BleepingComputer.com: Laptop wont start properly

I have been having some problems within the last week. I have an HP Pavilion dv6700 laptop that I bought new roughly 2.5 years ago. It runs windows vista. I haven't had any problems with it up until recently.

Last week my computer wouldn't start up. The POST came up just fine, it is able to complete the windows loading screen (with the short loading bar), but after that, the screen goes blank except for the cursor in the middle, and it restarts.

When I select any of the Safe Modes, it loads all the files for safe mode, but when I get to the screen after the cursor, it goes blank for a few seconds and then a blue screen briefly comes up (1-2 seconds), then restarts again. There have been two blue screens that have come up: 1. Page_Fault_In_Nonpage_Area 2. Bad_Pool_Header.

This is what I have tried/done so far:

1. I was able to go into system restore from the BIOS and "Back-up" my files, but there wasn't a restore point so I couldn't try that.

2. Both the Hard Drive and Memory Test came back as a pass.

3. I tried reseating the RAMM, including trying both of them at different times/slots.

4. I also tried taking out the battery, unplugging, holding power for 30 sec, plugging back in.

5. I also tried setting the default Bios.

6. I ran memtest86+ and Seagate Diagnostics and everything came back as a "Pass"

I'd like to avoid doing a factory restore if possible, as I have some programs that I don't want to purchase new licenses for.


Does anyone have any other suggestions of what I could try/do? Thanks in advance for all your help!

Can you try safe mode?

cryptodan, on Sep 26 2010, 09:58 PM, said:

Yes I have tried Safe Mode. As I mentioned above, "When I select any of the Safe Modes, it loads all the files for safe mode, but when I get to the screen after the cursor, it goes blank for a few seconds and then a blue screen briefly comes up (1-2 seconds), then restarts again. There have been two blue screens that have come up: 1. Page_Fault_In_Nonpage_Area 2. Bad_Pool_Header."

Windows does not load when I try Safe Mode.

Have you made any software changes such as an update or something else?

cryptodan, on Sep 26 2010, 10:15 PM, said:

I have not added any new software recently. The only updates I can think of are typical Windows Updates, but I cannot recall the last time it was updated. I know it was sometime during the week prior to the start of the problem. It is difficult to pinpoint what the update was of, as I cannot load windows.

Thank you for your help by the way.

Do you have access to a Windows Vista CD, because you can run chkdsk /f and it will fix things on the hard drive.

cryptodan, on Sep 27 2010, 12:46 PM, said:

I ran the Windows Vista CD, went to Command Prompt, and typed in "chkdsk /f" and it came up as follows:

X:\Sources>chkdsk /f
The type of the file system is NTFS
Cannot lock current drive.
Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected.

I also typed in simply "chkdsk" and it found no problems.

There appears to be similar kind of problems happening with this series of HP laptops. From the look of it, it seems to be more of a hardware conflict issue than software, but even then you should be able to boot up in Safe Mode. Based on my finding with people having the same issue, most reported that it's a motherboard problem. However, if you still can't get anywhere with logging on to safe mode or check for device conflict, you may want to replace your hard drive, install Win OS and see if it runs normally. If it doesn't, then you know it's definitely a hardware fault.

I was able to swap hard drives with another HP laptop. The hard drive from my HP dv6700, when put into another computer, did not get past the windows loading screen. However, the hard drive I took out from the working laptop, when put into my hp dv6700 computer, booted up just fine. I'm assuming something is wrong with my hard drive for the dv6700 laptop, even though all of the diagnostics tests have passed.

I've come to terms that I will probably have to do a factory restore, but if something is wrong/damaged in my hard drive, is it likely that the issue will happen again? Will I even be able to do a factory restore?

I was able to backup all of my documents from my hp dv6700 hard drive via the system restore screen. However, I wasn't able to access my firefox bookmarks. I looked for them in the documents I backed up, but they weren't there. Is there anything I can do, or any other suggestions as to how I can get my hard drive to boot up at lease one more time?

Thanks!

You need to check in the following:

C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\random

For your bookmarks.html file.

cryptodan, on Oct 3 2010, 01:34 PM, said:

I checked there and for some reason that file isn't there. I'd really just like to find a way to boot up my hard drive. Is there any possible way to do it or is all hope lost?

I think all hopes are lost.