Hp Envy x360 booting into black screen "ESC... Startup"

[Megh6]

Hi all,

Just today I reach for my computer and its very hot. When i boot in, in the bottom left hand corner of the screen it says "ESC.. Startup", the rest of the screen is black. I've read online it is a possible SSD issue but the last thing I want to do is open the computer. I haven't tried booting into safe mode yet. Are there any other solutions to this? feel free to ask any other questions. The serial number is: CND2332FLP. Also, last night i updated the laptop if thats relevant.

Thanks for your time

[Max3Aj]

Hi @Megh6, Welcome to HP Support Community. 

Thank you for posting your query, I will be glad to help you. 
Your HP Envy x360 booting to a black screen with "ESC... Startup" in the bottom left usually indicates a boot failure or hardware issue, potentially related to the SSD or BIOS. Given that your laptop was very hot, it's possible that the system overheated, causing a failure.

Steps to Troubleshoot:

Perform a Hard Reset:

• Power off your laptop.
• Unplug the charger and disconnect any peripherals.
• Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds.
• Plug the charger back in and try turning it on.

Check for Overheating Damage:

• If the laptop was very hot, the SSD or motherboard could have been affected.
• Let it cool down completely for 30 minutes before retrying.

Try Booting into BIOS (F10) or Startup Menu (ESC):

• Power on the laptop and immediately start tapping the F10 key.
• If you get into BIOS, check if the SSD is detected under Storage Information.
• If it is not listed, the SSD might have failed.

Run HP Hardware Diagnostics (F2):

• Power on and keep pressing F2 repeatedly.
• Run System Test and Hard Drive Test.
• If the SSD test fails, it's likely the SSD has failed.

Try Safe Mode / Recovery (F11):

• Power on and press F11 to boot into Windows Recovery.
• If you get the Advanced Options, try Startup Repair or Safe Mode.

Check External Display (if possible):

• Connect an external monitor via HDMI to rule out a display issue.

Next Steps if the SSD is Failing:

• If the SSD is not detected in BIOS or fails diagnostics, you'll likely need to replace it.
• If it is detected, but Windows won’t boot, you may need to reinstall Windows using a bootable USB.

Let me know what happens when you try these steps!
 

I hope this helps. 

Take care and have a good day. 

Please click “Accepted Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping! 

Max3Aj

HP Support 

[Megh6]

Hi Max,

sorry for the late reply. I’ve tried a lot of things to combat this issue, and it seems like a big mix of problems: firstly, I pressed windows + B and it gave me the error “the bios recovery files cannot be found or the files are corrupted. So I went on the hp website and the put the bios files on a usb stick. I pressed windows + B with the usb drive plugged in and nothing happened I.e black screen again. I did some more research and tried windows + V which gave me a different error of “the CMOS checksum is invalid” error 502. My computer doesn’t not have a CMOS battery so I’m not sure what n meant to do with that error. I tried plugging in the usb stick while pressing windows+ V and the computer turned off, when I powered it on then it turns on roughly 3 seconds and the caps lock key flashes only once before the laptop turns off. I actually opened the laptop after this but didn’t find any obvious damage myself. I tried things like reseating the ssd but nothing happened. The ram is underneath a heat sink so I did not bother reseating it. When I press f11 continually in the bottom left corner it displays “ F11… system recovery” with nothing else seeming to happen. When I do the same thing with F10 it displays in the same corner “F10..BIOS setup options” with nothing happening after. On the other hand, when I press F2 continually, it says “F2 .. Startup Check” in the corner and then said something along the lines with hard drive booting something UEFI. I know that’s probably not helpful but for some reason I can’t replicate the error again. Thank you so much for you help,

Megh

[Megh6]

I actually just managed to do the same error through F11. It said hard disk error. Please run the hard disk test through system diagnostics. Hard disk (3F1). F2 - system diagnostics. I pressed F2 but nothing happened. I’m assuming I need to replace my ssd?