Windows 7: Laptop starts up to black screen, won't boot until hours of charging

First, I want to thank you everyone involved with this site. I've been recommended here by my brother who had some really great results after being helped himself.

My problem is that when I start my laptop, it sounds like it's about to boot up, but the screen remains black. The CAPS Lock blinks the Wifi LED light comes one, and my laptop heats up, but other than that it does nothing else. I've tried a hard reset, I've tried removing the battery and using the adapter power online, but it still wouldn't come on.

So, I did some searching and I found a solution where the poster said he let the laptop charge for a few moments powered on, and I tried it and sure enough my laptop came back on. I thought that my problem was finally fixed, but the next day, I had to again wait about 45 minutes to an hour while it charged still powered on, in order to get it to boot up.

I heard someone say that the motherboard had to be a certain temperature before it could come on but I really don't know if that's the case. This all started after I closed the lid of my laptop and left it there for a while, and when I came back and tried to wake it out of sleep mode, it wouldn't wake it out of the black screen.

I updated all of my drivers, I've scanned for problems, nothing showed up. I tried to run a diagnostic test through HP but errors kept showing up. Everything else seems fine, except that it does tend to freeze up out of nowhere, sometimes when I leave it alone for a few moments, and sometimes while I'm typing.


I tried to give as much detail as possible, but if there's anything else you need to know, please let me know. I just don't want this hourly waiting period routine to be an everyday thing. Thanks so much!

Hello and welcome ncm mate take the battery out it is sort of telling me it (battery) is dead and taking all of the adaptor's power until it is charged then the power becomes available to the machine proper. Some system spec please also helps so much .
Speccy will find these for you Speccy - Download > from piriform.

So to recap take out the battery and see what happens if the machine fire up then you need a new battery or just run it on mains power.

Is this the original HP factory preinstalled Win7? If so it's hard to say for sure its hardware until you have done a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 since HP has the worst load of factory crapware and duplicate conflicting utilities in the industry.

You can try first establishing a Clean Boot to turn off some of the crap to see if that helps. If you're not ready to get the superior reinstall then you can also Clean Up Factory Bloatware.

If this persists you might want to take it to the Geek Squad or a shop to have them plug in their universal charger as this can solve problems and point directly to your charger for replacement. I have had to do this several times, finding good quality replacement chargers via Google search on eBay for half the retail price. Just be sure to match them exactly.

I agree Greg HP and Toshiba are particularly bad but I am wondering if removing that battery helped. I reckon it is dead or just a dud.

Thanks for the replies.

I took out the battery and the same thing happened. I had my original battery replaced, and the problem still occurs. It doesn't matter if I leave the battery in or take it out, my laptop still only comes on after charging for a couple hours.

Yes, it has the originally installed Windows 7 and I really don't want to re-install it just yet. I may just have to end up getting a new notebook all together.

I downloaded Speccy, but I'm not sure which system specs you need to see. Also, what is the average temperature of a healthy motherboard, and does that even matter?

And thanks for the link to establishing a Clean Boot. I'll will go through the list, try some things and come back with the results.

Much appreciated, guys

Specs NCM I mean the temps and some of the branding and hardware in a laptop mate the temps are quite important in that they are inherently higher in these than a desktop because of the cramped conditions inside and the lack of available air intakes so to speak.

Lets see particularly the CPU and motherboard temps and the model would be handy. You mentioned getting new one so just how old is this machine?

Model
Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
Model: Hp G42 Notebook PC
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II P34
Dual-Core Processor 2.20
GHz

Windows Edition:
Windows 7 Home Premium
Service Pack 1

CPU
AMD K10 54 °C
45nm Technology

Motherboard
Hewlett-Packard 1444 (Socket S1G4) 53 °C


Hopefully, I won't have to get a new laptop and actually my current one is only about three years old. Then again, I don't know how long notebooks last before they start getting worn out. Especially since I made the crucial mistake of sitting mine on a clothed surface instead of a hard surface during the first few months. I had no idea about overheating issues until I did some research about why a laptop would suddenly start getting so hot.

Do you think an overheating issue could be the problem? I initially thought it had something to do with sleep mode since that's how this whole thing happened.

Overheating could have affected the battery, charger or other hardware to cause this problem but the only way you'll know for sure it's hardware is to find a problem with Win7, run HP System Recovery choosing Minimal Recovery if it's available, or do the superior Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which is the best install of all.

I have given you plenty of suggestions to work on so you only need to ask back if you have any questions to get them done.

One other thing you can do is to boot into System Recovery Options to run Startup Repair a few times to see if it finds anything with the boot that could be causing this.

If not then when I would do is reintsall following the steps closely to get a perfect install, deleting all partitions during the process so you have the cleanest slate. Make your HP Recovery disks first so you have them in case you ever want to return to the bloated factory install.

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Maybe the problem is with the power adapter?

I suggested earlier she take the laptop to a shop and plug it into their Universal charger to see if the problem persists. Several times I've taken one to the Geek Squad to do this and its proven that's the problem. Then I went home and googled the charger specs to find a replacement for half the retail price on eBay.