Problems with a HP lap top

[snagel]

I am having problems with a HP Laptop computer that my son owns. He was playing a computer game NES when all of a sudden the game froze. The audio started a stuttering sound. uh uh uh uh uh uh.......... He could then not shut the computer down by the normal means Start, Shutdown, logoff or Restart.

The only option was to hold the power button down and hold it and wait for the power to shut off.

Now the laptop will not restart. Nothing but a black screen. It sounds like something is running inside of the laptop but absolutely nothing but a black screen.

I am unable to get it to the point of seeing the splash screen so I can press F5 to put it into the the safe Mode.

Your help and ideas would be greatly appreciated.

snagel

[MilesAhead]

If you have recovery or install disc try booting from it. It sure sounds like the boot info on the HD is trashed. You'll have a better idea if you can boot something from the CD.

Here's a good resource for HP problems:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Home.jsp?lang=en&cc=US&refresh=true

It's users not HP support. But it's the "business" forum so you tend to get people who have used HP stuff for quite awhile.

Post back and let us know if it will boot any OS, if you have XP discs or whatnot.

edit: another possibility is you could have the CMOS settings scrambled. If it doesn't give any indication of booting or any way to do so, check that HP forum for the procedure to reset default BIOS(and if that's what to do on that model) before going ahead. Seems like more and more the default settings don't run the HD anymore with RAID and other gizmos.. so make sure before taking action.

[pfloyd]

If you cant get to the splash screen, then it sounds like something major. Check to see if the memory come loose. Also, remove battery and reinstall it.
Something on the MB may have fried or come loose.

[doctorhardware]

I would pull out the battery and disconnect the ac adapter, and leave the battery out for like 5 minutes. Reinstall the battery and see if the laptop powers up normally. If not try booting off of the recovery disks. If that does not work it may have dumped the motherboard or may be the display.

[doctorhardware]

snagel, did you get your son's laptop running?

[snagel]

re: Doctorhardware

snagel, did you get your son's laptop running?

No, at this point I did not!. He took it to a guy who was supposed to have run his own computer repair a few years back. He said that the mother board was gone! Dead in the water!

So right now we're still checking.

[doctorhardware]

Thanks for the update. My Acer was acting up. The mouse would freeze and the keyboard would also not work. I plugged in a use mouse it worked. Then it started dong the same thing again but not as bad. So the next thing I tried was to not use the battery and use the ac adapter only. Since I did that it is working fine. One thing are you getting and led's that are on, on the laptop. If not there could be a problem with the ac adapter or the dc jack on the laptop system board.