HP dv2000 and Vista

deec0309

Member
This is my last stop before having to pay hundreds of dollars to the geek squad!! I have had the lap top since 06 and originally had XP on it then up graded to Vista Business. No real problems until a few months ago it started having issues with the wireless connectivity. All of a sudden it won't boot up. I have the Vista upgrade disk and the windows XP SP2 disk but all it does is power up and the hard drive light blinks 5 to 20 times but nothing on screen. I am prepared to start fresh and have tried to use the Vista Recovery torrent on here but even when using the IMGburn recommended on here it says a invalid file. So I tried to save it as a ISO and still the same message not to mention the fact that it is only 19.1K file.

I am not sure what steps to take since the screen won't even load up. Any suggestions would be great! Have a great day!
 
You should be able to boot your Vista DVD and get exactly the same facilities as on our recovery ISO.
Before you do that, interrupt the boot process at the BIOS flash screen, and go into the BIOS setup utility (there's normally an instruction on the splash about what hot-key to use - F1 on older HP XP PCs).
Once in there, make sure that your HDD and all of the RAM is being detected.
Reseat all the RAM sticks if necessary, and/or eject and replace the HDD several times to clean up the contacts. Then try booting again and see if it finds an OS to use.
 
Thank you very much. Ill let you know how it goes.

Addendum:

Well I tried many way to get a screen and still no luck. I am sure the disk would work but I can't even get a screen up. No DOS, no curser, no nothing on the screen. It's like it's not booting anything. I have power and control lights come on but no ones home. Any suggestions?
 
Last edited:
Not sure... nothing on the screen. How do I do that when nothing is on the screen? When I say nothing I mean no DOS prompt, no splash screen.... nothing. I hooked it up to a working monitor and still nothing. Any thought's?
 
It sounds like it's failing in POST before it even gets to the BIOS, in which case the only way it can communicate is through the speaker.
Are you getting beeps ?
If so count the number and pattern (e.g. 2 beeps, pause, 4 beeps)
They're the clue as to the location of the hardware failure.
 
No sounds. Just the fan and the cd/dvd drive until it realizes there is nothing there then stops. The HDD light flashes 10 times with no pauses then does not flash again. (When I have the Vista recovery disk in it flashes 20 times then stops) All of the keyboard lights are on. Other than that... nothing
 
The only other thing I can suggest before you return it for repair, if it's no longer under warranty, is to open it up and remove and reseat every internal component.
If you can't get any more signs of life than at present, there's no hope of fixing it through just software means.
Specially check that power is getting from the supply unit through to all the components.
 
Thanks Terry. I will try. If this does not work it may be worth just to go buy a Mac...lol

Addendum:

Would a new HDD do it? Since we don't know what is wrong would it be worth buying a new HDD?
 
Last edited:
Unlikely to be the HDD.
If you're getting no BIOS splash it's not even getting to the point where it'll try to use the HDD.
 
Back
Top