Laptop problems

My son's laptop crashed on him while in college. I was able to get it rebooted and loaded PC tools recover to recover his photos from it. I was successful in getting them; however, once I finished, it seems like the computer went into a sleep mode and would not "wake".

I've tried turning it off and starting again; however, nothing will load. I just get a blank screen...not even the cursor in the upper left hand corner, as I had before.

I tried to reboot and hit the F8 to get to a bios page, but nothing happens. I have tried all of this with the battery in and with the AC hooked up. It turns out the same with both.

I did purchase one of those hard drive envelopes to try to transfer the pix from it to my desktop, but I can't get that to work out either!

His laptop is a HP Pavilion zv5000 running Windows XP.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

Does it make any POST beeps when you re-boot?

 

Thanks for your response. No, no beeps...just the sound of the motor running and the little blue lights on the power button and "mouse" area. The screen does actually get a little "lighter" (for lack of a better word)..not totally black.
thanks again!

 

Hmm. Could be that either the RAM has failed or the video card.

You say you've hit the F8 key to get into the BIOS ( I would've expected this to get into Safe Mode actually) but have you tried hitting the CTRL key to see if that will get you into Safe Mode?

 

If you get some movement from the graphics, but no beeps, I would see if it is dusty inside, and that the cpu has not overheated.

 

It seems this sort of issue is common on hp laptops.

From searching around, The general recommendation, is to disconnect the ac adaptor, take out the battery, and hold down the power button for about a minute, to discharge the system- then reconnect the battery, and ac adaptor.
Talk is that hibernation is a culprit, so if it does start up, turn off hibernation.

 

It seems that the batterys can also need draining completely, and recharging , as they get older.
Have you tried starting with just the battery ?

 

I've not tried the Ctrl key, I will give it a try.
thanks

 

Also, if you download the manual from HP, check RAM, HD and the , if you have a WLAN card, or any other pci cards fitted - REMOVE AND REPLACE, AS A LOOSE CONNECTION/POOR/DIRTY FITTING/CONNECTION CAN BE A CAUSE.

 

Some laptops will not work without the battery,AND ac supply fitted, but you can try after, reconnecting without battery , as well as, without ac supply - one at a time.

 

Thanks for all the advice. I will give it all a try...I'll try anything right now! Also, for the hibernation, how do you turn it off?

The laptop was pretty dusty too (sitting in a dorm room for 3 years now and I'm sure he didn't clean it often, if ever). I tried the canned air to blow some of it out.

As I said, I will try all of this and see what happens! Thanks again. I'm sure I'll be back on though.

 

To turn of hibernation, --On Desktop, right click, properties, screensaver, power, hibernation, and untick hibernation, if it is ticked.

 

Thank you both for all of your help, but I'm afraid none of this has worked on getting this laptop to boot up.

As I said, when I power it up, I can hear the motor run; however, no beeps or other sounds. The screen goes from dark black to a light black and stops there.

There are no other things hooked up to this laptop..no WLAN cards or anything else. There is nothing in the drives.

I've tried to boot it up with the battery in and no AC to it. I've tried it with no battery and only the AC and then with both in it, but it's always the same as above.

I cleaned it all out with the canned air again, just to make sure there wasn't anymore dust around.

I tried hitting the F8 on start up and the Ctrl on start up, still the same as above. I also tried the discharging of the system (removing the battery and holding down the power for about a minute before putting it back in)...and I hate repeating, but I got the same results again.

Any more ideas? I'm at such a loss on this one.
thanks again for all of your help!
P.S. almost forgot...there are no graphics at all on the screen

 

Try 1 stick of ram , disconnect hard drive,- no other connections.
Startup, press f2 to see if you can get into bios.It is best to keep tapping immediately you press the start button, as it can skip past the bios sometimes.
If you do not get into bios, restart press del, to see if you can get into bios .

 

Have you tested the battery? it may not be holding enough charge, or the charger may be faulty- can you get them checked, or, substituted.

My favourite saying:
sometimes the obvious eludes us.

 

From HP manual--
If the blue light does not come on when you try to start --power adapter fault.
Is the light is blinking---low battery

 

Manual
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00072829.pdf

 

I have only just found it
PRESS F10 to enter bios

 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&product=385148&dlc=en&lang=en#c00034791_menu
IF you get into bios, scroll down to

Reloading the default settings
Complete the following steps to reload the factory installed BIOS Setup settings:

1.
In the BIOS Setup utility, select the Exit tab.
2.
Select Load Setup Defaults.
3.
Select Save Changes and Exit (pressing F5 and the Enter key will also load the Setup Defaults).
4.
Press Esc and then Enter to exit Setup.

 

:cry I'm so sorry, but it just seems that nothing is working so far. I'm ready to scream!

When I power the laptop on, the blue light does come on and it does not blink...it is steady...with and without the AC connected.

I took out the hard drive and just left in the one stick of RAM and tried to restart it using the f2 key and also the del key...still the same thing.

I have not tested the battery. I'm not sure how or where you do that.

Thanks for the link to the HP manual. I will look through it to see what else I may find. I've tried the things on the HP website before I logged onto your site.

Thank you for all of your time and help. It's greatly appreciated!
p.s. I just saw your post about the f10 and will try it. Thanks!

 

At this point I don't think I'm ever going to get to the Bios page.confused

I tried the f10, and no such luck. I will be searching the manual for anything else.

If you think of something I can try, as always, it will be greatly appreciated.

 

I am new to this thread, so please excuse my ignorance, but have you tried an external monitor? Most local thrift stores have them for between 5 and 20 dollars.