Hp Envy - Can't Access BIOS or Startup Menu After HDD Replacement

[Commmett]

Hello!<br><br>A friend of mine was having issues with their computer and gave it to me to fix. First thing I did was attempt to boot it up and it didn't even boot. It attempted automatic repairs and failed. Then attempted to repair startup issues through Win8 startup screen and failed that too. So, I attempted a refresh and even that failed. I took out the hard drive, plugged it into my home PC, and backed up any data I could find. I had issues working with some of the data, and often it would crash my windows Explorer (as my friend said it did while they were using the PC), so I determined the HDD was shot.<br><br>Got a new HDD and put it in. Grabbed my Windows 8 disc and slapped it in. When I went to boot the PC, I tried hitting all of the BIOS keys I could think of: Esc, f2, f8, f10, and f12, even Del. Nothing worked. It just sat at the HP logo and then after about 20 seconds it went to a black screen that said something along the lines of &quot;No boot disk detected&quot;.<br><br>I can't get it to boot into BIOS. If I plug the old hard drive in, I can get to the blue Windows 8 startup screen with the settings like &quot;Refresh&quot; and &quot;Reset PC&quot;. If I try to access the CD/DVD drive under the &quot;Access Devices&quot; button, I get a black screen with a cursor. It just freezes there. If I try to access UEFI settings, it freezes at the blue menu with the functions.<br><br>I'm really not sure what to do here. I'd appreciate any help! Never had a problem this stubborn before.

[CherylG]

To boot from a CD/DVD tap the Esc key immediately after powering on. From the menu tap F9 Boot Options. Arrow down to select/highlight CD/DVD then tap Enter key.

Btw-you may have to enter BIOS (Esc key,F10 at power on) and Disable Secure Boot in order to boot from cd/dvd.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03489643#desktopolder

[Commmett]

I've tried hitting escape and it doesn't work. It just ignores the key press. That and every other key I've tried... I saw somewhere else that to enter BIOS you hit Esc and then F10 and that didn't do anything either.

[Commmett · Accepted solution]

Just wanted to come back and say I fixed my problem.

The computer didn't like the keyboard I was using! I grabbed a pretty generic keyboard that was laying around and plugged that in. Hitting Esc on boot brought me to the startup menu.