Pavilion p6-2330

I'm trying to repair this for a friend. It goes to the W8 startup, which
whirls around for several minutes and goes to a blank screen. The easiest
thing to do would be to use a repair CD/USB, but I can't get into the BIOS
to change the boot order. I've tried F1, F8, F9, F10, F11, and all those
with the Ctrl key. I also tried Esc. Any hints, anyone? I'm ready to
chuck the thing out the window.

On 8/7/2016 12:30 PM, Thip wrote:
I'm trying to repair this for a friend. It goes to the W8 startup,
which whirls around for several minutes and goes to a blank screen. The
easiest thing to do would be to use a repair CD/USB, but I can't get
into the BIOS to change the boot order. I've tried F1, F8, F9, F10,
F11, and all those with the Ctrl key. I also tried Esc. Any hints,
anyone? I'm ready to chuck the thing out the window.

Use the F8 key during boot to go into safe mode, or use the F12
key during boot to select boot device.

On 8/7/2016 2:44 PM, . wrote:
On 8/7/2016 12:30 PM, Thip wrote:
I'm trying to repair this for a friend. It goes to the W8 startup,
which whirls around for several minutes and goes to a blank screen. The
easiest thing to do would be to use a repair CD/USB, but I can't get
into the BIOS to change the boot order. I've tried F1, F8, F9, F10,
F11, and all those with the Ctrl key. I also tried Esc. Any hints,
anyone? I'm ready to chuck the thing out the window.

Use the F8 key during boot to go into safe mode, or use the F12
key during boot to select boot device.

Given that this is a desktop, pull the battery, hold in power button
for 10 seconds, reinstall battery, use F10 during boot to enter setup.

On 8/7/2016 2:57 PM, . wrote:
On 8/7/2016 2:44 PM, . wrote:
On 8/7/2016 12:30 PM, Thip wrote:
I'm trying to repair this for a friend. It goes to the W8 startup,
which whirls around for several minutes and goes to a blank screen. The
easiest thing to do would be to use a repair CD/USB, but I can't get
into the BIOS to change the boot order. I've tried F1, F8, F9, F10,
F11, and all those with the Ctrl key. I also tried Esc. Any hints,
anyone? I'm ready to chuck the thing out the window.

Use the F8 key during boot to go into safe mode, or use the F12
key during boot to select boot device.

Given that this is a desktop, pull the battery, hold in power button
for 10 seconds, reinstall battery, use F10 during boot to enter setup.

The battery is the round thing, a third
over from the left and a quarter
up from the bottom of the motherboard in the below pictu
http://www.ascendtech.us/mmASC/Images/675852001-03.JPG

"." wrote in message ...
On 8/7/2016 2:57 PM, . wrote:
On 8/7/2016 2:44 PM, . wrote:
On 8/7/2016 12:30 PM, Thip wrote:
I'm trying to repair this for a friend. It goes to the W8 startup,
which whirls around for several minutes and goes to a blank screen.
The
easiest thing to do would be to use a repair CD/USB, but I can't get
into the BIOS to change the boot order. I've tried F1, F8, F9, F10,
F11, and all those with the Ctrl key. I also tried Esc. Any hints,
anyone? I'm ready to chuck the thing out the window.

Use the F8 key during boot to go into safe mode, or use the F12
key during boot to select boot device.

Given that this is a desktop, pull the battery, hold in power button
for 10 seconds, reinstall battery, use F10 during boot to enter setup.

The battery is the round thing, a third
over from the left and a quarter
up from the bottom of the motherboard in the below pictu
http://www.ascendtech.us/mmASC/Images/675852001-03.JPG

No Safe Mode in this baby. I wish! I know what the battery is. Thank you.

Thip wrote:
I'm trying to repair this for a friend. It goes to the W8 startup,
which whirls around for several minutes and goes to a blank screen. The
easiest thing to do would be to use a repair CD/USB, but I can't get
into the BIOS to change the boot order. I've tried F1, F8, F9, F10,
F11, and all those with the Ctrl key. I also tried Esc. Any hints,
anyone? I'm ready to chuck the thing out the window.

Disconnect hard drive. Pop in a Linux LiveCD and
let the clever BIOS find and boot the LiveCD. This
is a quick way of verifying the basics are working.

The next step, would be reconnecting the hard drive.
However, you can't control the machine unless popup boot
works. And if a password is set, the thing uses Secure Boot,
there could be all manner of resistance to your attempts
to get a BIOS response. (I have no experience with
Secure Boot.)

While it should say "Press any key to boot CD" when
both a LiveCD and a hard drive are present, that would
depend on whether the boot order in the BIOS was botched
or not. If the hard drive is in the order before the optical
drive, there would be no guarantee of being able to boot
the LiveCD, while the hard drive is connected.

And while you could try a Clear CMOS, that only works if
the passwords are stored in CMOS RAM. (Business class
computers store the passwords in a 2KB EEPROM, and pulling
the coin cell is useless for those.) You do the Clear
CMOS with AC power completely removed. And you cannot
even trust these sites, to warn you about the thing using
Secure Boot, and getting yourself in more trouble
than you bargained for.

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/p...r_na-c03343058

Any computer I get my hands on, one of the first things
I do is turn off the full screen logo, so the text messages
from the BIOS are visible. But that's only viable when
the computer is new, and the user hasn't messed it up yet :-)

You might get the black screen, if the unit happens to
have both integrated graphics and a video card. The
video could switch to the video card slot, just as the
desktop wants to appear. Although that class of AMD
gear, should allow both integrated graphics and
video card, to drive displays simultaneously. It
should be using impedance detection to figure out
what port the monitor is on.

*******

OK, another thing that comes to mind, is the machine
could be hibernated. (C: drive was last shut down
in hibernated state.) Having removed the power
though (while getting the machine to your house),
the hardware hibernate bit should be cleared. And
the keyboard input should work again. Once the
hard drive begins to boot though, if it sees a
valid header on the hiberfil.sys file, it can reload that
instead of doing a fresh boot. And Linux won't mount
a hibernated C: , so if Linux won't let you look
at the disk, that would be evidence it is hibernated.
Obviously, Linux respects the hibernated state, because
files could be open from the last session, and the file
system could be damaged by rummaging around in that
state. Linux doesn't respect the NTFS journal, so
any changes it makes would not be added to the
journal.

Paul

On 8/7/2016 4:16 PM, Thip wrote:
"." wrote in message ...
On 8/7/2016 2:57 PM, . wrote:
On 8/7/2016 2:44 PM, . wrote:
On 8/7/2016 12:30 PM, Thip wrote:
I'm trying to repair this for a friend. It goes to the W8 startup,
which whirls around for several minutes and goes to a blank screen.
The
easiest thing to do would be to use a repair CD/USB, but I can't get
into the BIOS to change the boot order. I've tried F1, F8, F9, F10,
F11, and all those with the Ctrl key. I also tried Esc. Any hints,
anyone? I'm ready to chuck the thing out the window.

Use the F8 key during boot to go into safe mode, or use the F12
key during boot to select boot device.

Given that this is a desktop, pull the battery, hold in power button
for 10 seconds, reinstall battery, use F10 during boot to enter setup.

The battery is the round thing, a third
over from the left and a quarter
up from the bottom of the motherboard in the below pictu
http://www.ascendtech.us/mmASC/Images/675852001-03.JPG

No Safe Mode in this baby. I wish! I know what the battery is. Thank
you.

I've never had a desire, need or actually bothered to use W8.

How To Boot Into Safe Mode On Windows 8 or 10 (The Easy Way)
http://www.howtogeek.com/107511/how-...-the-easy-way/

"." wrote in message ...
On 8/7/2016 4:16 PM, Thip wrote:
"." wrote in message ...
On 8/7/2016 2:57 PM, . wrote:
On 8/7/2016 2:44 PM, . wrote:
On 8/7/2016 12:30 PM, Thip wrote:
I'm trying to repair this for a friend. It goes to the W8 startup,
which whirls around for several minutes and goes to a blank screen.
The
easiest thing to do would be to use a repair CD/USB, but I can't get
into the BIOS to change the boot order. I've tried F1, F8, F9, F10,
F11, and all those with the Ctrl key. I also tried Esc. Any hints,
anyone? I'm ready to chuck the thing out the window.

Use the F8 key during boot to go into safe mode, or use the F12
key during boot to select boot device.

Given that this is a desktop, pull the battery, hold in power button
for 10 seconds, reinstall battery, use F10 during boot to enter setup.

The battery is the round thing, a third
over from the left and a quarter
up from the bottom of the motherboard in the below pictu
http://www.ascendtech.us/mmASC/Images/675852001-03.JPG

No Safe Mode in this baby. I wish! I know what the battery is. Thank
you.

I've never had a desire, need or actually bothered to use W8.

How To Boot Into Safe Mode On Windows 8 or 10 (The Easy Way)
http://www.howtogeek.com/107511/how-...-the-easy-way/

It's not my computer, it belongs to a friend. Thank God I always build my
own, since I literally know them inside and out. FWIW, I'm still running
W7. I know little about W8, and right now I'm learning far more than I ever
wanted to know.

There is no booting into Safe Mode with this thing. I've done everything
but do a handstand and sing to it. I suspect his kids shut it off during an
update. It's awful.

"Paul" wrote in message
...
Thip wrote:
I'm trying to repair this for a friend. It goes to the W8 startup, which
whirls around for several minutes and goes to a blank screen. The
easiest thing to do would be to use a repair CD/USB, but I can't get into
the BIOS to change the boot order. I've tried F1, F8, F9, F10, F11, and
all those with the Ctrl key. I also tried Esc. Any hints, anyone? I'm
ready to chuck the thing out the window.

Disconnect hard drive. Pop in a Linux LiveCD and
let the clever BIOS find and boot the LiveCD. This
is a quick way of verifying the basics are working.

The next step, would be reconnecting the hard drive.
However, you can't control the machine unless popup boot
works. And if a password is set, the thing uses Secure Boot,
there could be all manner of resistance to your attempts
to get a BIOS response. (I have no experience with
Secure Boot.)

While it should say "Press any key to boot CD" when
both a LiveCD and a hard drive are present, that would
depend on whether the boot order in the BIOS was botched
or not. If the hard drive is in the order before the optical
drive, there would be no guarantee of being able to boot
the LiveCD, while the hard drive is connected.

And while you could try a Clear CMOS, that only works if
the passwords are stored in CMOS RAM. (Business class
computers store the passwords in a 2KB EEPROM, and pulling
the coin cell is useless for those.) You do the Clear
CMOS with AC power completely removed. And you cannot
even trust these sites, to warn you about the thing using
Secure Boot, and getting yourself in more trouble
than you bargained for.

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/p...r_na-c03343058

Any computer I get my hands on, one of the first things
I do is turn off the full screen logo, so the text messages
from the BIOS are visible. But that's only viable when
the computer is new, and the user hasn't messed it up yet :-)

You might get the black screen, if the unit happens to
have both integrated graphics and a video card. The
video could switch to the video card slot, just as the
desktop wants to appear. Although that class of AMD
gear, should allow both integrated graphics and
video card, to drive displays simultaneously. It
should be using impedance detection to figure out
what port the monitor is on.

*******

OK, another thing that comes to mind, is the machine
could be hibernated. (C: drive was last shut down
in hibernated state.) Having removed the power
though (while getting the machine to your house),
the hardware hibernate bit should be cleared. And
the keyboard input should work again. Once the
hard drive begins to boot though, if it sees a
valid header on the hiberfil.sys file, it can reload that
instead of doing a fresh boot. And Linux won't mount
a hibernated C: , so if Linux won't let you look
at the disk, that would be evidence it is hibernated.
Obviously, Linux respects the hibernated state, because
files could be open from the last session, and the file
system could be damaged by rummaging around in that
state. Linux doesn't respect the NTFS journal, so
any changes it makes would not be added to the
journal.

Paul

I have a sneaking hunch his kids might have shut it off during an update.
It happened while he was at work.

I had to mess around with the BIOS something terrible to get it to accept
anything other than the Windows boot files. I have never encountered
anything like it before. It's just awful. I think they have witches and
warlocks working at HP who design these things so anyone outside HP will
have a nervous breakdown trying to work on them. The logo *is* turned off.
I did get it to load my beloved FalconFour mini-XP, but forget about even
looking at the C:\ partition. At this point, all I want to do is get his
pictures and videos off it and then do a restore on the effing thing. I
have never encountered a computer I couldn't fix (eventually) but I think
I've hit a wall here. I've got one more thing to try and then I'm done.

This thing *will not* boot from a CD. It's also very weird with the USB.
Forget using any in the front. I can get it to boot from a rescue disk but
my keyboard (which works during other operations) won't work unless I swap
ports. And I have to play musical ports since the one that worked one time
may not work the next. Gremlins, I tell you, gremlins. And someone fed
them after midnight.

"Thip" wrote in message ...
I'm trying to repair this for a friend. It goes to the W8 startup, which
whirls around for several minutes and goes to a blank screen. The easiest
thing to do would be to use a repair CD/USB, but I can't get into the BIOS
to change the boot order. I've tried F1, F8, F9, F10, F11, and all those
with the Ctrl key. I also tried Esc. Any hints, anyone? I'm ready to
chuck the thing out the window.

Some use the del key.....