[insideitall]

4 year old HP Pavillion. 1Ghz pentium III, 40 gig, 128 megs ram. Unfortionately has ME.

Turned it on this morning and all I got was the blue HP logo screen. The orange "thinking" light is stuck on. Restarted by pushing the power button in - sometimes it will turn off as soon as I push it, sometimes I need to hold it. A few times the mouse (laser) was blinking. The keyboard LED's do flash at first but then do not stay on (usually the num lock light remiains on).

Did get to the f8 menu one try, but it then froze on the "windows ME" screen.

No funny noises. Also cleaned the dust out of the fan. Saw a 'tip' on another page that suggested disconnecting the power supply and holding the power button down - no change.

Was working fine last night, burned a few cd's, and it shut down properly.

Not sure if this is related or not, but scandisk has not been working properly for as long as I can remember. Usually progresses, then suddenly starts over, but does finish - recently, for the past few months, it has been starting over soon after it starts and keeps doing that. Have tried running it after a proper startup in safe mode and in normal mode, but neither works.

Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong? I will be eternally grateful if I don't have to lug it somewhere where they'll charge all my limbs to fix the thing

Edit: Also, after having started it in safe mode, the black screen comes up when I boot up and asks how I want to start. It has been doing this since I started it in safe mode even though I choose normal every time.

Edited by insideitall, 18 May 2005 - 11:27 AM.

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so it is, or is not, starting in safe mode?

[gerryf]

so it is, or is not, starting in safe mode?

[insideitall]

Sorry, my edit wasn't clear. The black screen is what it had been doing, after trying to fix scandisc a few months back by starting in safe mode.

Currently it is doing what I previously stated, sittin there all happy on the blue hp logo screen and doing nothing else.

[gerryf]

But you can or cannot get into safe mode, tapping f8?

It sounds like a corrupt drive/file or registry...

Since MS decided that we don't really need DOS in WinME, this complicates things. I would like to do a scan disk in DOS or safe mode

The reason it failed before is you likely had a softwareprogram accessing the drive, whic restarts scan disk

[insideitall]

Is there anyting that can be done if it won't actually boot up?

Sorta puts a damper on being able to fix it when it's stuck on that stupid screen (yes, thank you, I'm aware this is an hp.. move on, move on..)

Would I need to get a new hard drive?

Edit: No, I can not get into safe mode. Hitting F8 worked once, but then it froze on the next screen. It is being very uncooperative and driving me

Edited by insideitall, 18 May 2005 - 12:42 PM.

[gerryf]

another thought.....

start with a windows 98 bootdisk (www.bootdisk.com)

boot and at the
a:\
type
c:
<enter>

then
cd windows
<enter>

then
cd command
<enter>

then type

scandisk.exe
<enter>

[insideitall]

Nope, no disk reading. I also tried using the restore cd that came with the computer, followed the instructions (put disk in, turn computer off, wait a bit, turn back on) and nothing happend.

No one knows why it might be doin this?

Maybe this time kicking it isn't such a bad idea

[gerryf]

bad harddrive.

It's hanging because the motherboard is trying to gain control of the drive and cannot. If the dumb HP splash screen was out of the way, you could see that.