My Hp Laptop freezes at the startup screen.. Help!

[tweetypie]

Hi all

Afraid I'm having the same problem!  Laptop made a strange hard drive sounding noise - not a good one - crashed and now won't boot. 

As soon as the screen comes on it gives me two options, one to run system repair, which loads a black screen and does nothing, and the other option is to 'start windows normally', which won't get past the initial screen which says 'starting windows'.

I ran a hard disk test on the system diagnostics, which gave me the following info:

Smart check: passed

Short DST: Failed

Hard Disk 1

Failure ID (loads of letters/numbers)

Hard disk Test: Failed

I'm reading between the lines here, but I'm guessing...the hard disk has failed.  Is there any hope for recovery?  Of course I didn't do a backup!

System info:

Model:  Presario CQ57 Notebook PC

System ID: 3577

Product ID: A7S38EA#ABU

OS: Windows 7

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Bit stuck, so any help would be appreciated.

[tweetypie]

Update:

Just ran further diagnostic test from bios setup utility on 'Primary Hard Disk Self Test' option, and got the following:

Hard Disk 1 Full (305)

Don't like the look of that!

Please help...

[Jmarcello]

Greetings

As soon as the screen comes on it gives me two options, one to run system repair, which loads a black screen and does nothing, and the other option is to 'start windows normally', which won't get past the initial screen which says 'starting windows'.

I have ran diagnostics and have passed everthing so not sure what to do next. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[tweetypie]

Here's an update on my post:

I originally declared:

As soon as the screen comes on it gives me two options, one to run system repair, which loads a black screen and does nothing, and the other option is to 'start windows normally', which won't get past the initial screen which says 'starting windows'.

While shopping online on my other desktop PC for a hard drive enclosure with which to try and access my files, I had absent mindedly chosen the 'run system repair' option on my broken laptop. 

Again, I got the black-screen-of-nothing, but after about 20 minutes, an HP screen appeared with options such as 'restore to earlier' or something like it.  I was even given the option of doing a backup of the files first (which worked after about the third attempt), prior to successfully restoring the hard drive. 

No F10-ing or F11-ing, or BIOS or any of that,  I just let it run and chose the options from the HP screen.  It certainly took its time appearing though so I imagine most peeps would switch their laptop off before it even had chance to show up - like I did about 5 times!

It all works fine now just as if there was no problem - and yes, I have now backed up my files.

I hope this helps someone else. 

[Jmarcello]

Still having major issues. I have been able to enter Safe Mode but took about 45-minutes to load up. Every action I try to make takes at least 5-10 times longer than normal, including even simple things like selecting a file. I tried to run Start Up Repair and but it sat idle "pretending" to do something over night. Tried to restart it again, but not in safe mode - like a normal boot and it tool over an hour just to get the login screen. What does this all mean...how can I get this unstuck. Does this sound like a software or a hardware problem? If it is a software problem, I got no reservations about reformating. If it is hardware, what should I be checking? Computer is less than two-years old.

[BryanSJI]

My hp pavillion also freezes at startup screen.I tried all the methods and it also made this starange hardware noise.Called the service centre, tried everything but it still freezes at startup!! 6 out of 10 times it freezes!

[Davians_Mommy]

My laptop wont even show anything. Its just a blank screen and says something about press the esc key for startup menu. I really need this fixed asap because I work from home online!

[BHK6]

Hi Davians_Mommy,

I see that you are having problem with your laptop. When you press the ESC what happens? Does it give you any options? What operating system are you running? What is your product number?

Find your product number on a notebook:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00033108

Finding your OS:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows/which-operating-system

Thank you,

[Mani-Xubair]

Hello. .!!

I am using a HP Pavilion G6 - 2311TU Notebook PC with intel Core i5

OS: Windows 8 Enterprise

Serial Number:[Personal Information Removed]

Product Code: C9M61PA#UUF

Issue: When ever I start my PC it takes a Lot of time to Startup and sometimes hangup from the very begining and shows just a black screen.

Sometimes it Reaches the startup but my system runs very slow.

Is there somesort of BIOs issue or someother Hardware Issue.

Your prior concern Regarding the same wold be highly appreciated

Regards,

[Personal Information Removed]

[BHK6]

Hi Mani-Xubair,

Sorry to hear about your start up issues. Your post was very detailed thank you for that information. Let's start by checking the hardware. Below is a link to the hardware diagnostic tools that come as part of the original software. You can actually use these tools before you even get to Windows. The document will tell you how.

Testing for Hardware Failures Windows 8

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03467259

I also have a document about getting better system performance. It has a number of different things that you can try to help speed up the computer. Go through the document and do some of the maintenance steps there and you should see an increase in the speed.

Improving System Performance without Adding Memory Windows 8:

 https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05207140

Thank you,