Black screen on start up & bios update/recovery not fixing it?

[Cece19]

My hp pavilion laptop was set to update a few days ago I left it to do so whilst I went to stay at my partners house for the weekend when I arrived home all it had was a black blank screen. Not wanting to disrupt an update if it was still in the process I left it alone for another 24 hour soon realised nothing changed. 
 

I switched it off & on & the HP symbols shows with the circling dots under it but then I loads to a blank black lit screen. I did a little googling & tried the bios recovery, which it did & then I got the blue screen with the sad face saying windows ran into a problem & the laptop would restart. 
 

it did the restart & again I had the HP symbol with the dots going around in a circle before getting the same blank lit up screen. What else can I do to try recover it? I can hear the fans etc working away but nothing is happening on screen!
 

I am not against getting a new laptop if it’s needed but I have pictures & videos on this laptop that I’d rather not loose, my last hp laptop died a slow death due to a badly placed cup of coffee & I lost all pictures videos etc & I can’t afford to lose these memories again (I hope they are in the cloud incase that is the only option 🤦🏼‍♀️) 

serial: [edit]

model: 15-AF54NA

[iomare]

Hi,

Are you sure the model number is 15-AF54NA, as the serial number gives 15-ay163nr

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-15-ay100-notebook-pc/12499456/model/13851282/document/c05333...

Anyway, try performing HP hardware diagnostics at boot and see if there are any hardware problems (such as the Hard Drive)

Turn off the PC by holding the power button. Turn on PC and continuously  (and repeatedly)  keep pressing ESC until the startup menu appears and then press F2 to enter diagnostics. Try the fast test, or at least the hard drive test.

See if there are any hardware errors.

Let me know,

David

[Cece19]

Hi David, 

thank you for answering. 

That’s strange about the model number as it’s definitely what is written on the underneath of the laptop. How odd. 

I did as you suggested & did the fast test everything passed except for Hard drive short DST check which failed, I have no idea what this means or if this is fixable?

[iomare · Accepted solution]

Your welcome.

It means the hard drive has failed and needs to be replaced. This is why it takes you to a black screen. Let's trust the serial number and consider the model number 15-ay163nr (do the specs match your machine in the link I provided above?).

Now, while you are at it, you should really consider upgrading to an SSD as it will give a great boost to everyday performance of the notebook.

So yuo can reaplace with a regular 2.5" Hard Drive (max 2TB because of thickness)

Example:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-BarraCuda-Internal-Drive-Cache/dp/B07D99KFPK/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywor...

or much faster 2.5" SATA3 SSD

Example:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-MX500-CT500MX500SSD1-NAND-Internal/dp/B0784SLQM6/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ke...

On page 44 of the service manual, you can see the steps to replace the drive (make sure to remove the screws under the rubber feet and some plastic tool to separate the top from bottom)

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06189781

To reinstall Windows (here is a small guide):

Download media creation tool from Microsoft on PC (different PC), run and create a bootable pendrive with the OS on it. (there is an explanation on the Microsoft web page on how to create the pendrive). Create the drive with Windows 10 Home 64-bit edition. Windows will automatically activate once installed and connected to the Internet.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you choose this option you will need to use the pendrive to perform a clean install of Windows 10. You might need to disable fastboot and secure boot in BIOS (probably not). So, insert the pendrive in the PC and it should boot directly from the drive. If not, turn off the PC by holding the power button. Press the power button and immediately keep pressing ESC until the startup menu appears and then press F9 and choose the pendrive in the boot menu. Once it boots from pendrive follow the procedure to install Windows.

When finished installing allow Windows to completely update and find all or most drivers. You can follow this process by going into settings > Security and update > click on Verify for updates. You might need to reboot a couple of times.

 I recommend installing HP support assistant which will help keep your drivers up to date and much more. You can download the latest version from here.

https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/hpsupportassistant/hpsupport.html

Once completely updated you can go into device manager and see if there are any missing drivers (there will be yellow exclamation mark next to the device). You can find these drivers and software on HP support page for your product.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-15-ay100-notebook-pc/12499456/model/13851282/product-info

You can then try to recover files from the old drive by using a SATA to USB cable

Example:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/USB-SATA-Adapter-Cable-Drives-en-GB-SATA-USB-3-0-converter/dp/B01N2JIQR7/re...

You will need to connect the drive as an external drive and go to the User folder, choose your User Name and open folder. It can take a while to open as it will automatically change the security settings for each file in the folder (even 5 minutes or so)

Naturally, the drive might be so far gone that it will not work. In that case, you could send to a data recovery place and try to recover the files (can be really expensive)

Hope it helps,

David

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