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I am a tech at a college and I had an instructor bring me one of our HP laptops because it will not boot. I turn the laptop on and it starts and freezes at the HP start up screen. I have tried to boot into Safe Mode, but it will not do that or from CD.

I have never come across this before. Does anyone have an idea on how to fix this problem? I need some help ASAP so I can fix the issue and close my ticket as soon as I can. Thanks.

Bruce Epper
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2013-03-28 08:53:51
Immediately upon display of the HP startup screen, press ESC to revert to the text mode display and check for any error messages. They are commonly hidden from view and will generally show exactly what is wrong (failing POST). You can also try to reset the BIOS settings to their defaults or a safe configuration. The function keys you need to press for these actions are normally displayed during text-mode bootup.
Donald Schultz
2013-03-28 13:24:44
I cannot get into anything none of the F keys work. After checking it over I did figure it out, it was the HD. I switch out the HD with a known good one and it boot up with no problem. I find it strange because I didn't get an error of "no os found" or anything along that line. Thanks for the help.
Chadi El Haj
2013-03-28 06:29:39
The following are some of the causes due to which HP laptop stops booting:Due to incompatible memoryBattery problemDisplay problemDue to incompatible memoryWhen you have installed a memory module which is incompatible with your HP Laptop, then sometimes you might experience certain booting issues in your PC. In such a situation the light of your Laptop will be turned on but actually it does not boot. You could resolve this issue easily by inserting a RAM of same capacity instead of a single RAM of high capacity.Battery problemIf the battery of the HP laptop is not in a good condition, sometimes booting problems might happen. To remove any static charges accumulated in the battery, you would have to remove the battery and press the Power button for about 25-35 seconds. Then reset the battery. Even after this, if your laptop is not booting up then you could perform the battery calibration and press F8 key to boot in safe mode.Display problemSometimes your HP laptop might fail to boot due to the presence of corrupted display drivers. Your HP laptop would display blank screen due to the presence of corrupted display drivers. In order to resolve this issue, you would have to update or reinstall the display drivers. For the latest version of display drivers, you could make use of the manufacture’s website.
ha14
2013-03-27 22:10:07
have you tried to reset cmos battery, also remove ram and clean them, plus check connectivity inside the laptop.