Member Avatar for mosesjr17

my laptop (hp 630) wont boot up, when i turn it on it just brings a black screen with a cursor blinking in the top left corner. i tried to wait for some hours but nothing happens, i even tried changing the operating system but when it restarts for the final time to finish the installation the same thing happens. what should i do? please help

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As reported by , an HP 630 that powers on to a black screen with a blinking cursor after an attempted OS install most often means the firmware did not find a bootable loader or the internal drive is disappearing during the reboot. As observed, RAM and the disk are primary suspects; pointed out that diagnostics can be run from removable media, and raised the same boot-from-USB question. The following clarifies the likely causes and a practical, ordered troubleshooting plan that fills gaps left by earlier replies.

Recommended diagnostic sequence (easy-to-try first, then more invasive):

  • Check firmware setup (press the laptop's BIOS/UEFI key at power-on) and confirm the internal drive appears in the storage list and the boot order is correct. Note whether the firmware is set to UEFI or Legacy/CSM mode; a mismatch with how the OS was installed can cause this symptom.
  • Remove all external USB devices, then power-cycle fully (battery out if removable, AC adapter off, hold power 15-30 seconds). Reseat any user-accessible RAM modules and try booting with one module at a time if there are two sticks.
  • Boot a known-good external environment (USB/CD diagnostics or live OS) to isolate hardware from software. If the external environment runs, examine the internal drive from that environment to check SMART status and whether partitions are present.
  • If the drive is not detected or shows errors, remove it and connect to another machine via a SATA-to-USB adapter or enclosure to recover data and run deeper diagnostics. If the drive fails SMART or is flaky, replacement is the usual remedy; cloning or file recovery should be attempted before replacing.

If the drive tests good but the system still stops at the blinking cursor after an install, use the OS installer/recovery environment to run startup-repair / rebuild boot files (match firmware mode first). If the unit is under warranty, contact HP before opening chassis. Opening or swapping parts risks warranty void and ESD damage; when in doubt, a trusted repair shop can perform the drive/board isolation described above.

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Member Avatar for Begginnerdev

It sounds like you may have a memory, or hard drive problem.

My suggestion would be to download and run a memory test (Memtest86) and run chkdsk to check the hard drive for any errors.

Member Avatar for mosesjr17

but how am going to run the downloaded memory test, because my laptop wont boot at all.

Member Avatar for Octet

but how am going to run the downloaded memory test, because my laptop wont boot at all.

MemTest86 is a live testing program, what this means is that it runs directly on the flash drive or CD that it is installed on. It is essentially an operating system, that doesn't get installed onto the computer itself.

commented: Exactly! +8
Member Avatar for Assembly Guy

MemTest86 is a live testing program, what this means is that it runs directly on the flash drive or CD that it is installed on. It is essentially an operating system, that doesn't get installed onto the computer itself.

That's correct but can he boot from any media at all, including USB flash memory?

EDIT: Never mind, he said that the changed the OS.

Edited by Assembly Guy
Member Avatar for mosesjr17

i have tried them all, it still cant boot even after changing the operating system, could it be a hardware failure? if so what do i do?

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