Laptop Blank Screen

spud17

I'm trying to help the boss's son with his HP Pavilion 6095ea laptop.

His problems started with an error message about a corrupt file and XP wouldn't start.

Over a few days he kept trying and ended up with error beeps, 1 long/2short, and a blank screen.

Yesterday he brought it around, but Virgin Media was down in this area, so I couldn't check the error beeps.

I refitted the 2x1gb memory, and it booted to the HP welcome screen and a message that the file hal.dll was damaged or corrupt.

I then booted using Puppy Linux to try to retrieve a few photos, but it said it couldn't access the Hard Drive because it was in Hibernation.

We then decided to revert to factory settings, luckily I'd downloaded the manual Friday evening.

But on rebooting it has now reverted to a blank screen and the error beeps are back.

This morning, BB is back on, and I've found that the beeps probably mean the graphics card needs reseating.

From the specification, I think the graphics are integrated because I can see no mention of a seperate graphics card.

Sorry about the long post but I wanted to get all the information on the page.

Any sensible suggestions about what to do next would be very helpful.

clark.ar

ello there!

how old is the laptop?? is it still under warranty?

if it is, phone HP : http://welcome.hp.com/gms/uk/en/sz6/contact/phone_assist.html
you will need to give them the serial number underneath the laptop

there could be a known issue on this model, they will talk you through the diagnostics that are availible in the bios..

you should be able to access the bios by pressing f2 on the POST screen. from here, there should be a menu pointing towards the HDD self test or the Memory test... best to run these before you call, as its probably the 1st thing they will ask you to do.

unfortunately, my 1st thoughts point towards there being something failing on the board, such as the graphics.. its very very likely to be integrated graphics on this laptop.

i had the very same issue on a fairly new HP 6710b i was fixing last week.. its currently on its way back to the factory in poland!! :rolleyes:

if it out of warrantly... let me know :mad:

good luck!

spud17

It's about 2 years old.

But on rebooting it has now reverted to a blank screen and the error beeps are back

The screen is blank, no HP welcome, no POST, nothing.
It's strange that it worked for a while after I reseated the memory.
While it was working I tried the BIOS, but it has a password, my friend says that he has never put a password on it.
However after Googling, I saw a suggestion that HP password the BIOS.
If you push Esc on the HP welcome page you get a menu with a choice of booting from the HD or DVD drive.

clark.ar

right ok.. 2 years. sounds like its out of warranty then.

the hp welcome screen you are getting, you've mentioned that if you press Esc, you get a boot option menu... try F2 or F8 or F11/12 for other menus... F2 should get you into the bios, pity its password protected it.. the diagnostics within it are quite useful
i'd doubt HP would have shipped it like this thou.. F8 should get you into the XP safe mode options, if you are lucky.. worth a shot

if you're getting the hp welcome screen or the boot selection menu, then the integrated graphics is still functioning and it might just be that the xp installation has corrupted and messed up the graphics driver , hence the hal.dll error

if you are keen on saving all the data, you should be able to remove the hard disk and attach it to one of these - http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=48965&doy=search

or try booting from a XP cd and installing windows on top of your current installation.. do you have any XP cds or backup media???

if none of this works, you need to format and reinstall and take it from there..

i hope your boss is slipping you a few quid for this

spud17

All your suggestions are good but, I repeat,

The screen is blank, no HP welcome, no POST, nothing.

I did briefly get the Hp screen after reseating the memory, but that didn't last.

Google is showing lots of problems relating to the wireless and the Nvidia 7200 graphics, but I don't know if this is an excesive number.

Will keep looking but suspect it's terminal.

spud17

Update.
While trawling around, I found a post by someone with the same problem.
He'd discovered that if he turned it on, get error beeps, leave for 20 minutes then a quick off/on he could get it to boot.

Tried it.
At second attempt, it worked.
BIOS was not password protected and I ran the HD diagnostics, passed all tests.

I've tried recovery console but it only shows E:
I think E: is the Quick Play facility on this entertainment laptop.It is 1gb.

Have booted from Linux and am trying to find his compromising photos and !!!!!! stash.
Also no sign of a recovery partition.