Member Avatar for capnkiki01

I have an hp pavilion zv6000. When I turn it on the hp screen comes up for a few seconds then a black screen comes up with a flashing cursor at the top left. The computer stays on but doesn't repond to anything. The bios menu works with F10 at the hp screen, I tried to do the hdd self-test but it gets stuck at 10% and won't finish. Any ideas?

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Dani AI

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The symptom set in the thread — HP logo, then a black screen with a blinking cursor, and the HDD self-test stalling at ~10% — strongly points to a failing disk or unreadable sectors rather than a simple Windows boot problem. and were right to suspect the drive; ’ note about MBR/boot issues is also valid. Priority: preserve data before any repair attempts that write to the disk.

A practical, low-risk workflow that avoids further damage is:

  • Boot a small Linux live USB (SystemRescue/Ubuntu) and attach a large external drive for the image.
  • Check SMART (read-only) to see drive health.
  • Create a sector-level image with GNU ddrescue so attempts can be resumed and the original drive isn’t stressed.

Example commands run from a live session (adjust device names; older PATA drives may appear as /dev/hda):

sudo apt update && sudo apt install gddrescue smartmontools testdisk
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda         # read SMART data
sudo ddrescue -n /dev/sda /mnt/backup/zv6000.img /mnt/backup/zv6000.log
sudo ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sda /mnt/backup/zv6000.img /mnt/backup/zv6000.log

After a stable image exists, attempt file/partition recovery from the image (testdisk/photorec) rather than the failing drive. If SMART shows many reallocated sectors or ddrescue fails immediately, the fault is physical (heads/PCB); further DIY attempts risk making recovery harder. For stubborn BIOS behaviors reported later in the thread, try simple hardware checks first: gently reseat the laptop’s drive and inspect the connector/cable; a CMOS reset (brief battery removal) can clear weird BIOS locks on older HPs. If the image process is not possible or data is critical, stop further writes and consult a professional data-recovery service.

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Member Avatar for HoustonIT

Sounds like your hard drive has become corrupted. Boot to your XP CD, and choose the repair option. At the command prompt, type chkdsk /r. This will try to repair the bad sectors on the drive. If this doesn't work, you may have to replace the drive. You should replace the drive in any case because this is usually the beginning of the end.

Member Avatar for coolraj003

Yep what houston said, sounds like the hd is giving up on ya. So do the suggested and hopefully you ll have the system up and running soon.

Raj

Member Avatar for steco

If there is a black cursor flashing after a ghost image has been done from a defective hard drive do the foloowing.

Copy entire ghosted image drive to another drive.

Formate and install windows xp on new drive on HP laptop.

Remove hard drive.

Place hard drive in external casing.

Copy all files from backup include hidden directories and system file.

Once finished place hard drive back in laptop and all should be okay.

www.triples.co.za
Data recovery and solutions experts

commented: I agree. I see this alot after ghosting a hard drive. It is due to a bad master boot record. The steps here are best and will work. +1
Member Avatar for ddavismt

hp pavilion zv6000 no boot
same as discrbed above, screen good, BIOS access ok. no boot to cd, hdd, usb, anything??? please help
ddavismt

Edited by ddavismt because: n/a
Member Avatar for high heels

a blinking cursor in the upper left corner is most likely a master boot record issue. if you just Ghosted your drive do the steps by Steco. If it just started this run fixmbr from the recovery console.
you may have to change the boot order in the Bios to boot from a cd or usb device.

Another reason that it may be doing this looking at your reply is that the system can not find any good boot device. to check this boot from a cd. Again you may have to change the boot order to do this. Also just because you can access the bios does not mean you can change the bios. make sure the bios is unlocked so you can.

hp pavilion zv6000 no boot
same as discrbed above, screen good, BIOS access ok. no boot to cd, hdd, usb, anything??? please help
ddavismt

Edited by high heels because: n/a
Member Avatar for ddavismt

high heels..
As stated in my original post, neither HHD, CD/DVD ROM Drive, OR USB Drive or Diskette Drive are Bootable....None of them. I have since traced the issue to a possible corrupted BIOS, and found instructions to recover the laptop. However, I don't have a parallel port for "Boot-Block" Jumper and nothing happens when power on with FN+B or Win Key+B, or Win Key+Esc. for use with the Crisis Recovery Diskette. No ghosting has occured.

Edited by ddavismt because: n/a
Member Avatar for high heels

Understood. Not knowing what level of knowledge you have in computers I had to ask about the changing of the boot order in the bios. Since you have done this and still can not get it to boot. I would say this is not going to be an issue that one can talk you through. Personally I'm not 100% set on the bios being bad though. This is because when a EEPROM goes out or the programming gets messed up you can not access it or when you do the text is all messed up. You never indicated this being the case. Your issue sounds more like a main board issue and replacing / flashing the bios will not help. I'm also not sure if you can flash the bios from a floppy or usb due to the fact you can not boot from a floppy or usb.

Best of luck on this and please let me know what you find out on it.

high heels..
As stated in my original post, neither HHD, CD/DVD ROM Drive, OR USB Drive or Diskette Drive are Bootable....None of them. I have since traced the issue to a possible corrupted BIOS, and found instructions to recover the laptop. However, I don't have a parallel port for "Boot-Block" Jumper and nothing happens when power on with FN+B or Win Key+B, or Win Key+Esc. for use with the Crisis Recovery Diskette. No ghosting has occured.

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