HP laptop blinking cursor question

[synchromesh]

I know this probably belongs in another forum but there are lots of knowledgeable people around here so I'll try anyway.

I have HP ZV6000 AMD laptop which refuses to boot off the CDROM drive (I tried several including the original DVDRW drive). Instead it just throws a blinking cursor at the top left of the screen. I don't have the original hard disk so I put in one of my own. The disk (80gb Toshiba) is definitely good. Also, I can go into BIOS without problems.

So far I've tried reseating the RAM and using different sticks, loaded the BIOS defaults, even removed the BIOS battery for a while, removed the wireless card, tried varios OSs (both Linux and Windows) and of course tried various CD/DVD drives.

Now I'm thinking the problem must be a defective motherboard. Any thoughts or ideas? Did I miss anything?

[jdhurst]

<snip> Did I miss anything?

Did you set the BIOS for the correct startup order? That is, be sure the CD is in front of the hard drive. Trying to boot the hard drive first will create the symptom you have. ... JDH

[synchromesh]

<snip> Did I miss anything?

Did you set the BIOS for the correct startup order? That is, be sure the CD is in front of the hard drive. Trying to boot the hard drive first will create the symptom you have. ... JDH

Of course I changed the boot order. I also tried setting the order manually, ie escaping during POST and choosing CDROM as first boot device from the menu.

[jdhurst]

<snip>
Of course I changed the boot order. I also tried setting the order manually, ie escaping during POST and choosing CDROM as first boot device from the menu.

OK, you didn't say so in your post, which is why I asked.

Now, I had difficulty just recently booting from my Floppy Disk on my T41. It would access the Floppy Disk drive and then load Windows from the hard drive. Why? Because there is a Legacy FDD *and* a USB FDD in my BIOS boot order and I selected the wrong one. Is there any counterpart to this in your boot sequence.

Next: Does the hard drive have a security password that is conflicting with the startup process?

... JDH

[Kyocera]

please excuse if this is dumb question but when you say boot do you mean like a bootable CD like an OS or some kind of software tool or just AutoPlay, there is a way to disable autoplay in windows.

[bhtooefr]

Shot in the dark... does HPaq still put some of the BIOS on the hard drive?

[synchromesh]

<snip>
Of course I changed the boot order. I also tried setting the order manually, ie escaping during POST and choosing CDROM as first boot device from the menu.

OK, you didn't say so in your post, which is why I asked.

Now, I had difficulty just recently booting from my Floppy Disk on my T41. It would access the Floppy Disk drive and then load Windows from the hard drive. Why? Because there is a Legacy FDD *and* a USB FDD in my BIOS boot order and I selected the wrong one. Is there any counterpart to this in your boot sequence.

Next: Does the hard drive have a security password that is conflicting with the startup process?

... JDH

There is no way to boot off USB afaik. I think only options are network, hdd, cdrom and floppy. Network is not connected and there is not floppy drive. I put CDROM as first device to boot from.

Also, a bit more detail on actual booting. The CDROM does spin up after the POST screen goes away but then winds down and I get the blinking cursor. All CDs are used to boot from have been tested many times in other machines, they're all bootable and have no problems.

[synchromesh]

Shot in the dark... does HPaq still put some of the BIOS on the hard drive?

Umm, could be, dunno. Does it matter? If so, how can one change the hard disk then?

bhtooefr, d00d, you are everywhere.

[Stargate199]

Let's try this. Reset the BIOS to factory defaults. Now go back and change the boot order. See if this works. If not, download the latest BIOS and try again. This is a BIOS related problem. The BIOS is responsible for all boot process.

[tfflivemb2]

I would also try checking the hard drive pins, to make sure that they didn't get bent while trying to insert the hard drive, if it is the slip in style like the thinkpads.

Also, try blowing out the motherboard side of the hard drive connector, to make sure that there isn't a little hair in there....I had this happen on a T30....

[bhtooefr]

Shot in the dark... does HPaq still put some of the BIOS on the hard drive?

Umm, could be, dunno. Does it matter? If so, how can one change the hard disk then?

The idea is that you don't, and buy a new HP when your hard drive dies, but the average customer instead gets [censored] off and buys a Dell, or if they're a business customer an IBM. And, on those drives, there are ways to get the BIOS partition back on.

However, it seems that they didn't pull that stunt on this machine. If they had, it could explain it - the system won't successfully boot. (IBM actually used to do this a similar way on the PC Convertible, except the part of the BIOS to actually boot WAS in ROM, it was just the config app that was on disk.)

bhtooefr, d00d, you are everywhere.

Well, DUH. /me is a forum whore