HP G60-635DX will not boot up or get past black screen with blinking cursor

[pagee23]

Hello, every time I turn on my HP G60-635DX Notebook, I get a black screen with the cursor just blinking. I'm running Windows 7 64-bit and I tried to do a system recovery using the recovery CD's that I purchased online, but the computer will not get past the blank screen. I tried clicking on the F11 key but nothing happens. How can I return the computer to the factory settings using the recovery CD if I'm unable to get past the blank screen with the blinking cursor? Here are the product specifications for my notebook http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02033074

Thanks

PG

[HaggisCat]

Could be a hard drive failure.

 Shut right down and upon boot up start immediately tapping the f10 key to get into the BIOS.

 In the heading bar use your arrow and enter keys to navigate to diagnostics.

 There will be a test for the hard drive there, I quick one and a long one that may take up to four hours.

 Do the short one first and if it passes, do the long one.

 If you can't get into the BIOS let me know, but if you can't it usually means a problem with the MoBo.

[pagee23]

Thanks for the response, sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I'm running the quick test at the moment and I'll let you know the results. Not too fund of running the long test but I got a do what it takes to try to get back running again. Thanks again.

[pagee23]

Hello it's me again. I performed both the quick and long hard drive tests and both passed. When I tried to boot the compute up again, I still received the same black screen with the cursor just blinking. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

[HaggisCat]

Test the RAM, you can do this in "Diagnostics" where you tested the hard drive, or you can do it physically.

 To do it physically, remove one stick from the upper slot and try to boot the laptop, if it boots then the stick you removed is bad.

 If it doesn't boot, then remove the bottom stick and insert the other one in the bottom slot, (don't insert in the top slot, when running one stick of RAM, it must be inserted in the bottom slot.

 If you need help physically checking the RAM, post again.

[pagee23]

Hello I was able to run the Memory test and it passed. I also took out one of the Ram chips, while leaving the other in, turned on the computer and still got the same blank/black screen. I replaced the chip with the other chip and still I got the same thing. Any thing else I can try.

[HaggisCat]

Not much else to do here.

 You can assume that the hard drive is bad even though it passes both tests. One of the sure ways to test this is install a known working hard drive and try to boot from an OS disc or some working recovery DVD,s.

 There have been times that hard drives are faulty even though both BIOS tests pass.

 It could be a problem with the connection to the video card to the mobo, even though you can get into the BIOS the MoBo may have a problem in that area.

 If you're in the US, this guy comes recommended to test the video card problem.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-DV2000-DV6000-DV9000-TX1000-Laptop-No-Video-REPAIR-/260674058980?pt=LH_De...

 One of the problems with helping people on a forum is that it can become difficult to trouble shoot things from afar. It gets to the point where the laptop needs to have some physical tests done at a repair shop.

 I am going to put this on someone else's desk, maybe he has something to add that I have missed.

 If the machine is 2 or 3 years old you may want to consider buying another one if it becomes too expensive to repair.

[DavidPK]

Hi,

Use another PC to create a Windows 7 Rescue CD.  Download the ISO from the link below.

Windows 7 64bit

You should use an application such as ImgBurn to burn the ISO to a CD - a guide on using ImgBurn to write an ISO to a disc is Here.  Once created, or if you already have this, insert the CD into the notebook, restart and see if the notebook will boot from it - don't do anything else just yet, just post back with whether the disc boots or not.

Regards,

DP-K 

[HaggisCat]

Thanks David.

 The other thing that occured to me after reading David's post is if you're booting from the CD correctly. In some cases a computer will not boot from a CD even though it's bootable.

 Boot the laptop up and eject the DVD drawer with the button on the face of the drawer and shut down. You can also use the end of a bent out paper clip by inserting it into the small hole to release the drawer. With the second method you don't have to boot up the computer.

 With the drawer open and the computer is completely shut down insert your bootable CD into the drawer ( either your first recovery CD or David's Window's repair disc.

 Make sure that you nothing plugged into the USB ports, close the drawer and upon boot up immediately start tapping the f9 key.

 Select to boot from the CD/DVD ROM Drive and push enter. In your case you may get a message to push any key to continue with the operation.

 Try David's recovery disc first as it's the least evasive of the two.

[pagee23]

Hello David, thanks for the tip. I copied the Windows 7 64-bit file to a CD, inserted the CD in the DVD drive and got the notice to press any key to continue after booting up the computer. After clicking on the spacebar, I was able to get to the System Recovery Options screen. I clicked on next and the System Recovery Options was able to find the OS - Windows 7. I clicked on next to use the recovery tools that can help fix problems with Windows. The Choose a recovery tool screen appears and I selected System Restore, clicked next, selected an Automatic Restore point, clicked next, clicked on finish to allow the process to begin and clicked Yes. The system restore went through the process of restoring the files and was successful. I took out the CD before clicking on restart to reboot the computer. After rebooting the computer, I still got the same black screen again. I went through the whole process again. I left the CD in the DVD slot and after rebooting the computer, I had to press any key for the process to begin all over again still not resolving the issue.