Trouble loading the BIOS

Since a few weeks my wife's one laptop (an HP from 2007) shows a strange behavior. There are 2 different problems:

1. When I start the laptop, it remains on a black screen for a while and then it shuts off and automatically restarts only to show the same black screen. After a few power-on attempts with the same behavior it sometimes starts the BIOS and loads Windows normally - but sometimes it does not and we try again after a few hours when it may or may not work.

2. The other problem is when the laptop operates normally - e.g. looking at mail. Out of the blue the screen picture disappears and the screen shows only pixels. The screen picture never comes back and we have to shut the laptop down to go into the routine as described in point #1. When Windows comes on, the screen works normally and it may work so for hours.

In view of the age of the laptop (over 6 years old) I was first suspecting the Cmos battery since those wear out in about that timeframe. But the second problem made me suspicious because it is hard to explain it with a weak battery.

Before I take the laptop apart, I was wondering whether anybody would have experience with similar problems and can give me some tips of where the problem might be.

Hey Wolfgang,

A few suggestions / ideas if I may. :)

1. Unplug the power, remove the battery and then hold the power button for 30 to 60 seconds.
This will drain any residual power and will clear your RAM, a bit like a hardware reset.
Then plug the power back in and boot. Then shutdown, put the battery back in.

2. Also have you tried an external monitor to see if the problem still exists?
If the problem is still present through an external monitor, then it will most likely
be on-board Video card, memory issues or possible overheating, and could also possibly be your video
driver needs updating, or a power supply fault.

3. If the problem is not showing with an external monitor and your screen appears fine,
then you need to check the inverter, backlight, screen connector loose either at
the motherboard or in the lid itself etc.

Hope this helps somewhat.

cheers

Dave

Thanks Dave. Those are good suggestions - I will try all that. Fortunately I have an extra external monitor. Unfortunately the screen pixalation appears rarely and very randomly. But the on-board graphic could very well be the culprit. Maybe the BIOS problem is caused by it too and the BIOS device check stops the loading process because something is not working correctly with the graphics.