HP Pavilion A6642p Will not access Boot menu

[Elieson]

Tricky thing here...most of the threads I see say their screen doesn't show anything when it won't boot up. My computer displays the vivid blue screen, with options to "F10=Setup", "F9=Diagnostics", "Esc=Boot Menu" and "F11=System Recovery". It does say v5.30 on the bottom, though I don't know if it means anything.

Anyway...Thing is, when I press F9 or F11, nothing happens, and when I press F10 or Esc, it'll display "Loading Boot Menu..." or "Loading Setup...". It never proceeds from there. I'd post pictures related to this, but my description is literally all.

I'm at a total loss. I've removed and replaced all my RAM, and nothing. I fear it's a Motherboard failure, but I don't want to buy a new motherboard if I can help it.

Any Advice?

[Bob_180_Bob]

Hi,
Try removing the motherboard battery (a flat round silver battery about 3/4 inch) leave it out for 3 minutes, then replace and reboot and see what happens. It should direct you to setup again and hopefully you can get there now. select a setting that has defaults in the title, save and reboot.
If it is working you will have to go back and set up the BIOS fully (Google how to set up BIOS) with the date, time and boot sequence.
If this fails I would guess that you have a motherboard problem and need to get a free or at least, low cost quote to repair your machine.

[Elieson]

Hi,
Try removing the motherboard battery (a flat round silver battery about 3/4 inch) leave it out for 3 minutes, then replace and reboot and see what happens. It should direct you to setup again and hopefully you can get there now. select a setting that has defaults in the title, save and reboot.
If this fails I would guess that you have a motherboard problem and need to get a free or at least, low cost quote to repair your machine.

Looks like it's not working...I'm still at the same spot that I was after the battery removal/reinsertion. I do know my motherboard model (IPIBL-LB)...Can I replace it with a different, better model, or should I stick with this one?

[Elieson]

Update: I've tried replacing the Hard Drive, and it seems to have worked. The Hard-Drive seems bad...I tried it in another Vista-compatible computer and it wouldn't even read. I still suspect motherboard problems though. When I re-install the OS onto my new Hard Drive, I'll see what turns up.