Friend/Co-worker's laptop isn't booting. It's a HP dv6000 series

It gets past the HP logo, so I assume it POSTs, but then I get a "PXE-E61" Media Test Failure, check cable error.

Since the problem is intermittent, I was once able to get it to boot into Windows normally and at that time, I updated the BIOS to the latest version.

The boot sequence is correct--CD->notebook hard drive.

I went into the BIOS and did a Hard Drive self-test, and it passes the quick, comprehensive and smart portions of the test.

I pulled out the RAM (while the battery is out) and reseated it.

I noticed that the hard drive door was loose so I took out the hard drive and reseated it and also fully tightened down the screws on the door.

What else would you folks recommend? I'm stuck.

Thanks.

 

Sounds like you've got an intermittent hard drive connection problem. When the system can't locate a local boot device it will try to boot off the network. That's the error your getting. If you've already tested the hard drive and tried to reseat it without success, I'm afraid there's an issue with the MB or the hard drive interface and your only choice is to send it back to HP for repair.

 

Gotcha, thanks.

This is the weird part though.

So, I just took out the hard drive and removed all of the removable connections. Then I blew out and reinserted everything.

Booted it up, same problem.

Went to the BIOS, changed the boot sequence to hard drive first, and now it starts. Except, the freshly installed OS seems to have corrupted itself.

 

what was the boot priority before you changed it?

 

CD, then HD.

Now, I have a new problem. Since the OS corrupted itself suddenly, I did a F11 and tried to boot into the recovery mode to reload the OS. Except, the moment the recovery starts, I get a memory dump and the computer reboots. So, something must be damaged in the recover partition?

Anyway, I have a Vista Premium CD from my Dell and I tried booting off of that. Only problem is, I had changed the boot sequence from CD-> HD to HD first. No big deal right? Well except, no matter how many times I try, I cannot go into the BIOS setup screen! When I hit F10 to enter setup, it just says please wait and hangs there.

Ideas?

 

The HP dv6000's are notorious for having MB problems. My wife's had to be sent back to HP for a replacement MB within a year of purchase, and finally completely failed after 3 years (out of warranty, of course).

Good Luck!

 

Crap...and it's out of warranty too:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...87277_identify

I wonder if HP does goodwill.

 

yeah, sounds like the mobo is flakin on you.

 

Probably.

Though, I did shut it off for an hour and when I came back to it, I was able to change the boot sequence back to CD-->HD so now I should at least be able to do bootable CDs. I tried booting it off my Dell's Disc #2 Windows CD, but it isn't booting but I am not sure if the Dell's Windows CD is bootable. I'll have to make a true bootable disc and give it a try.

 

My wife's started being flaky like that. Sometimes it would boot up and work for a couple of weeks, then it wouldn't work for a day or two, then it would work, then not....and so on until it just completely died.

It's just a matter of time...

 

pxe means its trying to boot to the nic...

 

^thanks!

Do you have a usb drive inserted when trying to access the bios menu? If so try removing that, on some PCs they will hang forever during the initial boot process until you remove the flash drive.

Also see if the IDE setting is wrong. If you can change it try setting it to AHCI and see if it boots if it's already at AHCI try setting it to IDE.

 

I, too, recommend technical sounding things with several acronyms and an order for performing them.

In addition [Insert Brand Here] is known for issues like this. You should seriously consider buying [Insert Other, More Desirable Brand Here].

 

Well said, glad you could help.

 

I think phee may be able to help.

 

My dell does that from time to time, when it does I place the side with the HD on the floor and gently press on the side to try and make the connection stick. Its been like that for at least two years now and still works fine. Cheap plastic parts.

 

I am welcome.

 

Long story short, after trying multiple things, I took all of the memory out of the HP and swapped in one 2GB stick of Kingston HyperX (taken from my own laptop) and all of the problems have been resolved. It loaded Windows just fine, hasn't had a single no-boot incident so far, nothing.

Now the dilemma is, what should I tell my co-worker? Pay me for a stick of ram? I'm not even 100% sure if that's the problem, but I tested the hard drive and it passed all tests, so I wasn't sure what else could be the problem which is why I started swapping out parts.

 

Well if it works after swapping the RAM then it was the RAM that was causing the problem.

 

Tell him the truth. It's an art not a science.

 

My engineer friend told me that I should put back the old sticks of ram and see if the situation changes.

Thoughts?

 

Okay, swapped out my HyperX for the original memory and the problem returned immediately. Put back the HyperX, no more problems.

 

So, I just did a clean install with the Vista Premium.

There are no unneeded services running at startup, everything is set correctly.

The problem is that there is about a 45 sec delay between the "welcome" user screen and when the desktop image and icons finally show up. During that 45 sec period, it's just a blank black screen.

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

^that's normal. Seems kinda long but if you're installing updates then that's about right. The delay should go away after a while. Patience, young Jedi....

 

make sure your drivers are up to date. Early Vista drivers are crap and is what caused the majority of Vista's problems in the early days. Current drivers are fine.

 

So to verify the diagnosis, I took the "problem" ram from the HP and installed it into my Dell laptop.

Immediately upon booting my Dell up, I get this message:

Memory Address Line failure at 1C04A080
Read FBFBFBFA, expecting FBFBFBFB

It gives me the option to hit F1 to continue, which I do, but then I get this message:

No physical memory available for Windows boot Manager. System Cannot Continue.

'Nuff said. Took out that memory and put back my HyperX and now my system boots fine.

So I think the memory is at fault here.

Oh yeah, and as far as the video card drivers go, they have been updated via Windows Update.

 

Like I said, you may have bad RAM.