Pavillion Elite e9120y Hangs at HP splash screen, I've tried it all...

[Tbot117]

About a month ago I came home to find my PC stuck on the HP splash screen. After hours of trial and error I managed to repair the boot sectors by manually inputing codes into a command prompt. Unfortunately, I had to go to work immediatly after. When i returned, the screen was stuck at the splash screen again, and I haven't seen windows yet..

This desktop is about 2 years old now (no longer under warantee), although its relatively lightly used. At the time of failure it was running Vista 64 Bit. None of the hardware has been ugraded/modified in any way.

Only sometimes can I reach any of the splash screen menus (BIOS, Diagnostics, etc). These actions, and reaching the post screen, can only be executed by unplugging the power cord from the PSU for X amount of time (usually 5-10 mins, which is annoying to do EVERY time..)

Things I've tried:

-Removing all plugged in components except the stock keyboard and monitor

-Re-seating all of the components/wires

-Tested Mobo (removed memory, it beeped and made me happy ha)

-Individually seated each RAM stick in each slot.

-Repairing boot sectors

-Removing CMOS battery to reset

-Removing biult in media card reader (rare, yet prospectable issue)

-Many of the things in the recovery disk

-Removing USB ports from Mobo incase of short circuit (I think I did that correctly..)

Notes:

-Ever since I was able to first repair the boot sectors, my PC will NOT make it to the Windows Recovery Environment (The disk reading progress will freeze at a random spot on the progress bar and will not complete)

-Diagnostics froze after the Memory test completed

-*cringes* I have not backed up ANYTHING due to lack of funds for an external HD (though I've purchased one now incase I make it to my OS), so reformatting is really not an option.. Too many important school documents

-I have close to 10 years of intermediate software/hardware building/troubleshooting experience, but there are still many things that I do not know or may have overlooked! Any help is appreciated!

-*Sometimes* the post screen/BIOS does not display my 2 optical drives and/or my 1 hard drive device

-It's new favorite thing to do is say "Reboot and select proper media device," even though my boot order is correctly set in BIOS

Quick recap:

-HP Elite 9120y Vista 64 bit

-Cannot boot to Windows (most commonly hangs at splash screen)

-I've tried as much as I can think of/find online, and I'm tearing my hair out. Any help would be amazing!

I'm sure I missed something, though I tried to cover it all for anyone willing to help. PLEASE!!!! 

Thanks,

-Andrew

[pt302237]

Are you aware that many series Pavillions, yours included, have defective motherboards and there is a class action suit in progress which is taking forever? The court has not issued a finding, which is well past the date is said it would rule. HP support is useless in resolving this problem. I have not been able to get an HP authorization to honor my waranty for my Pavillion with the class action suit in progress. If your wanranty is still active and you can get HP to honor it, then please let me know how you did it.

Regretfully ... a 20 year HP Services retired employee.

[Tbot117]

Well I knew that there were quite a few problems with mobos used by HP, but I was unaware of the lawsuit. Unfortunately, its far past its warrantee. It's just unfortunate because all of the components are in great shape and it was treated very well. And aside from Windows Vista, it performed great all along until the day it decided to do this. I have literally tried everything, the next step is diagnosis from my computer engineering friends hah. You'd think being a student at a tech school would aid my effort.  So far, no help..

There appear to be as many solutions to this problem as people walking the planet.. and none of them work!

Anyone who has fixed this problem please leave any information. Even if I have already tried that and it didn't solve my problem, it's worth a second shot. This computer was not cheap!

[user9120y]

I have come across the same problem on 9120y running Windows 7 64-bit.  I have tried disconnecting CD, DVD, memcheck, flipping through RAM sticks.  Boots fine without HDD access using Fedora15 Live USB, 

[Cheyene_Pep]

Try to update the BIOS....  I have fixed the problem that way.

[Tbot117]

I don't know how to update the bios unless I'm in windows. Which, inconveniently, I cannot boot to. Is it possible?

[Big_Dave]

Hi Tbot117,

You might try a competent local PC repair shop.  They have ways to apply a bios update via a boot CD.