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- HP Community
- Notebooks
- Notebook Boot and Lockup
- Blackscreen with Blinking underscore

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09-02-2019 04:28 PM
09-02-2019 06:41 PM
I've run into this myself and when it happens, it means that the PC can not find either the boot loader files or the OS -- and therefore, does not put up any error messages, but just the blinking cursor.
On my PC, this happened when I had mistakenly changed the boot location to the wrong drive -- so there was nothing there to boot FROM.
If you have only one drive and have not been making these kind of changes, that generally means the drive has died or has been disconnected.
To check this, press the ESC key repeatedly while rebooting, and when the HP Startup Menu appears, select the option to run diagnostics -- generally, F2.
I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor represent, HP
09-02-2019 06:59 PM
You have to press it rapidly and repeatedly -- keep tapping it over and over.
If that does not work, then try doing the same with the F2 key.
I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor represent, HP
09-03-2019 08:36 AM
Unfortunately, without being able to run Diagnostics using F2, there's no simple way to tell if the drive is bad --which is my suspicion. I have an HP DV6 and had to replace the drive once already a few years back.
What you can do at this point is remove the drive from the laptop, purchase a USB-to-Drive adapter like the one shown below, hook the drive to a working PC and see if it works.
I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor represent, HP