HP Desktop Startup Screen Frozen- Geek Squad Says Fried Motherboard?

Por2geezguy said:

Since you had an existing drive and it doesn't show up anymore, the drive is probably dead. You can try changing cables and trying a different power connector, but if the drive worked and now no longer works, this likely means the drive has failed. Drives can stop working due to an electrical or mechanical problem. A mechanical problem with the hard drive usually manifests itself in grinding or squeaking noises, random crashes or data loss. Electrical problems can happen instantly, without warning: Such as what you stated in your original post.

To verify its failed, try connecting it to another computer and test the results.


HTH

Thanks, i'll test it out on another computer and see what happens.

If it is the hard drive, is there any way that I can still save the data on it?

-Thanks

I have never tried to recover data from a dead drive. With that said you can search the web for something that may work. For awhile I was employed by a company, Zeinth Infotech, that provided backup disaster recovery for business and the cost for data recovery from a professional souce is pricy. So, professional recovery depends on the value of the data.

HTH

Sounds like the HD is bad since no boot disk was found.

Do a Google search for 'Paragon Rescue' (sorry I don't have time to do it now) and burn the .iso file on a CD. Boot the CD by the key shown on the HP splash screen when you start the computer. If it won't boot it may be the mother board, it it does boot, look for the hard drive, if it is still working you can try copying the files to a USB drive.

Get the ISO download here Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life be sure to get the correct version that matches you COA sticker.

severedsolo said:

As for Windows, no you shouldn't have to. On the side of your machine you should have a sticker with a product key, if you input that into Windows then it will accept it (assuming your machine came with Windows 7 preinstalled). If you have a retail edition of 7 then just use the product key on the box. Just make sure you use the right level of Windows (Home Premium, Ultimate etc.)

Okay so I finally got around to buying a new hard drive. Windows 7 was installed by Best Buy for me when my parents purchased the computer so there is a key code on the side. How do I go about setting everything up once i've installed the new hard drive? If anyone has a link to a tutorial I would appreciate it.

Take a look at this tutorial by gregrocker Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

I would go to the HP support site first and download the drivers for the network card and chipset in case the installation disk does not have them.

I have an hp pavilian and after attempting to configure a bluetooth speaker I did a standard restart. The computer stopped at the blue screen identical to this thread where there are options for setup, boot menu, system recovery, and diagnostics, but every thing is frozen. The only thing that works is the power button and a reboot returns here. Is there any thing to try other than trying to boot to a cd?

You will get more help by starting a new thread about your problem since this thread is quite old.

Meanwhile, when starting the machine, start tapping the F11 key. This should take you to System Recovery. See if you have a System Restore point (date) before you tried installing the blue tooth app.

If you have a System Repair DVD you made as recommended by most W7 users, try tapping the Escape key while restarting.

Hope this helps!