Brand New: Won't Start

[Racoonii]

I ordered this PC in November to replace my dying, 8 year old chromebook so that I can complete my online college classes. I picked the HP Pavilion Gmng DT TG01-2170m because I don't know much about computer specs and parts or anything, but I do like gaming and found that this one was really affordable and prebuilt. I had my (PC gamer) brother check it out between my other choices and he said that it was decent. I assumed it would be easy to set up and start using right away as I have an extremely packed academic schedule ahead of me for my last semester. I finally got it on December 18th and it worked well for about 10 days. Then it shut off in the middle of me using it and hasn't booted up correctly since. After turning it off and on several times and having it freeze on the HP loading screen, it finally loaded saying that it was diagnosing / preparing to repair the system. I was brought to a blue screen where it said that the computer couldn't be repaired, I then did a system restore but opted to keep my files. This worked and I was able to get into windows again, and thought I was in the clear. The following day when I tried to boot up the computer it did the same thing, I restored it to the same date (the 18th when I got it). The next day: same thing, but at this point I was concerned and was in the middle of researching what the problem could be-- my brother suggested that maybe a driver (i don't know what that is) needed to be updated and I found a menu through the diagnostics program that had a few updates listed-- I believe including a driver. As soon as I clicked the update file, windows crashed again and shut off. 

Since then, I have not been able to get into windows at all. I did a full factory reset (I think twice now) that deleted all my files in case I had gotten some kind of virus in one of the few programs I downloaded. Spotify, Steam (and Stardew Valley and EQ2 via Steam), Overwatch/battlenet, Paint Tool SAI, Surfshark VPN, and the full McAfee program were what I had downloaded-- all products that I have used previously for years and never had an issue with on any other devices. I also transferred some photo files from a thumbdrive onto the desktop. 

I've looked around in safe mode and the BIOS menu, but haven't really made any progress changing around the settings on there. I took off the side panel and looked to see if there were any loose connections, and it kind of looks like something is missing inside of there, but I am truly lost as to what that might be. There's a silver tray, about 3 or 4 inches wide/tall and 1 inch deep, that looks like it should be holding some component, but I wasn't sure if it was a spot for an additional hard drive or something. It's brand new and I'm extremely disappointed with the product being broken like this, I wanted a new computer to relieve my school-related stress but now it's just adding to it. I would much rather figure out how to fix it speedily than send it back and have to go through the ordeal of finding/buying/waiting/getting a new one delivered (because of course that was a giant headache too), but I do have a year long warranty. Customer service is impossible to get ahold of, and only suggests documents that are unrelated to my problem or downloading diagnostic programs on a PC I cannot access. 

Here are the specs that were listed on my receipt, in case that's helpful for diagnosing what's wrong/missing:

•21C1 Cycle AV

•AMD Radeon™ RX 5500 Graphics (4 GB GDDR6 dedicated)

•256 SSD storage

•No HDD

•HP black wired keyboard with volume control and wired optical mouse kit

•BU RCTO UMA PAV GAM TG01-2 B550A US

•McAfee Livesafe (30 day)

•8 GB DDR4-3200 SDRAM (2 x 4 GB)

•Realtek Canary ac 2x2 +Bluetooth 5 M.2 2230 PCI-e+USB WW with 2 Antennas

•No Additional Office Software

•Shadow black front bezel, Acid Green Chrome logo with 400W Power supply

•Windows 11 Home 64

•OSLOC US

•AMD Ryzen™ 3 5300G (4.0 GHz up to 4.2 GHz, 8 MB L3 cache, 4 cores)

•FLAG EPEAT

•FLAG ENERGY STAR Qualified

•DIB Omen Command Center Flyer US

•WARR 1/1/0 US

•CKIT HP CTO PAV 21C1 US

One more note, I assumed that this PC came with Windows 11 since that's what it says on my receipt, but when on the blue screen post "can't repair" message, there is a button that specifically says "continue to Windows 10".

[BeemerBiker]

From your description it seems to be a defect.  Most failures happen early on due the the system being used heavily for the first time and problems showing up that were not seen during short factory testing (if any).  Your system is under warrantee so it is nice it failed now and not a year and a day later.

You have a top-notch gaming system.  It cannot be compared to your chrome book.  Windows 11 is out recently and it is entirely possible that windows updated the Radeon driver replacing the one that HP had installed.  I suspect the HP driver install team used the recommended AMD driver for that board.   New gaming drivers come out sometimes daily from NVidia and probably from AMD.  Frequently I see a notice bottom right screen on my WIn11 system "Gaming ready driver ready for download" only 3 days after I have gone to NVidia and got their latest and greatest.  If the notification came from Dell then it is months behind. If from Microsoft a few weeks behind.  Not sure about AMD, but NVidia shows two drivers: "Game" and "Studio".  That is double talk for "unstable" and "stable"

You might go to AMD's driver download page and have their app determine the best driver for your 5500 card and see if that solves the problem.

Last month a user here asked for help because they had installed win11 and their system was not working and they had homework due the next day.  I suggested they tell their teacher that their computer ate their homework.  You can use a gaming system for school work but a chrome book or iPad is better.

[Racoonii]

Thank you so much for the insight. How would I download a driver if I can't access the computer? Could I put it on a USB stick and plug that in?

I am doing one of my classes on my phone at the moment because my chromebook is literally so old that it can't update CHROME to the current level required to load some of the webpages I need to use for school! Haha. It's served me well through the years, but the screen is now glitching constantly and like I said the browser can't load a lot of pages because it is outdated. I've done all my gaming on a PS4 for years, but I am excited to start gaming on a PC again-- if I can get this thing working/when I get a replacement.

Thank you again!

[BeemerBiker]

You mentioned it booted into safe mode. 

I assume the problem is the video board.  If so, then try the following:

From safe mode, bring up device manager and delete the display device

Be sure to select "remove driver"

Then reboot normally and windows should come up with a generic Microsoft display driver.

From there go to AMD and let them plck a driver.

You might check windows "event viewer" and see if there are any critical errors or anything suspicious like "atikernel" fault.