Member Avatar for 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?

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Short expert summary: the symptoms you reported — the POST screen with the F-key prompts, F9/F11 doing nothing, and F10/Esc stalling at "Loading..." — fit two common causes. One is a failed hard drive or missing recovery partition (HP often keeps recovery/diagnostics on the HDD), which explains why F9/F11 would be non‑responsive. The other is a firmware/initialization hang triggered when the BIOS tries to probe a device it cannot talk to. 's CMOS battery reset was a good quick check and, per ’s update, replacing the hard drive restored normal boot behavior — that strongly suggests the original drive was the main culprit.

A compact diagnostic workflow to confirm and rule out other problems:

  1. Disconnect all nonessential external devices (USB sticks, card readers, printers) and remove extra internal drives/cards.
  2. Boot with the minimum hardware: one RAM stick, CPU, GPU (if required) and keyboard only.
  3. Try a different keyboard and different USB ports (rear ports or PS/2 if available); press F10/Esc repeatedly during POST.
  4. Remove the HDD entirely and try entering Setup/Boot Menu—if it opens, the drive was interfering.
  5. Run memory tests (MemTest) and swap RAM sticks to rule out bad DIMMs.
  6. Visually inspect the board for bulging/leaking capacitors and check all power/SATA connectors and cables.
  7. If the BIOS still hangs with minimal hardware, consider BIOS recovery/reflash using the exact HP BIOS file (do this carefully — a bad flash can brick the board).

If the new drive fixed it, reinstall the OS, enable SMART monitoring and run full hardware diagnostics to confirm stability. If problems persist (setup still hangs on minimal hardware or you find bad capacitors), a motherboard repair or replacement is reasonable; when replacing a board in an OEM HP, prefer an identical OEM part or one that matches the CPU socket, chipset, power connectors and front-panel wiring to avoid compatibility headaches.

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Member Avatar for 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.

Member Avatar for 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?

Member Avatar for 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.

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