really slow boot up Pre BIOS Flash

My parents asked me to take a look at their laptop (HP Pavilion dv7) because it was taking a long time to boot up. When you turn it on it stays at a black screen no flashing white cursor or anything just a black screen for about 5-10 minutes then boots and works like normal. I have no USB devices attached, I have set the BIOS to default settings when that didn't work I flashed the BIOS. next I swapped the hard drive with one I have in my computer room that didn't work, I then tried different ram which also didn't work. I checked the bios again to make sure there were no devices it is trying to boot like a floppy drive or something that isn't there and made sure the HD was first on the boot order. I have also checked all the drivers to make sure they are up to date. I have done a lot of research online but really haven't found much everyone keeps saying do a restore. but obviously if you swap the HD and the issue is still there it has nothing to do with a restore. Thank you

We need to know where in the startup process the black screen occurs.
There are 3 parts to a Windows PC startup:

• BIOS start - POST and systems check
• Windows - "Starting Windows" (Black background)
• Windows - "Welcome" (Blue background)

I assume the BIOS start is OK, since you can flash the BIOS and change the boot order.


If the start process freezes before or during the "Starting Windows" step then the problem probably has to do with hardware, not the OS (operating System). This part of the Windows startup is where the PC's hardware is initialized and drivers are activated.


If the start process freezes before or during the "Welcome" step then it is probably the OS.


Let us know which it is.