HP Compaq 6715s freezing on boot

[littlechef]

Hi guys I have an HP Compaq 6715s that powers on but then locks on the boot screen ( it shows ' the HP logo' press f9 = Boot menu, F10 = Rom based Setup, F12 = Network Service Boot ) none of the afore mentioned keys work and it just hangs there. So far Ive tried swapping the memory, doing a hard reset, reseting the bios.
The hard drive seems fine connected to another machine. Now I'm at a loss, any ideas as to where the problem might be??
glenn

 

[goombawaho]

With the hard drive pulled out of the system, will it boot to the point where it says "operating system not found"?

Will it boot up to a CD with the hard drive pulled?

If, with the hard drive already pulled, you pull all the memory out, does it give a beep code?? It should or the mobo may be fried.

 

[zelgar]

Reseat all of expansion cards (e.g. video cards)

Try booting up with the Repair CD. If you don't have one, you should be able to get one via Microsoft's web site.

You might also try downloading Ubuntu and making a CD/DVD (the latest version needs a DVD) and see if it boots up without any errors.

I just had my home computer freeze up this past week. It ended up that one of the other HD on my system was causing some problems. What I ended up having to do is to get the Ubuntu DVD and was getting errors. After starting to unplug all of my HD, I didn't get any errors, then it was a process of elimination to find out which one was causing the problem.

 

[cdogg]

If, with the hard drive already pulled, you pull all the memory out, does it give a beep code?? It should or the mobo may be fried.

That is not necessarily true. Many HP business notebook models (especially the 6715) do not beep when you pull the memory. As a matter of fact, they just hang with LED lights showing above the keyboard. You won't hear anything or see anything on the screen. Why did HP design it that way, who knows?


littlechef,

So if you hit F10 you can get into the BIOS? If so, then perhaps you can try a firmware update (on another computer create a CD that contains the firmware update following instructions from HP's web site. In order to use it, you may have to change the "Storage Options" from SATA to IDE in the BIOS).

Also, if F10 works then maybe F9 (Boot Menu) does too. Try using F9 and select the hard drive. If that doesn't work, try it again selecting the optical drive and attempt to boot from a Windows disc.

-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[littlechef]

Hi guys, thanks for all the replys, firstly I've tried most of the above ( sorry should have mentioned this) the hard drive is good, reads/writes ok and the drive structure etc shows as being fine.
I usually use Ultimate boot cd for windows ( a great utility) for booting externally to the operating system to check and even that doesnt work here ( tbh, although it sounds like the cd rom is being read it doesnt load the disk, which I know works ok)
pressing F19, F10 etc again has no effect, the system just sits there showing the basic HP boot screen.
So I'm a little puzzled !

 

[rclarke250]

I agree with Goom, sounds like the board is toast.

 

[cdogg]

Yes, that's about all it can be at this point.

-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[DrB0b]

If you are not 100% ready to trash this system yet, here is one more thing I would try if I was in your shoes:

Complete disassemble and try powering on with only the base components out of the shell. If you are comfortable disassembling your laptop, this should be fairly easy to do and will eliminate most of the possible causes, including shorts from internal(ish) components. Basically remove the motherboard w/processor and heatsink, remove any sub board like the optical one, and place the board on a static free environment. With just the naked board/processor/heatsink, attach an external monitor, add one stick of RAM, and plug in the AC adapter. Power on. Does it make it to the "OS not found" as said above? If so plug in the Hard Drive and see if it boots. If so, its a component problem like touchpad, keyboard, optical.......

Granted this all takes some doing and some time but I would at least like to know if it was 100% the board before I paperweighted it if it were mine.....

"You don't know what you got, till its gone..
80's hair band Cinderella or ode to data backups???

 

[littlechef]

Thanks DrBob, i had intended to strip it tbh and check out what I could myself, just covering all bases before I dived into the bugger ! lol I appreciate the feedback though, many thanks to you all.
glenn