HP laptop refuses to boot

[NuclearFusi0n]

2 weeks ago I started getting BSOD on boot, whatever, I reformated to a fresh install of XP, this time with SP2. worked fine for a few days till the exact same BSOD on boot popped up. Safe mode worked, so I hopped into safe mode and uninstalled the modem drivers I had installed a few days prior. System booted again, worked for a week, and is now BSODing on boot AGAIN, and this time there are no modem drivers to uninstall. Safe mode works fine. I have no idea what to do, any ideas? :thumbsdown:

 

[Unforgiven]

possibly some bad ram going on or a hard drive failing. try running memtest to make sure your ram is ok.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

Ran memtest last week overnight and a "surface scan" in Windows last week, nothing.

 

[Stonewall1959]

I'm having a very similar problem, black screen of death on startup. Unless you're able to take your laptop apart and work on it yourself, send it in for repair. This is more than likely a hardware problem and will need some new parts. This is the third time I've had problems like this and every time it has been a piece of hardware failing. First time was a power supply going bad due to a dead fan. Second time was a bad Crucial memory chip. Now it seems that I've got a motherboard problem.

Every time, I've tried all the usual software fixes, but in the end wound up buying parts (which turned out to be a good thing in that my computer is much faster and more up-to-date than it would have been had everything gone ok to start with).

Anyway, good luck to you.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: NuclearFusi0n
2 weeks ago I started getting BSOD on boot, whatever, I reformated to a fresh install of XP, this time with SP2. worked fine for a few days till the exact same BSOD on boot popped up. Safe mode worked, so I hopped into safe mode and uninstalled the modem drivers I had installed a few days prior. System booted again, worked for a week, and is now BSODing on boot AGAIN, and this time there are no modem drivers to uninstall. Safe mode works fine. I have no idea what to do, any ideas? :thumbsdown:

If safe mode works, chances are you have a problem with a driver in the system. GO into MSCONFIG and disable all non-Microsoft services and startup programs. Does the system still BSOD?

If so, boot up in safe mode, and uninstall all drivers you've added. Reboot. Add them back one by one until you find a problem.

If safe mode works and normal mode doesn't, I wouldn't even bother with testing hardware - the only differences between safe mode and normal mode are some device drivers not required for booting and system services / startup items. Now if a driver hits hardware, and that hardware is bad, that's a different story, but your RAM and HDD get hit in safe and normal mode...

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Stonewall1959
I'm having a very similar problem, black screen of death on startup. Unless you're able to take your laptop apart and work on it yourself, send it in for repair. This is more than likely a hardware problem and will need some new parts. This is the third time I've had problems like this and every time it has been a piece of hardware failing. First time was a power supply going bad due to a dead fan. Second time was a bad Crucial memory chip. Now it seems that I've got a motherboard problem.

Every time, I've tried all the usual software fixes, but in the end wound up buying parts (which turned out to be a good thing in that my computer is much faster and more up-to-date than it would have been had everything gone ok to start with).

Anyway, good luck to you.

I strongly disagree with this. If safe mode works, we know at least the basic hardware on the box is working great. Let's hold off on sending anything back so we can test and narrow down the problem.