then? i would prefer formatting over re installing windows. however if necessary i'll go for that as last resort. plz advise

Well if you format the drive it means you also need to reinstall the OS. Can't do one without the other.

Formatting the C drive will not affect your other drives at least.

Before you do this though do the other steps above as once you format a drive you can't go back (strictly speaking).

[fateh]

4 possibilities:

1. OS boot failure. If that's the case you can repair or re-install. Try booting from a Lnux USB stick, or windows recovery CD.

2. Hard drive failure: remove the drive and try it in your PC or an external enclosure

3. GPU failure, no POST; replace the laptop

4. Motherboard failure, no POST; replace the laptop


Until you eliminate steps 1 and 2, we can't help you.

tnx. but remember i am not a techie. can not any of the 1 n 2 of my own. hence will try formatting C first, if fails the re installing from recovery drive.

[Jimbobs]

tnx. but remember i am not a techie. can not any of the 1 n 2 of my own. hence will try formatting C first, if fails the re installing from recovery drive.

If you can't do 1 or 2 on your own, you certainly should not format anything. It's kind of like saying I cant take the top off a boiled egg but I have a hammer and can smash it :)

Find someone knowledgeable to help. It's only a 4 year old machine and should have plenty of life left.

[fateh]

if you can't do 1 or 2 on your own, you certainly should not format anything. It's kind of like saying i cant take the top off a boiled egg but i have a hammer and can smash it :)

find someone knowledgeable to help. It's only a 4 year old machine and should have plenty of life left.
sorry my bad. I can certainly do the number 1. I'll try to boot from recovery drive (d).
Question was should i format or re install from recovery drive?

[0xffff]

sorry my bad. I can certainly do the number 1. I'll try to boot from recovery drive (d).
Question was should i format or re install from recovery drive?

You should backup all your data and then format the entire hard drive.