Installed new hard drive, black screen

[emgineering]

Hello I need some help. My mom has a HP Pavillion DV5T 1000 P/N KQ574AV. She was told her hard drive failed and needed to replace it. I told her I would replace it for her, so I bought a new hard drive and installed it (WD 320 GB). The computer boots, I can see the windows logo, but then goes black. No cursor, can't see mouse, nothing happens.

- So yes, it's a brand new hard drive.
- I downloaded the windows vista iso (computer had vista 32bit) on a CD to re-install a fresh copy of vista.
- If I remove the hard drive and try to boot from the CD alone, the computer asks to install a hard drive with an OS. (CD does spin then stops)
- No beeps, light flashes or any sort of things happens.
- I cleared cmos/ re-seated ram, etc etc.
- I did go into bios to set the CD as the first bootable device.

Help please!??

 

[thor220]

So pretty much, you are trying to install windows vista (which came with the PC) but it won't let you unless you have the hard drive unplugged.

Have you confirmed that the drive isn't a dud first? You should hook it up to another PC and check it's status before installing an operating system. CrystalDiskInfo is one such program that can do this.

 

[ronintexas]

Did it actually boot from the DVD/CD? Did it come up and say, "Press any key to boot from the DVD?"

 

[buzznut]

Just put the hard drive back in and run the install disc. If the cd drive is set to boot first it should do so. But if it doesn't try hitting F8 repeatedly until you see the "boot from OS disc." Then hit enter

 

[emgineering]

So pretty much, you are trying to install windows vista (which came with the PC) but it won't let you unless you have the hard drive unplugged.

Have you confirmed that the drive isn't a dud first? You should hook it up to another PC and check it's status before installing an operating system. CrystalDiskInfo is one such program that can do this.

I'll download CrystalDiskInfo tonight and try it. I do have a hard drive adapter. I plugged it in to my other computer and I can see it on my other computer and I can also hear it run. So unless there's something else that is messed up, I'd say it's good.

 

[emgineering]

Did it actually boot from the DVD/CD? Did it come up and say, "Press any key to boot from the DVD?"

No it did not boot from DVD/CD. I heard the disc spinning for a bit, then stopped and nothing happened, just black screen. No "press any key to boot from CD" came up.

 

[emgineering]

Just put the hard drive back in and run the install disc. If the cd drive is set to boot first it should do so. But if it doesn't try hitting F8 repeatedly until you see the "boot from OS disc." Then hit enter

Yes the CD drive is set as first bootable device. It does not instal though. I'll try doing the F8 thing tonight. Thanks!

 

[emgineering]

Did u paint the screen with black paint..try cleaning it with fridge cool water and then reply..

I didn't. Maybe my mom did, how cool is fridge cool water?
Cleaning with fridge cool water 6/10.
Cleaning with fridge cool water with rice, 9/10.

 

[emgineering]

Just put the hard drive back in and run the install disc. If the cd drive is set to boot first it should do so. But if it doesn't try hitting F8 repeatedly until you see the "boot from OS disc." Then hit enter

F8 thing didn't work. Just black screen, nothing comes up.

 

[ronintexas]

When you replaced the HDD, did you put the rails on the exact same way? If you put the drive in backwards, it doesn't trip the sensors properly. The new HDD must be seated exactly like the old one was so the sensors trip also....Does the connector (SATA/Power) fit on the new drive properly? If it isn't fully seated, it won't recognize the drive properly.

Last - the screws should be really short - and only go into the slots on the drive a little way - make sure they aren't shorting the drive out.

 

[emgineering]

When you replaced the HDD, did you put the rails on the exact same way? If you put the drive in backwards, it doesn't trip the sensors properly. The new HDD must be seated exactly like the old one was so the sensors trip also....Does the connector (SATA/Power) fit on the new drive properly? If it isn't fully seated, it won't recognize the drive properly.

Last - the screws should be really short - and only go into the slots on the drive a little way - make sure they aren't shorting the drive out.

I was really hoping this would solve it as I was not seating the hard drive all the way in so I wouldn't have to take it off/put it back on so many times. This time I made sure the rails were in the exact same way (the way the small screws go in will only let the hard drive be placed one way so can't really mess that up). The SATA connector fits perfectly fine. I put the cover back and everything to make sure it wouldn't move, but alas, same deal. Just a black screen after the windows logo.

 

[ronintexas]

On page 4 of this manual (http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02876562.pdf), they have the troubleshooting steps for the laptop.

 

[emgineering]

On page 4 of this manual (http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02876562.pdf), they have the troubleshooting steps for the laptop.

Tried everything here. Still nothing

I put the old hard drive back and tried the Ubuntu live cd again, and still get the same black screen right after the HP logo. Don't really know what else to do.

Can I just replace the motherboard with a new one and put back all the other parts and just load Ubuntu into this machine?

 

[ronintexas]

The thing that concerns me - why is it not booting to Windows and/or Ubuntu from the DVD drive? The HP logo is the BIOS screen - it going black would indicate that it is attempting to boot. How long have you waited for it to boot?

 

[emgineering]

The thing that concerns me - why is it not booting to Windows and/or Ubuntu from the DVD drive? The HP logo is the BIOS screen - it going black would indicate that it is attempting to boot. How long have you waited for it to boot?

I feel like I've left it on for hours while trying to research. I've come up with a couple more things.
When I do the memory tests, it passes. Then I do the hard drive self test, and it will pass the quick test, but when it does the comprehensive tests, the computer shuts down.

I was also reading about how some bios setups have a specific file they try to pull from a hard drive that helps the computer boot? Maybe the new hard drive needs this file. I need to read up more on this.

 

[ronintexas]

UEFI is what it is referring to - and you only need this if you are using the UEFI features on the mobo and install the OS to take advantage of it. I have 6 computers in the house....only two of them have the OS and hardware to that take advantage of it (Windows 8.0/8.1/10 preview and versions of Linux can be configured to utilize it - there is a long configuration to get Windows 7 to do it....I have never tried that...).

If the computer is shutting down while doing a comprehensive test on the hard drives - you may have an issues with the mobo - the original hard drive may be working properly...

Regardless of the hard drive working - Windows and/or Linux should boot.

Out of curiosity - does your BIOS have "secure boot" enabled?

 

[emgineering]

UEFI is what it is referring to - and you only need this if you are using the UEFI features on the mobo and install the OS to take advantage of it. I have 6 computers in the house....only two of them have the OS and hardware to that take advantage of it (Windows 8.0/8.1/10 preview and versions of Linux can be configured to utilize it - there is a long configuration to get Windows 7 to do it....I have never tried that...).

If the computer is shutting down while doing a comprehensive test on the hard drives - you may have an issues with the mobo - the original hard drive may be working properly...

Regardless of the hard drive working - Windows and/or Linux should boot.

Out of curiosity - does your BIOS have "secure boot" enabled?

I don't see an option for "secure boot" I tried getting into an advanced bios, because I really can't see that much stuff in it, I read you have to press F8, but nothing happens. I just get into the generic bios with computer data and some other random options.

 

[ronintexas]

Most of the older computers (LOL - 2-3 years or older) do not have the secure boot option. This was designed for Windows 8, and was supposed to keep virus/malware infections from taking over the hard drive (it also keeps you from installing a new OS on the hard drive). There are so many settings.....LOL.

AHCI is best for a hard drive, but many legacy DVD/CD-ROM drives won't work in AHCI, you have to set it to LEGACY IDE. You have secure boot....then there is UEFI. I have computers at home that are mixed between the technologies....I have to keep a notebook of each to remind me of the BIOS settings for each....

 

[emgineering]

Most of the older computers (LOL - 2-3 years or older) do not have the secure boot option. This was designed for Windows 8, and was supposed to keep virus/malware infections from taking over the hard drive (it also keeps you from installing a new OS on the hard drive). There are so many settings.....LOL.

AHCI is best for a hard drive, but many legacy DVD/CD-ROM drives won't work in AHCI, you have to set it to LEGACY IDE. You have secure boot....then there is UEFI. I have computers at home that are mixed between the technologies....I have to keep a notebook of each to remind me of the BIOS settings for each....

So more updates. I tried cloning my old hard drive, I thought maybe if I copied everything exactly the same in the new hard drive it would boot up. No dice. The cloning got to 80% and then closed saying files were corrupt.

Then I kept researching and saw someone had a pretty similar problem. His solution was to take it to a repair place, where they told him they had to "reprogram the bios." So i've been trying to read up on how to update/flash my bios, but I've failed so far. I downloaded the bios for this machine from here "http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?os=2093&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=3744198#N8319" and loaded the contents to a bootable flash drive (although I don't see a "bin" file?). Now the problem is I can't get the computer to flash it. I did the press windows key + b + power button. It goes through a bunch of beeps, then black screen. So I'm not even sure if it's flashed or not, Though the bios version seems to be the same as before, so I'm guessing it has not.

 

[ronintexas]

Is it possible the file is compressed (zipped)? You need to expand the file so that the BIOS recognizes the file.

 

[emgineering]

Is it possible the file is compressed (zipped)? You need to expand the file so that the BIOS recognizes the file.

I was pretty sure I uncompressed it. There were like 7 files total, with a couple of .fd files or something. I'll double check when I get home. Should I also put these files in the hard drive and see if I can load them from there?

 

[ronintexas]

Usually the BIOS can read from a hard drive and/or a flash drive. I usually put them on a flash drive to make things easy.

 

[emgineering]

Is it possible the file is compressed (zipped)? You need to expand the file so that the BIOS recognizes the file.

I read somewhere that I should rename the ".FD" file to ".bin" and it should work. On another note, My bios version is like F11, and the latest version HP shows is like 21. Do I just go to the latest version?

 

[emgineering]

Usually the BIOS can read from a hard drive and/or a flash drive. I usually put them on a flash drive to make things easy.

OMG it's working!!! The live ubuntu CD finally kicked in!!!

So I put the .FD file in the flash drive and made a copy of it and renamed it to .bin so I would have both. The bios updated, and the live CD now boots!!!! This is awesome, after so much work hahha. Thank you so much for keeping up with me and all of your advice!