Anyone have any clues as what can be wrong. Thanks in advance.

kammie - 2020-11-30 08:48:00

Does it have anything at all during the startup phase of the device - or is it black at all times ?

Also can you try plugging in an external screen ?
What exact model is it ? (this will be on a sticker or plate under it)

nice_lady - 2020-11-30 08:50:00

push and hold power button while it is 'on' to kill it.
remove battery if you can

king1 - 2020-11-30 09:00:00

This message was deleted.

kittycatkin - 2020-11-30 10:48:00

Usually the 'other thing' is to disconnect the mains power, then remove battery and then hold the power button for 30 secs or more. Then try starting with just power cord connected.

soundsgood - 2020-11-30 12:53:00

NiceLady-The screen is black. The on light is blinking. I can hear a fan struggling to spin,

Edited by kammie at 3:40 pm, Mon 30 Nov

kammie - 2020-11-30 15:40:00

Nice-Lady - This is a HP Pavillion Laptop. Model 14-ce2054TX

Edited by kammie at 3:51 pm, Mon 30 Nov

kammie - 2020-11-30 15:50:00

Ok follow the service in post #5 if you can. Sometimes the battery isn't removable without pulling the thing apart.

If that's the case then just hold the power button down for about 30 seconds. That should shut it off. After that unplug it from lower if it's plugged in then hold the power button down again for 30 seconds. Then plug it back in and just presd power button to start as you would normally.

nice_lady - 2020-11-30 16:04:00

Thank you everyone. I will try these tonight.

kammie - 2020-11-30 19:03:00

It was a no go. Took it to the repair shop and man there said it was a faulty hard drive. All files will be lost. My Grandson is not a happy chappy. His course work was on it. Apparently its too expensive to fix as well.

kammie - 2020-12-01 15:14:00

kammie wrote:

It was a no go. Took it to the repair shop and man there said it was a faulty hard drive. All files will be lost. My Grandson is not a happy chappy. His course work was on it. Apparently its too expensive to fix as well.

umm I would question the repair shop about this and/or get a second opinion...
Firstly, data can often be recovered from a failing drive, often without too much effort, but worse case by sending it to a lab, which does get expensive.
Second, replacing a drive isn't usually that expensive that it makes it uneconomical to repair, unless perhaps it's a cheapie (under 600-700), if it was a reasonably expensive machine in the last few years, it's probably worth doing...
Third, be wary that the shop isn't just leading you into buying a new laptop... that was my first thought

king1 - 2020-12-01 15:32:00

lol you can have a new disk for under $100.

bitsnpieces2020 - 2020-12-01 16:13:00

kammie wrote:

It was a no go. Took it to the repair shop and man there said it was a faulty hard drive. All files will be lost. My Grandson is not a happy chappy. His course work was on it. Apparently its too expensive to fix as well.

They're bullshitting you. Or they don't know their stuff. Or they're trying to get you to buy a new laptop.

It would be extremely rare for a faulty hard drive to cause you to have a blank black screen. That just does NOT happen. The computer will always have SOME stuff on the screen whilst it's starting up even if the hard drive was completely removed !

As for it not being worth fixing. That's unlikely. That's a pretty good laptop you have there's and hard drives are CHEAP. Yeah very cheap. $100 would pay for a new drive. And maybe a couple of hundred to install and set it all up.

How old is this machine

Edited by nice_lady at 5:11 pm, Tue 1 Dec

nice_lady - 2020-12-01 17:08:00

nice_lady wrote:

It would be extremely rare for a faulty hard drive to cause you to have a blank black screen. That just does NOT happen. The computer will always have SOME stuff on the screen whilst it's starting up even if the hard drive was completely removed !

yep good point, that's another thing that doesn't make much sense at all

king1 - 2020-12-01 19:05:00

I fixed a HP laptop for friends daughter a couple of weeks ago. In very dark room i could just see screen. Managed to navigate to HP support website and download graphics driver and install, took a couple of hours as computer was running to max with fan howling and on restart was all good. Got lucky i think.

peanuts37 - 2020-12-02 01:00:00

And I'd like to know if the OP did indeed try plugging in an external screen ? This could be done with HDMI and a tv easily enough.
And is the screen genuinely BLANK throughout the entire process of trying to start the computer ?

nice_lady - 2020-12-02 08:46:00

Sounds like a legacy graphics driver issue to me. Are you running windows 10? A legacy graphics driver issue causes a black screen and usually has the mouse pointer visible too, you can move it around the black screen but nothing else happens.

Try turning off 'fast boot' under power settings in the control panel. It takes longer to boot but the legacy graphics driver likes it more than being suspended in a state (like hibernation) it can't handle

I also suspect the recent windows updates are nuking peoples legacy graphics drivers (2004 on I think). One second they are working properly, add an update, and now they are not working properly.

muppet_slayer - 2020-12-02 11:38:00

muppet_slayer wrote:

Sounds like a legacy graphics driver issue to me. Are you running windows 10? A legacy graphics driver issue causes a black screen and usually has the mouse pointer visible too, you can move it around the black screen but nothing else happens.

Try turning off 'fast boot' under power settings in the control panel. .

Good trick considering the symptom.

nice_lady - 2020-12-02 11:41:00