Pavilion laptop Boot quirk

[TLH1310]

My HP Pavilion 5120us laptop that is doing something weird.
When I turn it on in the morning it "can't find" the hard drive. I need to go into the bios and run the hard drive test then reboot for it to start properly. After that it boots fine for the rest of the day. I've heard about Pre-delay but there aren't any options available. Any clues will be very helpful as this is getting annoying.

T. L. Hicks

 

[kiddpete]

How's the battery that supports the bios?

 

[TLH1310]

I think it's ok but don't know for sure, Laptop is less than 1 yr old and didn't open it. Warrantee and the fact I'm not sure about the internals of a laptop.

T. L. Hicks

 

[wolluf]

Have you checked the driveis connected properly?
Might be worth running drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility (should be on their website), in case drive is going bad.
Or it may be some other component - eg, on the mobo is not functioning properly.
btw - do you have to go into the bios & run that test? - what I'm getting at is if you just reboot it several times, does it eventually load? - ie, the time in the bios lets it 'warm up' - perhaps allowing some expansion to complete a non-working connction when cold.

 

[TLH1310]

I've removed the hard drive and checked it in my desktop and it ran fine checked it with diagnostics, it came through ok.

I tried the multiple reboot but quit after 5 tries, then ran the test and it started right up. By the way I don't have to finish the test, I can cancel it after a minute and it will reboot.