Solved HP laptop won't boot up to window

[illuss]

Hi! two days ago my HP laptop suddenly shut down by itself and now it doesn't boot up to window, just stay at black screen. I only got it for slightly over a year. I thought there could be something wrong with the hard drive so I went into BIOS to test it, but it passed both hard drive and memory test. I went online to do some research then tried any suggestion that I found in different forum, but still no help. When it just power up, I also tried F11 for system recovery option but nothing came up for me to do anything. Would someone please help! I'm moving out soon so I need my laptop!

I'm using HP Pavillon dm4-1165dx Entertainment NoteBook
Thanks in advance.

 

[whs]

It sounds like your bootmgr went AWOL. You can use the bootable CD of Partition Wizard (last entry on this webpage) to see what is going on. See whether you have an active 100MB partition. If not, check whether any other partition is marked as active. And whilst you are at it, fix the MBR on the HDD.

See how far you get and report back.

Note: The active partition contains the bootmgr

 

[gregrocker]

Once you confirm Win7 or its boot partition are marked Active using PW CD, click on the Win7 HD to highlight it and select Rebuild MBR, Apply, reboot. This may preclude the need to run Repairs.

If not, boot into System Recovery Options to run Startup Repair repeatedly, report back results.

You can copy out your files using Win7 DVD or Repair CD this way: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

 

[illuss]

First, thanks for your replies!
I just did as whs instructed, and see that the only partition that's active is 199MB *.SYSTEM. So should I now set all of partition active before rebuild MBR?

 

[gregrocker]

No you want only the one with the System flag Active.

Now try Rebuild MBR from Disk tab after clicking on HD to highlight it first.

If it fails boot into DVD/Repair CD to run Startup Repair 3 times or until Win7 starts.

 

[illuss]

Thank you very much gregrocker!! and whs too!
I did what you suggested and now it booted to win7!!

 

[gregrocker]

Good work, illuss.

Did Rebuild MBR work by itself, or did you need to run Startup Repairs?

 

[whs]

Good to hear.

 

[illuss]

Rebuild MBR fixed the problem!
I'm really glad I decided to join and get help from this forum instead of HP support forum. So many people are having the same issue as I just did but it seems like in almost every thread I read, HP tech support got them to nowhere.
Thanks again!

 

[whs]

In all fairness - the problem you were having can have many causes. That is why a correct answer is not always easy. We were lucky in your case with the MBR. But it could have been more tedious to find the cause of the problem.

 

[illuss]

I will keep that in mind

 

[gregrocker]

You can mark the thread Solved at top.

 

[Cmt99]

This thread saved me a lot of money and more frustration!!! Thank you guys so much!!!!!

 

[edwardallene]

Your hard drive may have failed. You are in what's called a cyclical reboot and I there is a BSOD (blue screen of death) hiding in there somewhere. Trying booting into safe mode (Press F8 shortly after powering on) If you have an option to "Disable Restart on Failure" choose that option and hit Return. This will cause it to stop at the BSOD and you can make note of the error message. Sometimes, I see this to a corrupted OS.

 

[mamamiaman]

Alternative method

I tried to do what whs and gregrocker posted, but the MBR repair tool in Partition Wizard didn't fix my problem. After doing more research, I found this video that fixes the MBR through the Windows Repair Disk using the Command Prompt. All you got to do is write two commands:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot

Here is the video:
How to repair the MBR (Master Boot Record) - YouTube

 

[gregrocker]

Those commands are automated in Win7 Startup Repair
which is always recommended after confirming Partition Marked Active.

The PW Rebuild MBR command has limited effectiveness and is only one step offered among many which can help with Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start.