diaster on a 2 year old Pavilion p7-1380t

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  1. Posts : 254
    windows 7 Pro 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #11

    Thanks Guys.
    I'm now on the internet. YEA!
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 1,519
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit, Mac OS X 10.10, Linux Mint 17, Windows 10 Pro TP
       #12

    That's great.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 2
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #13

    Solution


    Probably too late if you junked the computer, but I just had the same problem with the same model and here was the fix which I will share for anyone else hitting this thread with the same issue.

    Turn on the computer and immediately press Escape. (If you fail to press escape, the screen remains black as described in the OP). Escape will bring up an option menu. One of the options is diagnostics. For me, diagnostics revealed a failing hard drive. I removed the hard drive, checked it on a diagnostic computer and found it had bad sectors but was readable. I cloned the drive to a new drive then ran chkdsk to repair the file system, and put it back in the computer.

    The computer exhibited the same black screen phenomenon, so I inserted a Windows disk, restarted, pressed Escape, and change boot settings to boot to the Windows disk. From there I went to Repair Windows, opened a command prompt, and repaired the boot record (bootrec /fixboot and bootrec /fixmbr).

    Restart and all is back to normal.

    As an aside, I would agree that this design by HP is stupid because showing nothing but a black screen is a bad idea. If there is a UEFI boot failure, it should automatically go to the options menu and wait there for input. Further, the BIOS options on this computer are weak at best, making it much more difficult than necessary to assess and repair the computer.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 254
    windows 7 Pro 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #14

    Glad you got the piece of junk working. HP will NEVER see me again or Dell for that matter.
    My latest computer was constructed to my specs and is working fine.
    Try that with a Dell and you will fail.
    Curious how you managed to figure all that out. I work for days trying to solve the problem
    and failed.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 2
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #15

    Equal parts experience and luck. I do this for a living so I've waded through thousands of failed computers. In this case I pre-diagnosed it as a likely drive failure resulting in boot corruption. Had I not gotten the computer into the diagnostic mode to verify that, I still would have pulled the hard drive and tested it externally anyway. The chances of both the drive and the motherboard failing at the same time are very small, so once the hard drive failure was confirmed I went with the assumption the computer itself was fine but simply was stupid about how it handled bootup. From there, it's just a matter of figuring out which key to press to get into boot options and then doing normal repairs.

    I'm no big fan of HP and I already criticized their stupid approach to startup and BIOS on this computer. That said, there was nothing wrong with HP's hardware in this case. The failed drive was a Western Digital Blue, normally very reliable, and its failure says nothing negative about HP.

    I deploy hundreds of Dells every year, though I focus on the business class models which I find excellent for maintenance and warranty and essentially never a problem. I tend to avoid the cheap retail/ consumer stuff. There is nothing wrong with doing a custom build if you are an enthusiast with specialty needs and willing to deal with the downsides of that approach. On the other hand, for the vast majority who view a computer as a tool rather than a goal it's hard to beat the price/power/quality/support combination of a nicely appointed Dell Optiplex with 3 year next business day warranty. I've seen lots of crappy "custom built" computers and customers disappointed to realize each part has its own warranty and the computer as a whole is not warranted at all. Just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

    In any case, if you haven't literally junked the computer, you might still be able to repair it based on my info and then turn around and sell it.
      My Computer

  6.    #16

    There wasn't even the slightest effort made here to troubleshoot the original problem. The OP jumped from making his complaint right past a dozen steps I gave to "junking" the PC which would have been fixed had he made the effort. We deal with the same or worse problems here every day and every single one is fixed who actually work with us to fix the problem. This one stands out as being especially lazy as no visible effort was made at all.

    Remember also with HP's the preinstalled Win7 is the worst mess in the industry choked with bloatware and duplicate utilities that interfere with better versions built into the OS, so that the owner never even experiences true Win7 until they have done a Clean Reinstall Windows 7 or at least done a significant Clean Up Factory Bloatware. OP could have ended up with a PC much better than new or custom built, as have over a million we've helped do this without a single complaint.
      My Computer


 
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