BIOS on HP Envy 1414 (Can't access - THIS IS CRAZY!)

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
A

albey1

Honorable
Jan 24, 2013
6
0
10,510
I just got an HP Envy 1414 desktop. The system had windows 8 on it. I removed the hard drive, connected it to my other system and used killdisk on the drive to remove everything. (In retrospect, that might have been a mistake, but I am where I am now). I placed a windows 7 dvd in the dvd drive and the system will not boot. It will not allow me to access the bios. The monitor never comes on and the usb keyboard doesn't seem to connect quick enough. I've tried three different keyboards. Also, I tried a bootable UBCD disk. Nothing will work. I've tried multiple usb ports as well. I've tried hitting F10, F6, F12, F8, F1, and the ESCAPE key immediately after boot. I have also cleared the CMOS by moving the pins from 1,2 to 2,3 and then putting it back. I have also removed the CMOS battery for a couple of minutes. Absolutely, nothing will work to get me to the bios. I've been working on systems for a pretty long time (my first paying gig was a packardbell at 25mhz and 2 megs of ram that cost over three grand). This has me completely stumped and I am 100% sure there is nothing wrong with the system itself.

Does anyone have any idea? This is CRAZY!!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
dodger46

dodger46

Splendid
Nov 19, 2011
4,837
1
24,960
Could it have something to do with Secure Boot not allowing any other OS but the original installation to work? Perhaps a Win 8 installation disk would be accepted...but then you'd probably need to ask HP for Recovery disks as there is no download for W8 OEM... plus your Product Key possibly embedded in BIOS.... Fings ain't wot they used to be...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A

albey1

Honorable
Jan 24, 2013
6
0
10,510
I have an OEM windows 8 disc as I am a Microsoft Member and I receive every piece of software microsoft has. But, it simply will not boot to the dvd drive. This has me stumped. It makes no sense at all. I know all the components are good. I have never had one that had good components that would not do anything. I'm sure it's this UEFI crap in which I will admit, I am not up to speed on. I've read about it, but have never really had to troubleshoot it as most of my work revolves around servers and workstations in big box stores.

Man, I just know that there is someone out there that has to know something. I just refuse to believe that HP made a computer that becomes junk if you change hard drives. It makes no logical sense. I have alot of respect or did for HP. I'm sitting here with I don't know 75 or so HP 2620 switches in my office. They are a solid company and I do not believe they would make this kind of error. It has to be something simple.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
dodger46

dodger46

Splendid
Nov 19, 2011
4,837
1
24,960
Upvote 0 Downvote
A

albey1

Honorable
Jan 24, 2013
6
0
10,510
That's great information, IF i can ever get to the BIOS screen. That's the main problem that is something I haven't seen. It WILL NOT get to the bios screen even hitting F10 or any other configuration. It's like the BIOS will not allow the graphics card to work. The graphics card is good. I have placed it in another system and it works fine. Typically I would use the onboard video to get through. However, the motherboard does not have onboard video. So, my only option is the graphics card. I've tried installing another graphics card and it will not work either. I've tried using my OEM Win7, OEM Win8, and Unbuntu to boot from. I get 6 beeps which codes for a graphics card which makes sense considering I get absolutely no video. This absolutely has to do with the UEFI bios even though I've heard others disagree. I know it defies logic that HP would do something like this, but they have apparently. I'm not sure if there is another type of graphics card I should try or if I'm wasting my time.

I think the reason this is really bothering me is because I don't think I've ever had a computer in my hands that I couldn't fix if I knew what the problem is. Also, of course I hate to spend more money. However, I know the motherboard is good, I know the graphics card is good, they just simply are working together in which they did before I switched the OS on the drive. I'M seriously going nuts over this. I've spent more hours on it than I should have and should just go buy another one (NOT AN HP IF THIS IS THEIR NEW STANDARD), but I need to find a fix for this for my own sanity.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A

albey1

Honorable
Jan 24, 2013
6
0
10,510
I'm wanting to try something that I have never done. I've really never had a reason. I'm wondering if there is a way to (pre-install windows 8) on a hard drive. Here is my idea. Take the hard drive from my system, connect it to my working system as an external drive, and then pre install windows 8 on it. I doubt this would work and I know I am grasping at straw here, but I know this is the UEFI and there HAS to be a work around. I just don't believe if you swap hard drives because it went bad or you simply wanted to upgrade would brick your motherboard. That's just insane.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
dodger46

dodger46

Splendid
Nov 19, 2011
4,837
1
24,960

Well, if having W8 on the HDD will get you into BIOS it's worth a try. Perhaps you'd get away with simply connecting the drive from the working machine? But you'd think that if there was anything on the original drive that would prevent it from booting it would have been cleaned by killdisk. Will it display BIOS with no drives connected? Perhaps with all USB devices removed?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A

albey1

Honorable
Jan 24, 2013
6
0
10,510
Yeah, I've tried removing everything from USB, optical drives, hard drive, and all that fun stuff. It should at least get the bios. I don't know. I'm kind of at a loss. Guess it's time to just bite the bullet and say it's a piece of crap and buy a new one. It sucks because I just bought it. Ticking me off.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
dodger46

dodger46

Splendid
Nov 19, 2011
4,837
1
24,960

Before you do, check out your RAM, if you have more than one stick, try running on one stick at a time and in different slots (If you haven't already done so!)
Meanwhile others have had similar probs with rigs like yours , citing incompatibilities with their GPUs. One managed to get back into BIOS to disable Secure Boot etc by borrowing a Radeon R7770. Seems not every GPU works with UEFI...

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

richardpowell36

Reputable
Dec 29, 2014
1
0
4,510
I had a similar problem on my HP Envy, hence why I'm here!. I solved the issue by removing the batteries (main and RTC) and disconnecting HDD 1, the only one in my laptop. I then reconnected the batteries with the HDD still disconnected. This resulted in me gaining entry to the BIOS. However the trick was, once I had gained access, I noted the POST timer was set to 0 meaning no time was being allowed to detect the esc key. Setting this to 5 seconds resulted in the 'press esc' message being displayed at the bottom of the screen when powering on, even once the HDD had been re-connected. May not help you but could help others. Careful when removing the HDD connector, the connector looks like it could be easily damaged. I'm not sure if the RTC battery removal was actually necessary I was just trying everything until I gained access.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom