HP Computer will not Boot

All thanks for looking....I'm at a loss what to do next.

I have an HP Pavillion a640n
Specs from front of case read
3400+ AMD Athlon 64 processor
512MB pc7200 DDR SDRAM memory (upgraded to 2 Gig via 2 1Gig ea. sticks a few years ago)160GB 7200RPM Ultra DMA hard drive
DVD+RW/CD-RW
CD-ROM
NVIDEA GeForce FX5200XT AGP 8x graphics card with 128MBDDRvideo memory
Processor speed 2.20GHz, 1MB L2 Cache 1200MHZ System Bus

Running WinXP Home SP3

Computer began a few inadvertent shutdown/restarts last Thursday/Friday..every few hours or so, but became more persistent (every 10 to 15 minutes) so changed settings to allow reading of BS. Only two instances outside normal use these two days was a Windows Update, and expiration of Kaspersky Internet Security liscence.

First BS read Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Or_Equal
STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x008B5680, 0x000000005,0x00000000,0xB900D8BA7)

NV4_mini.sys-Addres B90D8Ba7 base at B90B9600

Ran Defrag and then Check Disk. Ran Check Disk with setting to auto fix bad sectors...words to those effect, did not note what it did.

ReBoot to Safe Mode with Networking no issues for hours in any program or software.
Reboot to Normal Mode and another BS within 2 minutes reading same as above except without numbers in parenthesis.
Reboot to Safe Mode reading many Forum articles reading possibly to memory issues.

1 at a time I removed each memory stick, and even changed position of each stick in one of the two memory slots on this computer. All configurations...each stick 1 at a time in each slot, and 2 sticks at a time...well seated each time. Power was unplugged, capacitors purged, using the wrist strap thing. On every reboot attempt with these configurations
I get no signal to the monitor (monitor good), no Post Beeps. Fans Run DC and DVD lights blink, the light that usually shows hard drive activity blinks about once each 3-4 seconds, nothing else. Realized I had the original 512 M mem stick originally shipped with computer which was good when upgraded, and the same result.

What I've done since
Cleaned inside case with computer spray, and checked for unattached cables, tried booting with only monitor, mouse and keyboard connected, and still no go.

Hope someone will be able to assist.

 

Correct, unable to boot to any mode. I have the Recovery CD's for this computer and have been able to get them into the both CD and DVD trays attempting some action, but nothing occurs.

 

Correct. I get fans on, blinking CD and DVD Player drives, blinking HD indicator light, Motherboard Power light, and monitor showing no signal. On numerous boot attempts have tried tapping F1 F5 and F10 to get to Bios with no results.

 

From the BSOD of 0xD1 and the implicated NV4_mini.sys, there's a fair chance that it's the driver software that triggered the BSOD, through some corruption or recent incompatibility (Windows Update patch?).

Can you access the BIOS if you disconnect the hard drive?

Do you have access to a good AGP or PCI (not PCIe) graphics card to test with for a few days?

 

Just tried while HD disconnected and still no joy.

I don't have an unused graphics card, but may be able to access one, will need to see.

 

All,
I've decided for expedience sake to take this computer to a repair shop. Researching this issue further convinces me that the problem cannot be solved via this forum...or any other for that matter.

By no means, is this a reflection on Major Geeks, quite the contrary. I've many times had problems solved by the exceptional talent that contribute to this forum. So for you lurkers out there thinking this is a failure on MG's part, think again.

I will once the problem solved gladly report back my findings (repair guy's findings) so it might be of educational value to this great site, and possibly help others who find themselves in a similar situation.

 

First I want to thank "satrow" and "TimW" their attempts to correct my problem.

It turns out according to my Geek repair guy, the Capacitors on this Motherboard were bad. Hard to believe that within 24 hours a fully functional computer was rendered totally useless.

He mentioned that during the mid 2000's, many OEM computer manufacturers purchased inferior capacitors to build their machines.

The computer is now "Bigger, Badder, Faster" with a new OS, however it's owner is slightly lighter in the Wallet.

Lesson Learned
Anxiety reigned supreme when this computer died, thinking a Hard Drive issue, and what files like Photos, Passwords, and other valuable data and information that may be lost for ever. Fortunately in this case the Hard Drive info was still intact and recoverable.

So heed the often espoused advice here and elsewhere
Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup!

Best to all