[SOLVED] BSOD, No BIOS, No Safe Mode, No Nothing

[rosero]

HP Pavilion DV4
Windows 10 Pro

Basically after a touchpad driver update I got a BSOD, total black, I can’t access to the BIOS no matter what keys combination I use, I can’t enter in safe mode, no recovery, I can’t do anything. So far I have tried this:

• Hard reseating several times
• Taking out and cleaning the RAM
• Taking and the motherboard battery
• Taking out hard disk
• Trying another hard disk

If I turn on the laptop without the RAM it beeps, but there are no beeps if I turn it on without the hard drive, but I tried with another brand new hard drive and it’s the same.
The LEDS are working and because of that beep with the RAM I assume the motherboard is not the problem, maybe I’m wrong.
I don’t get any beeps during boot, the fens sound for 1 second, then they stop for another 5 seconds and then they go on non stoping, which makes me thing the POST is not getting done correctly. Also, and maybe is because I’m going crazy, I can’t notice anything in the hard drive that makes me think is working, both hard drives, could it be the cable that connects the hard drive to the mobo? I can’t test the screen connecting to another monitor ‘cause I don’t have one. I’m trying to see if I can solve this by myself before going to a technician who’s gonna rip me off and this is a very bad moment economically speaking. Right now I have the laptop without the mobo battery, RAM and hard drive in attempt to wait for 25 hours and see if the BIOS resets itself. If any of you have any ideas please I would appreciate it. I don’t know much about hardware, a little more about software but like I say, I’m trying to see if I can get this fixed by myself. Thank you for your help.

 

[dwd999]

HP Pavilion DV4
Windows 10 Pro

Basically after a touchpad driver update I got a BSOD, total black, I can’t access to the BIOS no matter what keys combination I use, I can’t enter in safe mode, no recovery, I can’t do anything. So far I have tried this:

• Hard reseating several times
• Taking out and cleaning the RAM
• Taking and the motherboard battery
• Taking out hard disk
• Trying another hard disk

If I turn on the laptop without the RAM it beeps, but there are no beeps if I turn it on without the hard drive, but I tried with another brand new hard drive and it’s the same.
The LEDS are working and because of that beep with the RAM I assume the motherboard is not the problem, maybe I’m wrong.
I don’t get any beeps during boot, the fens sound for 1 second, then they stop for another 5 seconds and then they go on non stoping, which makes me thing the POST is not getting done correctly. Also, and maybe is because I’m going crazy, I can’t notice anything in the hard drive that makes me think is working, both hard drives, could it be the cable that connects the hard drive to the mobo? I can’t test the screen connecting to another monitor ‘cause I don’t have one. I’m trying to see if I can solve this by myself before going to a technician who’s gonna rip me off and this is a very bad moment economically speaking. Right now I have the laptop without the mobo battery, RAM and hard drive in attempt to wait for 25 hours and see if the BIOS resets itself. If any of you have any ideas please I would appreciate it. I don’t know much about hardware, a little more about software but like I say, I’m trying to see if I can get this fixed by myself. Thank you for your help.

You could try this as a hardware diagnostic: disconnect all internal drives. Create a usb containing a Linux Live distro and see if the computer will boot from the usb. If successful and all of the hardware seems to be working then you would have to consider what's going on with your hard drives and windows installation. Its not clear what you mean when you tried it with a new hard drive and its the same. Was the new hard drive blank? If you can get the computer to boot from the usb with the new hard drive connected it might confirm that its just a problem with your old hard drive and most likely the windows installation on it. You might even be able to boot from a usb with the old hard drive connected which would allow you to retrieve your essential files from it before a complete reinstall of windows.

 

[Colif]

can't get into bios... hard to boot usb if you can't get into bios

F10 key should get into bios

I will explain few simple steps to you. Then you can access the boot menu in my HP Laptop.

1. First restart the Computer
2. If the display is blank dont panic press F10 key and enter the BIOS settings menu
3. Press the F9 key to reset the BIOS to the default settings
4. Later Press the F10 key to save the changes and exit the BIOS settings menu.

link

 

[rosero]

I tried a new hard drive with Windows 10 installed, I tried a bootable USB but I couldn’t make it work since I can’t get into the BIOS to change the boot order, all the keys combinations are useless, FN, F1, F2, F3, F8, F9, F11, F12, ESC, completely unresponsive.

 

[Colif]

its not exactly a new PC

it might not work with win 10 installed, even if it had it before, did you update from 7?

Solved! - Pavilion dv4 will not read HDD

I have a pavilion dv4. The HDD drive went out a week ago. I purchased a replacement drive and installed it. Neither windows nor the bios will recognize the HDD. If I take the optical drive out, I can feel the HDD spinning and the HDD light on the laptop lights up but no recognition. Please help.

forums.tomsguide.com

 

[rosero]

Yes, I did, several months ago. I tried reinstalling W7 with a bootable CD but again, can’t make it work without being able to change the boot order.

 

[Colif]

so its not UEFI, since its released it 2008.
This means hdd has to be formatted as MBR.

Its possible the 10 drive is formatted as GPT

Spoiler

Explanation of terms:

UEFI - Unified extensible Firmware Interface
If your PC was less than 11 years old, you would have a UEFI bios now

In 2006 or so Intel decided the bios as it was at time was too limited and needed to be replaced so that it supported newer technologies as they were invented
By about 2009 a consortium of hardware makers had combined to create UEFI standard



Old bios were limited, they didn't know what a mouse was for, so everything was keyboard driven
they weren't expandable, everything had to fit in a small amount of memory
they only supported Master Boot Record (MBR) which can only have 4 partitions per drive (there are tricks to get around this) and max drive size is 2.2 tb



UEFI bios overcame all the limitations of legacy bios (as it came to be called)
it supports mouse, it has a GUI so it looks better than previous bios could
Its expandable, it can be added to to grow as new hardware is created.
UEFI supports MBR & GPT Drives

GPT = GUID Partition Table
GUID = Global Unique ID = Every GPT drive on earth has a unique ID
GPT drives can have a max of 255 partitions on them
Max size of a GPT drive/partition is 18.8 million TB

where did you create other install?
if it was a newer PC, Win 10 may have formatted drive as GPT and your BIOS has no idea what it is, as it was created after your BIOS was made. Making it as MBR might let PC Boot... if there are drivers for PC in Windows 10.

you want to make an installer that only does legacy

and use that to install 10 on the Drive and see if you can get past stage you at, as it should match what bios is looking for.

 

[rosero]

so its not UEFI, since its released it 2008.
This means hdd has to be formatted as MBR.

Its possible the 10 drive is formatted as GPT

Spoiler

Explanation of terms:

UEFI - Unified extensible Firmware Interface
If your PC was less than 11 years old, you would have a UEFI bios now

In 2006 or so Intel decided the bios as it was at time was too limited and needed to be replaced so that it supported newer technologies as they were invented
By about 2009 a consortium of hardware makers had combined to create UEFI standard



Old bios were limited, they didn't know what a mouse was for, so everything was keyboard driven
they weren't expandable, everything had to fit in a small amount of memory
they only supported Master Boot Record (MBR) which can only have 4 partitions per drive (there are tricks to get around this) and max drive size is 2.2 tb



UEFI bios overcame all the limitations of legacy bios (as it came to be called)
it supports mouse, it has a GUI so it looks better than previous bios could
Its expandable, it can be added to to grow as new hardware is created.
UEFI supports MBR & GPT Drives

GPT = GUID Partition Table
GUID = Global Unique ID = Every GPT drive on earth has a unique ID
GPT drives can have a max of 255 partitions on them
Max size of a GPT drive/partition is 18.8 million TB

where did you create other install?
if it was a newer PC, Win 10 may have formatted drive as GPT and your BIOS has no idea what it is, as it was created after your BIOS was made. Making it as MBR might let PC Boot... if there are drivers for PC in Windows 10.

you want to make an installer that only does legacy

and use that to install 10 on the Drive and see if you can get past stage you at, as it should match what bios is looking for.

I did it around 4 months ago, I made the bootable USB myself using Rufus and I formatted as MBR. Same USB I tried yesterday to reinstall.

 

[Colif]

i love it when people say... I already done that

you wouldn't think a touchpad driver would be so dangerous. It shouldn't lock you out of the bios.

Do you remember what BSOD it was? there are about 300 codes but I haven't seen most of them. Not in a hurry to see them all. There are more common ones though.

see if any of this helps - https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteb...wont-turn-on-but-the-cap-and-num/td-p/1009127

 

[rosero]

i love it when people say... I already done that

you wouldn't think a touchpad driver would be so dangerous. It shouldn't lock you out of the bios.

Do you remember what BSOD it was? there are about 300 codes but I haven't seen most of them. Not in a hurry to see them all. There are more common ones though.

see if any of this helps - https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteb...wont-turn-on-but-the-cap-and-num/td-p/1009127

My lights are not blinking, they remain static, I tried both slots for the RAM, I only have 1 RAM of 4 GB installed.
If you’d have to consider all the symptoms, the fens for 1 second when I turn on the laptop and after 5 seconds running again non stop would you think is a POST failure? if so is because something is not working, if it was the mobo then I wouldn’t had lights or the CD drive working ‘cause it wouldn’t be a proper connection because of a bad mobo or it could still be the mobo in spite of that? Considering I can’t detect any kind of spinning in both hard drives I tried, could it be the cable? or the RAM card itself? I swear I’m going crazy, this is a very bad time for me to lose my laptop, I use it for work. Kill me now.

 

[Colif]

I have never owned a laptop so I could be wrong but i think a lot of laptops don't have a cable that attaches drives to motherboard, think its more solid connection

If I turn on the laptop without the RAM it beeps, but there are no beeps if I turn it on without the hard drive, but I tried with another brand new hard drive and it’s the same.

i think that tells me its not ram as its quiet when ram is there.

 

[scout_03]

this model have a password lock on start up also some of the latop you need to unplug ac power and battery to reset bios .