HP not booting correctly

[RipperT]

I have an HP pavilion desktop (XP home) that exhibits the following behavior
over and over: Push the button on the box to start - no HP splash screen-
shows black screen error: "Reboot and select proper boot device or Insert
boot media in selected boot device and press a key." Pressing a key
generates the same error. The only way out is to push the button on the box
to shut it off, then push it again, then I get the HP splash screen and it
boots into Windows. This only happens when starting the machine by pushing
the button on the front of the box. If you shutdown and restart from within
windows, it restarts just fine. I have been into the BIOS and set up the
boot order to HDD, floppy, CDROM (the only three options available). I've
also tried it with the floppy first and the HDD second - no change. I've
also reset the BIOS defaults with no change. This all started when I had to
use the HP recovery CD that came with the machine because the Windows
installation was damaged. The recovery CD reinstalled the windows system
files (I beleive); none of my data files were altered or erased. I am
reluctant to update the BIOS without more evidence that it is the problem;
every BIOS flash I've ever done turned out somewhere between poor and
disastrous. I don't know what else to check. Help!
Thanks,
Ripper

 

[Juan Perez]

Hi:
According with the description that you gave us, looks like a problem with
the HDD. When you make a cold startup, the HDD needs to start to spin up.
The BIOS is ready, but the HDD is not ready yet, thus the BIOS is not
detection the HDD.

When you make a hot reset the HDD is spinning and the BIOS do not have
problems detecting it.

Try to call HP, and explain them the porblem. May be just a BIOs update will
fix the probelm.

 

[Paul]

I have an HP pavilion desktop (XP home) that exhibits the following behavior
over and over: Push the button on the box to start - no HP splash screen-
shows black screen error: "Reboot and select proper boot device or Insert
boot media in selected boot device and press a key." Pressing a key
generates the same error. The only way out is to push the button on the box
to shut it off, then push it again, then I get the HP splash screen and it
boots into Windows. This only happens when starting the machine by pushing
the button on the front of the box. If you shutdown and restart from within
windows, it restarts just fine. I have been into the BIOS and set up the
boot order to HDD, floppy, CDROM (the only three options available). I've
also tried it with the floppy first and the HDD second - no change. I've
also reset the BIOS defaults with no change. This all started when I had to
use the HP recovery CD that came with the machine because the Windows
installation was damaged. The recovery CD reinstalled the windows system
files (I beleive); none of my data files were altered or erased. I am
reluctant to update the BIOS without more evidence that it is the problem;
every BIOS flash I've ever done turned out somewhere between poor and
disastrous. I don't know what else to check. Help!
Thanks,
Ripper

In addition to Juan's suggestion, you can download a HDD diagnostic from
the hard drive manufacturer's web site. For example, if the drive was
made by Seagate or Maxtor, you'd go to seagate.com and look for a download
there. The diagnostic may warn you about a disk which is about to fail.
In which case, at the very least, you should back up your data to another
hard drive, so you don't lose everything. Check the label on the drive,
or use a utility, to determine who makes the drive, so you can find a
diagnostic. The diagnostic exists, to justify warranty returns to the
manufacturer, so the diagnostic won't necessarily give a long explanation
of what is broken.

Hard drive manufacturers also have transfer software, for when you
purchase a new internal hard drive. The transfer software can be used to
transfer the contents of the old hard drive, to a new hard drive.

Now is also a good time, to think about your backup strategy, such as
what would happen if the hard drive simply stopped working. Is the
user data on the disk, backed up somewhere ? You can get a USB
based external hard drive, to do some backups.

The symptoms make it sound like the hard drive is slow to start up,
and that may be why the BIOS has concluded you have no boot device.

I learned my lesson once, about how quickly you should respond to an
ailing computer. One night, I started getting the "click of death"
from a hard drive. I checked the drive and I could still see all the
contents. But I was tired, and decided I'd do a backup the next day.
The next day, I turned on the computer, and "no hard drive". She was
dead and gone. And with it, all my data :-(

So don't leave it too long, to do something about it.

Paul

 

[RipperT]

Many thanks for the excellent advice. The drive is a Seagate. I've
downloaded and run the diagnostics and it passed all tests. So, I suppose it
is just becoming slow to start up. I will contact HP and see if they have
anything short of replacing the drive.
Rip

 

[Dragomir Kollaric]

Many thanks for the excellent advice. The drive is a Seagate. I've
downloaded and run the diagnostics and it passed all tests. So, I suppose it
is just becoming slow to start up. I will contact HP and see if they have
anything short of replacing the drive.
Rip

Sometimes one gets this error when a cable which connects
the HDD to the PC (inside of course) fails, or gets
corroded. I saw this on a PC a friend of mine fixed. All it
needed was to pull the cables out at both ends and stick
them back in. Also the power cable can show the same error.
I forgot to plug in the 4 cable plug into the HDD and got
some similar error. Of course a failing HDD but it seems you
can rule that one out.



Dragomir Kollaric