Pavilion dm4 won't start :: black screen with flashing cursor in upper left, no error message

[nyccc]

Being more specific, I first ran start up repair from the recovery disc. I ran it 3 times with no failures. I then I ran system restore. It failed at one date but ran without errors from one other recovery date.  Is there anything else I can do to rectify the problem? Do you now feel it's a hard drive malfunction? If I buy a usb to sata cable and attach it to another lap top, would I be able to extract my word, excel, etc documents?   Thanks for your continuing assistance.

[DavidPK · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Boot from the Rescue CD again, select Repair Your Computer and choose the Command Prompt.  When this loads, enter the following commands and hit enter after each one - include spaces as shown.

Bootrec.exe

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup

c:

cd boot

attrib bcd -s -h -r

ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old

bootrec /RebuildBcd

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

Remove the Rescue CD and try rebooting now.

Regards,

DP-K

[nyccc]

It looks like this worked.  Could you tell me what the problem was so that I know what to say/do if this happens again? Thank you, you're amazing!

[DavidPK]

Hi,

Good to hear it's working

It would look like the Boot Manager ( or the Master Boot Record  where this small file is located ) had corrupted for some reason.  When you start the notebook, after some initial tests, the bios hands control to the boot manager which is responsible for loading the operating system into memory.

Regards,

DP-K

[marplin]

Hi there-

I had this same problem, did the fix listed above and it worked!  Unfortunately, it looks like a number of files (pdf, Word docs, etc.) I had on my desktop and in my 'downloads' folder were erased.  Is there any way to recover these?

Thanks for your help!

Mark

[camcan]

I dont understand how to boot into the CD repair disk. I dont know how to do that. Please help as soon as possible. I need this by sunday 12/19/12 morning if possible i am really struggling.

[Zarah786]

I have a HP Pavillion dm4 1160us and there is a black screen with a cursor coming up all that I can so is press esc really fast bringing me to the startup menu which shows the following: F1 for system information F2 for System Diagnostics F9 for Boot Devce options and F10 for BIOS Setup F11 for system recover and none of them are working. i downloaded a Windows 7-64 bit but i can still not get the laptop to work again. Please help it would be greatly appreciated. 

[ssk1980]

can i know why coming  the window

staring error 

[mehulv]

How can I access Media mode? As i cannot find this anywhere.

Please help as same thing has happened to me!

Thankyou

[neyutithe]

the motherboard i have the same issued hp dm4 i spoke to the hp and they charge $350 to fixed but if people start compleinning can be considered like manufacture issued and they have to fixed for free i look in tje internet and a lot people have the same problem wt this model ..... This is the numeber i call 1800-474-6836 make sure talk to the manager and make the report...