Laptop starts with black screen and nothing else happens.

[Caravaggio]

Hello!

I recently offered to help my neighbor with his laptop. He said that all of a sudden it would not boot to Windows. The laptop turned on but the screen was black.

It is an Pavillion 17 - e011so.

When I try to turn it on I hear the fan, the DVD-reader spinning, the Caps-Lock blinking 2 times in a row and then a slight pause. The Wi-Fi buttons LED glows orange. The power LED glows and the screen is black.

I have tried:

- Taking out the battery and turning the laptop on with the power cord plugged in.

- Change the RAM to another slot.

- Change the RAM.

- Start up with no RAM. The only difference was that the laptop started to beep a couple of times.

- Change the CMOS battery.

- Plugging in an external monitor. Both to the VGA and HDMI output.

- Pressing and holding the Windows key+B+ESC at startup.

- Start the laptop with no HDD and DVD-reader.

- Install the HP PC HARDWARE DIAGNOSTICS 4-I-1 USB-KEY on a USB and start up the laptop with it inserted.

Nothing of the above has helped.

So what more can I do? I would be super grateful for help.

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

@Caravaggio 

Software failures will generate on-screen messages, usually about not finding an Operating System or not being able to boot. When the screen is blank, the PC is experiencing a major hardware failure.
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If the CapsLock key is blinking or there is beeping, read this HP information on the likely cause of the hardware failure based on the blinking or beeping patters.

For laptops, this HP thread describes the different blink and beep codes: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01732674?jumpid=reg_r1002_usen_c-001_title_r0001
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To determine the cause with hardware failures, you have to be able run diagnostics. We have no way of accessing your PC from here, so we can not do that for you. You have to do it yourself.

You do this by pressing the Esc key repeatedly when rebooting and then, when the HP Startup Menu appears, selecting Diagnostics (usually F2) and letting it run.

If it is NOT possible to run diagnostics, or if that does not work, then there is NOTHING more you can do by yourself -- and there is NOTHING we can do because we have no way of accessing your PC from here to run diagnostics or repair hardware.

You will need to have the PC physically examined in a service facility by folks that can run their own diagnostics to determine what is wrong with it.

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If your PC is still under the original one-year HP warranty, or if you have purchased an extended warranty from HP and this is still valid, then having HP do this is an inexpensive option for you. In that case, you should contact HP Customer Support to see about having it repaired or replaced under warranty.

Here is how you can get in touch with support:
Step 1. Here is the link: http://www.hp.com/contacthp/
Step 2. Select the product type.
Step 3. Enter the serial number of your device or select let HP detect your product option.
Step 4. Select the country from the drop-down.
Step 5. You should see the HP phone support number or Chat option listed.

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If your PC is no longer under warranty, then it will cost you up front to have HP examine your PC. If you want to do that, you will have to contact an HP Repair or Service Center to see if they can examine the PC to determine the cause(s) of the problems, if it can be repaired, and an estimate of the repair costs.

Since you live outside the U.S., here is a link to HP Service Centers, by Country/Region: https://support.hp.com/in-en/service-center

If you don't get useful results using the Service Center link, here is the main HP link:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp?openCLC=true

If you can't get assistance from HP, then you will have to seek out a local laptop service facility to have them examine it for you.

Good Luck