HP Pavilion Wont Start Up

[Stethorel]

I have an HP Pavilion A6620f and it will not start up. It was in hibernation and when I tried to wake it up, it froze. I turned it off by holding the power button, let it sit for a few seconds, the turned it back on. It now sits at the blue "HP Invent" screen and never moves on. The computer was just fine less than an hour previous to this issue and I've never had a problem with it before. It is stock accept for a Radeon HD 4850 video card and a Linksys WMP54GS wireless network card. I opened the case and cleaned out as much dust as I could, but the problem persists. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[FALC0N]

Can you get into the bios?

Only thing that really catches my eye is that 4850 on a stock HP PSU. Though I don't know off hand what it comes with.

 

[o1die]

I would remove the video card, and try it with the onboard video. If it works, get a good ps by corsair, antec, pc power and cooling, seasonic, ocz, or enermax. All are good brands.

 

[Stethorel]

I removed the video card, but the nothing changed. I am now realizing the video card recommends a PSU of atleast 450W and the stock PSU is only 250W, which makes me feel like an idiot for missing that. I have had that video card in that machine for over a year with no problems though. My computer continues to sit at the blue start up screen. I think it's also worth noting that the blue screen has options like ESC for boot menu, and when I press ESC or a function key a message saying "loading boot menu..." appears, but nothing every happens. Is it possible something went wrong with the BIOS? And if so can it be fixed? Thank for all the help.

 

[shovenose]

to reset it:
unplug the machine from all cords
switch off the psu
take out the little roind coin-cell battery somewhere on the mobo
note which way it is oriented
wait 15mins
put everything back together
turn it on
you should get a error message like "cmos checksum error-defaults loaded"

if that doesnt help do the same thing again,
but go out and buy a new battery, and then try it again...
i dont think pcs are, but AFAIK macs wont work right when the mobo battery is dead

 

[o1die]

You can try removing the motherboard battery with the system turned off and the power supply unplugged. This will reset the bios and may get your system going. Also removing and reinstalling the 20 pin atx ps connector will have a similar effect. I still recommend trying a different ps before getting another motherboard. Geniune hp boards aren't cheap; you pay a premium for the hp label due in part to the proprietary nature of the windows operating system. I found out that by trying a different board with the hp windows coa sticker. Even with a regular windows xp cd, I couldn't get microsoft to reactivate the xp installation with a non hp board.

 

[FALC0N]

Another thing to try, if you haven't already, is to disconnect EVERYTHING. All hard drives, cd/dvd drives, video sound and networking cards, EVERYTHING except the board, cpu, and power supply. Probably need a keyboard too, but try without one first. If it works, add the stuff back on one at a time until the lockup happens.

 

[Stethorel]

Thanks for all the great advice, I'm going to try removing/replacing the motherboard battery and seeing if that has any effect, and definitely get a new PSU before I reinstall my video card (assuming I can get it to boot properly). The motherboard is an Asus IPIBL-LB and I linked the spec per HP's website. I've also been looking around for a replacement motherboard in case it comes to that, but I've had little luck beyond eBay (and I'm not quite ready to take that gamble). I'll post the results of the next repair attempts.

 

[Stethorel]

UPDATE: Ok, I tried removing the watch battery but, unfortunately, there was no change. So, I tried removing devices one by one and when I removed the hard drive it started up, saying there was no boot device and I was able to enter the BIOS. Now I think it's my hard drive that went bad and I'm going to pick up a new hard drive today (I was planning on getting a bigger drive anyway). Hopefully, this will be it. I'm glad I made those recovery disks.

 

[shovenose]

Cool

 

[Stethorel]

The problem was the hard drive. I picked up a new one today, popped in the restore disks, and everything is fine. I'm picking up a new PSU tomorrow and it should be smooth sailing from here on out. Thanks again to everyone who posted suggestions!

 

[shovenose]

psu did u choose?