HP 24-r159c locks up when booting up

[Gregjdyck]

My 3 year old HP 24-r159c All-in-one is hanging/locking up early in boot sequence and I've tried absolutely everything and am ready to brick the computer. This is the second HP All-in-one that I've had this issue and I'm now thinking they make defective products.

It is hanging at power-pn when the HP logo is displayed and the rotating hourglass is spinning.  It just stops spinning and completely freezes.

It was hanging when using Windows so I tried all of the following with no success.

1. Reinstalled Windows 10

2  Did a full reinstall with deleting everything 

3. Updated the BIOS

4. Replaced the RAM

5. Created a bootable USB thumb drive and completely reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled Windows   (this took multiple attempts as it woukd keep hanging and freezing at various stages.)

Is there anything else I can try before giving up and sending this to the landfill?

[itsmyname]

@Gregjdyck -- completely reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled Windows   (this took multiple attempts as it woukd keep hanging and freezing at various stages.)

I would suspect that the disk-drive is failing. Take this as an opportunity to purchase and install a SSD ("solid state device") that can be up to 5 times faster than any "spinning" disk-drive.

When you power-on your HP computer, immediately start tapping the ESC key, until you see a menu that lets you launch the HP Hardware Test utility.  Select the "short" (under a minute) DST ("Disk-drive Status Test") to see if you get a "fail".  If you do, then it definitely is time to "retire" the current disk-drive.

Usually, there are one or two very-strong magnets inside the disk-drive, should you want to "have fun" disassembling it. Keep those magnets away from children's fingers -- they are very strong.

[Gregjdyck]

Thank-you so much for responding!  I had kind of ruled out the hard drive because it is hanging before it even gets to the Windows boot cycle.  It often hangs right away when it is turned on when it is displaying the HP logo.  Given that do you really still think it could be the disk?

[itsmyname]

@Gregjdyck -- It often hangs right away when it is turned on when it is displaying the HP logo.  Given that do you really still think it could be the disk?

Definitely. That "splash-screen-logo" is produced by the BIOS.

Right after that, the motherboard starts to read from the (slow, failing) disk-drive.

It takes a while before enough of Windows has been read (slowly) from the disk-drive, before any Windows "logo" or any animated "spinner" becomes visible.

[Gregjdyck]

Thanks, I'll definitely try that then.  Are you able to point me to what hard drive specifications I should be looking for or can I replace it with any SSD?

[Gregjdyck]

My machine has a 1TB hard drive plus a 128 GB SATA III 2280 M.2 Solid State drive.  Which one would you recommend I replace first?

[itsmyname]

@Gregjdyck -- Which one would you recommend I replace first?

The one that Windows calls the "C:" drive-letter, since the majority of input/output uses that device.

It's only your explicit usage, "Save As to "E: \Home\Documents\Tax\2021.docx" that would use that drive-letter.

[Gregjdyck]

So I replaced the 128GB SSD OS/boot drive with a shiny new 240GB drive.  I created a Windows Install media on a USB thumb drive and booted off of that and installed Windows 10 64-bit onto the new drive.  The first two times I booted up it went to a blue screen.  The third time it got partway through the Windows 10 installation and hung at the point of asking me for my Microsoft account credentials.  The fourth time, it got all the way through the installation and I'm now running Windows.

Obviously there is still an issue and it's only a matter of time until it hangs again.  Any suggestion as to where to go next?  I've now ruled out RAM and the SSD drive.  I doubt that the 1TB data drive could be causing issues with hanging.  Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

[Séb]

Hey I hear you ! Got the same kind of issue one month after warranty expired.  Same PC has you HP 24R159C. I still have that issue RIGHT NOW has I'm writing from my laptop.

At some point weeks ago: Windows  hourglass appeared and kept on spinning, then I power down/up pc , came back with Windows hourglass spinning forever, not able to do a recovery. Then allways the following: 

Blue screen on startup: Hard Disk Error (3F4). Not able to enter BIOS. Sent the PC to repair: came back ok for some time with a BIOS update.  Then same issue happened. Still wasn't able to enter BIOS (F10 key). 

Try this to see if same issue (I suspect Motherboard/CMOS/Bios):

- Try to enter BIOS and change BOOT ORDER (I disabled the main one, and still I wasn't able to get into BIOS!), saved my changes, but they were back to original at some point (that's why I suspect motherboard or else) and see if you can boot from USB drive (I used a USB key with Windows on by Microsoft Media creation tool) - 

At some point, the PC will boot correctly or I will be able to access BIOS if I do the following: unplug it for a couple of hours. That's why I suspect something on board and why I suspect you got a similar issue.

Please let's keep this thread on and help each other. This issue is so annoying !

I try to install Windows on the HD (not the SSD), still same issue. I've lost time with this issue. I think this computer is going to the junk bin soon. I've search for the same issue and people stop writing about it after some time (where it fixed ??)

I'm no expert, but I was raised on DOS, Windows 3.X, knew how to extend my memory from 640kB to 1MB at some point (because Mr. Gates said long time ago we never would need more than 1MB !!).

[itsmyname]

@Séb --  always the following:  Blue screen on startup: Hard Disk Error (3F4). 

The disk-drive connected to the 5th SATA port on the socket (3F0 is the first, 3F1 is the second, ... 3F4 is the 5th) is failing.

There is nothing you, or anybody, can do to "repair" it. Compare to a vandal slashing an automobile tire -- a significant slash means that "patching" the tire will not work. The tire must be replaced. Similarly, your disk-drive must be replaced.

Note that the labels on some motherboards use "SATA 1" for the device internally labelled as "3F0".

If you disconnect all the SATA data-cables from the motherboard, and power-on your computer, you should be able to enter BIOS SETUP.