Laptop won't boot up, bios screen has vertical lines. I can boot up from iso.

tweeter

My HP Compac laptop won't boot up - it has vertical lines which obscure screen. The bios screen has vertical lines which doesn't totally obscure it, so I can make it out. I can boot up from a linux iso and go on line. My guess is it's the harddrive but would be grateful for any advice before shelling out for a new harddrive.

closed

the bios screen comes on before the hd is touched, so unlikely.

does an external monitor produce vertical lines, does windows boot?

thick or thin vertical lines, and how regular, what colour

are you saying no lines appear under linux?

some compaqs had an overheating problem, which could affect graphics chip

damaged screen, or loose connection around the edges of the screen can produce that sort of effect.

almillar

Almost certainly NOT the hard drive, especially if you can boot all the way into Linux (don't you have Windows?) and go on the net.
As above, screen connections, or maybe more likely, something's gone wrong with connections, solder or chip of the graphics 'card'. What model is it, and in particular do you know what graphics it has (NVidia, ATI (now AMD) or Intel) as some made a few years ago would overheat.
Try, whilst looking at the BIOS screen, giving the laptop a squeeze between the F keys and the screen, the graphics are usually along there somewhere. Try twisting the laptop too if you're brave!

Lum

Cameraphone photo of the screen, while in the BIOS, would be helpful here.

tweeter

Closed, I just tried the monitor and get the same results - close vertical lines. When booting into the bios I still get wide apart vertical lines and I can read/make out the bios through the lines. I can no longer boot up from one of my spare Linux iso's as it doesn't show up on the screen any longer so that rules out the harddrive.

Lum, I don't have a camera phone at the moment but the above bios screen description still obtains.


Almillar, I'm not brave enough to squeeze or twist the screen unless there are single narrow vertical lines there( see video). The laptop is a HP Compaq nx9105. nVIDIA /AMD64 Athlon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Io55FZQUn8


I haven't tried reinstalling the dual boot because of the interference on the bios screen. Also, as of now, booting into a distro is no longer possible as it will no longer show up on the screen anyway, but I can hear the familiar sounds from the cd/dvd player going through the process of doing it. This seems to rule out the harddrive as the cause.

Thanks for everyone's help and hope the above makes sense.

closed

if it happens on an external monitor, it will probably be graphics chip related.

http://www.nvidiadefect.com/

tweeter

Thanks closed. The laptop is about 7 to 8 years old...

closed

it's probably due for replacement then, the motherboards can flex on those models too, try pushing down all over the keyboard area.

tweeter

Closed, have already tried pushing down on the keyboard but to no avail. Thanks for everyone's help.

almillar

tweeter - I didn't say squeeze the screen - I said around the 'F' key area. This is along the lines that closed had posted. Unfortunately it does sound more and more like a dodgy connection around the graphics chip somewhere. If you're going to write this laptop off, it might be worth taking it apart, to the point of actually lifting the motherboard out, and giving it a wee clean. Nothing to lose.
This is the graphics you have:
NVIDIA GeForce4 420 Go or NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go graphics
Which I don't think was part of the models that had overheating problems?

tweeter

Thanks almillar, I'm going to take it apart but I'm strapped for time at the moment. I built my desktop so I feel confident in doing it.