windows 11 desktop slow starting, cannot start monitor or wake it up from sleep

[emma22]

suddenly started having problems with HP monitor not starting, and hard getting it to wake. from sleep.

Error messages kept saying dynamic graphic controller dimmed.  Ran computer tests and 1 intel optane + 932GB HDD failed

[Bill_To]

Hi @emma22 

Welcome back.

Wow, HP Hardware Diagnostics indicates both the Intel Optane drive and the HDD has failed. Very unusual.

You might be able to recover data from the 1 TB HDD by connecting this drive to a different PC as a data drive. Data recovery could be possible if you can mount this drive on a different PC.

It looks like your PC can use the HP Cloud Recovery option to reinstall the W10 HP factory image. I don't know if your PC can do W11 since it shipped from the factory with W10.

You may have to replace both drives if you want to stay with the Intel Optane cache drive and use the HP Cloud Recovery option.

You could also just do a 1 TB M.2 NVME SSD and get rid of Intel Optane. This would require changing a  BIOS setting from RAID to AHCI. Now you can do a clean W11 install if you are interested.

Your PC has the OEM product key in the BIOS. The new W11 install will activate using the product key stored in the BIOS.

Your decision since you may lose some HP specific software if you do a clean W11 installation.

Regards

[emma22]

If it is a total failure as once it is up and running it works fine, wouldn't it not work at all if the hard drive had failed.? All the other tests I ran passed just fine. Prior to this I was getting a message saying the graphics dimmer had been turned off but now that message has stopped to be replaced by this problem.

[Bill_To]

Hi @emma22 

Hard drives can abruptly fail or slowly fail over time. So a failing system drive may cause various intermittent Window's errors as things get worse.

Your PC seems to be in the early stages of disk failure if you can still run Windows but see anomalous operating system behavior:

Graphics dimmer errors, the PC has problems waking from sleep, or you sometimes have trouble running Windows would suggest system drive problems or memory problems.

HP's diagnostics tests are detecting problems with both drives, which is very unusual.

Did you run HP Diagnostic's extensive: system and component tests?

You should back up data ASAP to external media if you don't routinely back up data.

Download and run Crystal Disk Info (Zip version) to get a second opinion on drive health. Download Crystal Disk Mark, also at the previous link,  to check drive performance.

Regards

[emma22]

Thanks for the info, I only ran the fast test but I will run the extensive test later today and hopefully everything checks out but yes I will back up my grandkids photo's,  not really concerned about losing any other data. I have only used this desktop a couple of hours a week since I got it, my tablet does most of my day to day.

[Bill_To]

Hi @emma22 

My pleasure.

Also try Crystal Disk software to confirm if both drives are failing.

Let the Forum know how it goes.

Regards

[emma22]

I thought I would try to back up my photo's today, my computer seems to start but no matter what I do the monitor refuses to turn on so I guess I'm out of luck.

I guess I will be going into a repair shop after the weekend just to find out what I can expect the damage to be, new or repair.

Thank you much for your help.

[Bill_To · Accepted solution]

Hi @emma22 

My pleasure.

Sorry to hear this.

Normally failing storage drives would not affect video. You should have gotten a text error message or the PC would open the BIOS settings screen.

So, it sounds like something else is also happening.

Regards

[emma22]

😂🤣😂 I have no idea what is going on, almost 80 year Olds like me rarely are very technical with computers, I will contact a repair shop after the weekend and hopefully he or she can figure it out or let me know if it's worth paying for repair.

Kinda disappointed with this desktop as it is barely used and only 4 years old, I've had HP printers last longer.

Once again thank you for your suggestions and help, have a good weekend.

[Bill_To]

Hi @emma22 

My pleasure.

I catching up to you, I'm 71.

Hopefully your PC problems are fixable and will be inexpensive.

The PC Tech should be able to recover data even if it is not cost effective to fix the PC.

You have a great weekend.

Regards