HP Compaq Stuck at Pre-Boot screen

[B_Rad15]

I am trying to install Linux via USB drive on this machine. The original hard drive was destroyed and I do not have a replacement yet. Upon booting it goes to a screen to a black screen with white text. In the top left it says 256MB, the bottom left seems to say 1.7 but it is partially cut off (by the computer, not the display), the bottom right says F9=Boot Menu F10=Setup F12=Network. I have a USB keyboard plugged in which lights up for a split-second then turns off and can't be used to go into any of the menus. The USB has a light that stays on while the computer is on, unlike the keyboard. If I jam any of those keys at startup it displays the corresponding text in place of the key prompts. Any help would be appreciated.

[WAWood]

@B_Rad15 

HP only warranties their PCs for usage with the OS that comes preinstalled. IF you replace that with Linux, or add a Linux OS, then you assume full responsibility for maintaining that -- as HP provides Linux assistance only on Redhat and then only to commercial customers.

Any hardware that does not work will then range from simple (if there are Linux drivers available) to impossible (if there are NO Linux drivers available) to fix.

Since HP does not provide Linux drivers, your best bet for Linux support is to contact the support forum for the Linux distro you are using.

Folks on Linux support forums have experience using a vareity of machines with Linux and know a lot about driver and installation issues.

Good Luck

[B_Rad15]

@WAWood

The problem isn't Linux because I can't even get that far it is stuck BEFORE the BIOS screen. There is currently NO OS installed. If I can get windows installed that would be great but I can't install anything if I can't even get to the boot menu. That's all I'm trying to do right now.

This is the screen it's stuck at https://imgur.com/iPOsYHQ It looks like the screen that shows up before the BIOS password but I have gone through the steps to reset the password and it still isn't working.

Other things that haven't changed anything:

Replacing CMOS battery

Plugging in keyboard after starting up

Only plugging in the keyboard

Not plugging in a keyboard

Trying a different keyboard

And side note: one time it said 1024MB at the top left but I can't seem to reproduce that

[WAWood]

@B_Rad15 

The presence or absence of an installed OS has nothing whatsoever to do with the ability to boot the PC.

The initial boot process is controlled entirely by Firmware code that is contained in a BIOS chip on the motherboard.

Once you get past that, if the OS boot files are corrupted, you will see some messages to that effect, or if the Windows OS files are corrupted or missing, you will see different messages.

But the fact that you are not even getting far enough to see those messages is an indicator that the BIOS code is corrupted and there is noting any OS can do about that, nor can we.

[B_Rad15]

@WAWood

From my research, it seems that it is possible to reflash even a corrupted BIOS but that you need the BIOS loaded onto a USB or CD but I would need a binary version of the BIOS but it seems that HP only provides a windows executable file. I think if I can get that file I can reflash the BIOS. Also, it seems that keyboards not working at the BIOS is a semi-common problem with HP desktops so that may be the only real problem with the computer.

[WAWood]

@B_Rad15 

What you say about HP-provided BIOS update files is correct -- because they are self-extracting archives that then self-execute.

But ... if you grab a copy of 7-zip off the Internet, it CAN expand the HP packages into their individual parts, including the BIOS .bin files.

Then, if you can boot your PC from another medium, you can do the BIOS update from those files.

Good Luck