interesting problem

[zombine210]

i'm troubleshooting this HP DV5 laptop with the following problem, on boot, the screen remains active, but blank.

i know the screen is good because i'm able to access the bios settings. here's what i've done.

first i removed all accessible components: memory, hdd, wireless card, battery pack. on boot, i get the normal blinking code for "memory error" as per the HP troubleshooting site. :good:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...teHome&tool=&query=DV5-1010ed&product=3773621

put one stick of memory in, and boot. no bootable device... error. :good:

reseat hdd cable and plug sata hdd back in. on boot, same symptom: get the HP splash screen, then nothing. blank screen, no error messages or blinking lights. we're getting somewhere

remove hdd, boot from memtest usb boot drive.
*note memory passes 2 cycles(about 20-30 minutes), no errors.

boot from live linux bootable usb into puppy os.
*note everything looks good!

find another hdd, plug that in. same symptom: blank screen, no error mssg, no blinking lights.

*interesting turn of events!
i can't boot from any of these usb drives anymore. i can't run memtest or boot into linux anymore

remove the cmos battery and set all bios settings to default values. nothing.
tried all combinations of memory sticks and slots. nothing

so... any ideas, or should we call it in?

 

[Twiki]

That would sound like your screen resolution is out of range. Did you try booting to VGA mode?

 

[zombine210]

not a screen/resolution issue.

after re-seating the cmos battery and setting all bios options to default values again, i noticed the boot options were zeroed out.
as in:

boot order option:

0000
0000
0000
0000
usb dvd drive

so yeah. i'm replacing the motherboard.

 

[pasqui83]

I would of said it would of been a faulty mobo where it reads the hd but that would normally bleep? But yeah defo a mobo error if everything is out and the only thing that won't fire up is the hd.