no video

updating HP pavilion 533w chip sets and driver. Lost all picture except

dash in top left hand corner. thanks for any help

 

:wave Welcome to Major Geeks! :major
OK.... I'm assuming that the PC is running Windows XP and what you're referring to is this: the PC turns on, you get the HP logo, then the screen goes black and you only have a blinking cursor in the top left corner. Right? This can mean a few things, including: the hard drive has crashed, the boot sector is corrupt or has been erased, Windows has become VERY corrupt, the hard drive has sector damage, the file system is 'stuck' and won't progress past the very initial stages of a boot. So, the first thing you have to do is get into the BIOS and make sure the PC even realizes that a hard drive is connected. Most HP's use F1 or F2; usually you'll see "Press <F2> for setup" or something similar right when the PC powers up. You might have to press Del if F1 or F2 don't work. Once in the BIOS, look around for "IDE1" or "IDE0" or "Primary Hard Drive" or something similar. If a device is listed, then half the battle is over and we know the PC is 'seeing' the drive. The next step is to visit the drive maker's web site, download and run their diagnostics to be sure the drive is even capable of being saved. If the drive is healthy, you'll then need your Windows install disc. Boot to it (set the CD as first boot device in BIOS) and enter the Recovery Console by pressing "R" at the first screen where it asks what you want to do. It will be a blue screen with white letters. Once in the Recovery Console, type chkdsk c: /r and press Enter. Running chkdsk can take a LONG time, and you may think the PC has locked up, it hasn't. You may see the percentage progress counter go backward, it's OK and totally normal. Let chkdsk finish. When it's done, type fixboot and press Enter. If you get any warnings like "Are you sure?" say "Yes". Then type fixmbr and press Enter. Again, agree to any warnings. Then type exit and press Enter to restart the PC. Remove the Windows XP disc from the CD drive and let the PC load as you would normally. Hopefully, all will be well! If not, post your results and we'll go from there. If there is nothing on the hard drive you want to save, then we can skip all of the above steps, boot to the Windows XP disc, format the drive and reload Windows. If that's the case, just follow the steps in this link and you can re-install a clean copy of Windows, but all your data and programs will be gone.

Good luck, and Happy Holidays!!!

(NOTE: in the chkdsk command above, there's a space before and after the c: and the command will not work if those spaces are left out)