My computer isn't starting up.

[JollyBaker]

I tried starting my computer, but it sends me to the black screen of death. I have a Windows 10 HP laptop, and I deleted HelpPane. When I press F2, it proceeds with the startup check, but never finishes it, and when I press Ctrl+alt+del, it restarts, goes to battery extremely low, I do have it plugged in, and then I press enter, and happens again.

Help!

Ps. I left it for 2 and a half hours, still just a black screen with "F2...Startup Check" in the bottom left corner.

 

[ILuvGames]

Try starting up windows again. When it tries to boot up (spinning dots), hold down the power button and keep doing so until the laptop shuts down. Then do it again. This should force it to do a hard power down. On the third start, windows should try and enter the recovery environment. If it does, you can try and repair the system there.

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

Try starting up windows again. When it tries to boot up (spinning dots), hold down the power button and keep doing so until the laptop shuts down. Then do it again. This should force it to do a hard power down. On the third start, windows should try and enter the recovery environment. If it does, you can try and repair the system there.

No, what's best to go there is to try to boot into Windows, and then mash the F8 key like there's no tomorrow. THEN you'll see advanced startup options, and can select startup repair from there, I believe.

 

[ILuvGames]

No, what's best to go there is to try to boot into Windows, and then mash the F8 key like there's no tomorrow. THEN you'll see advanced startup options, and can select startup repair from there, I believe.

That should work too but, the way I mentioned should make Windows 10 try and do an automatic repair first. I've read it's possible for it to bootloop while trying to do so but the OP hasn't come back yet to let us know if either of them worked.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

No, what's best to go there is to try to boot into Windows, and then mash the F8 key like there's no tomorrow. THEN you'll see advanced startup options, and can select startup repair from there, I believe.

I don't think this has worked since Windows 7. The only way to access advanced startup now is by rebooting into it from a working Windows install, using a setup disc/USB, or doing what the person suggested.

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

I don't think this has worked since Windows 7. The only way to access advanced startup now is by rebooting into it from a working Windows install, using a setup disc/USB, or doing what the person suggested.

Well, that's bullshit to my ears... Why would the remove the F8 thing!?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Well, that's bullshit to my ears... Why would the remove the F8 thing!?

No idea, your guess is as good as mine. It's stupid.

 

[Hayato213]

I believe op have to use a windows 10 iso to do the repair, as @The Real Jdbye said in order to get into advance boot menu you have to hold down shift key when you press the restart button.

 

[JollyBaker]

That should work too but, the way I mentioned should make Windows 10 try and do an automatic repair first. I've read it's possible for it to bootloop while trying to do so but the OP hasn't come back yet to let us know if either of them worked.

I tried the F8, and as Jdbye said, it didn't work. Then I tried holding shift, idk if it was because of the "replace battery" menu, but that ALSO didn't work. I've yet to try a hard power down, but can I do it if the spinning dots don't show up? Because I turn it on, then it says "replace battery", I press enter, then nothing, no spinning dots whatsoever, just a black screen, and then "F2... Startup Check" when I press F2. Also, Win+Ctrl+Shift+B doesn't work either.

Edit: I tried holding the power button, too. That also didn't work.

Edit 2: I removed my battery, but all that did was remove the replace battery screen. I held shift+ctrl+alt+del, because ctrl alt del was what made it restart, and still didn't work. Wait a minute, what IS the restart button anyway?

 

[ILuvGames]

Have you tried to see if you can get into the HP Boot Menu? They should tell you how to enter it in the manual if you have it. If not, the esc key or f9 at boot seem to be the most common ways to do so. If you can enter it, you can try the hardware diagnostics or attempt a recovery from there. You could also try esc+f11 on boot too.

If you can boot into safe mode you can access the windows recovery options by shift-left clicking on 'restart' from the start menu (which is I think what Hayato213 was referring to). I wasn't sure if it would work from safe mode but I tried it on my desktop and it does.

If you still don't have any joy, other than the other advice that was made about creating the windows install media on a usb stick or something like Medicat to try and recover the system i'm at a loss. Sorry.

Post automatically merged: May 8, 2023

Well, that's bullshit to my ears... Why would the remove the F8 thing!?

No idea, your guess is as good as mine. It's stupid.

Just in case it interests you there is a way to put it back it (kind of) using a bcdedit command to enable or disable it. It gives you back the old Windows 7 boot manager screen but if you choose advanced options, It gives you the new look startup settings in Windows 10.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/22455-enable-disable-f8-advanced-boot-options-windows-10-a.html

 

[JollyBaker]

Idk about that, but my mom and I are trying to fix it rn, thinking it may be a hardware thing.

 

[ILuvGames]

Idk about that, but my mom and I are trying to fix it rn, thinking it may be a hardware thing.

Unless something has failed (hardware) or is otherwise causing problems, maybe trying to follow this and the links contained in it will help you in a better or easier to understand way.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-boot-up/3d4f129b-5932-42d4-b950-2a52a6650f59

 

[JollyBaker]

We concluded it's probably a failed update, and we're going to get a flash drive, on my dad's computer, install the BIOS, and then if it works, we also tried taking apart a broken laptop to get the RAM in case that's the problem, it wasn't, but hey, second stick of RAM.

I can't think of a moral about it not working here, I can really only say the moral may be "Don't throw a broken laptop away, you may be able to use it for spare parts."


I'll get back to this after testing the BIOS thing

 

[ILuvGames]

We concluded it's probably a failed update, and we're going to get a flash drive, on my dad's computer, install the BIOS, and then if it works, we also tried taking apart a broken laptop to get the RAM in case that's the problem, it wasn't, but hey, second stick of RAM.

I can't think of a moral about it not working here, I can really only say the moral may be "Don't throw a broken laptop away, you may be able to use it for spare parts."


I'll get back to this after testing the BIOS thing

Not sure what you mean by 'install the bios'. If you mean 'update the bios', approach with caution. This is normally only meant to be done if the BIOS update solves whatever issues you have.

 

[tech3475]

Well, that's bullshit to my ears... Why would the remove the F8 thing!?

It happened due to the switch to UEFI, thanks to quick boot, etc.

I agree it's stupid (could have just required holding down a key ala Macs), but there are kludges as ILiveGames says, I just use Macrium Reflect (a backup/recovery software with a free version) to enable the GUI bootloader and add itself to the list.

Just the other day at work I had to force a bunch of computers into recovery mode by repeatedly unplugging and turning them on again because corporate released a bad update.

 

[ILuvGames]

I tried starting my computer, but it sends me to the black screen of death. I have a Windows 10 HP laptop, and I deleted HelpPane. When I press F2, it proceeds with the startup check, but never finishes it, and when I press Ctrl+alt+del, it restarts, goes to battery extremely low, I do have it plugged in, and then I press enter, and happens again.

Help!

Ps. I left it for 2 and a half hours, still just a black screen with "F2...Startup Check" in the bottom left corner.

I don't normally link to youtube videos but see if this helps you as it goes through almost (if not all) the reasons on why this happens and i'm pretty sure it will help you.

 

[JollyBaker]

Not sure what you mean by 'install the bios'. If you mean 'update the bios', approach with caution. This is normally only meant to be done if the BIOS update solves whatever issues you have.

I mean install a BIOS update on a flash drive, and put the flash drive in my computer, because it's likely a failed update.

 

[RandomUser]

Well, that's bullshit to my ears... Why would the remove the F8 thing!?

The F8 thing is still there, just need to either enable legacy boot menu policy:

bcdedit /set {current} bootmenupolicy Legacy

or enable display of boot menu

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes

Just what @ILuvGames posted a link earlier.

Actually there is an even better option if you want advance startup setting without the need to press F8, shift key when restarting, or the need for older style boot-loader.

bcdedit /set {default} ADVANCEDOPTIONS YES

bypasses the need to press F8 and/or Shift key.
If you want to apply this setting onto an offline OS, that is possible as well:

bcdedit /store "Path to the BCD store"\BCD /set {default} ADVANCEDOPTIONS YES
An example:
bcdedit /store F:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD /set {default} ADVANCEDOPTIONS YES

This will have recovery boot option as well, by pressing F10.

Just the other day at work I had to force a bunch of computers into recovery mode by repeatedly unplugging and turning them on again because corporate released a bad update.

Does doing this causes chkdsk to automatically run a check? I would imagine doing that will eventually cause a data corruption.

I mean install a BIOS update on a flash drive, and put the flash drive in my computer, because it's likely a failed update.

This should be reserve for a last resort type of thing. Messing with these things can brick your PC and if said PC does not have a BIOS recovery feature or if you don't possess an external Programmer, then you could be SOL. Now by update, are you talking about Windows updates or did you flashed an updated BIOS ROM file? Also flashing a BIOS ROM file designed for another/different PC is a very bad idea.
Thinking about the wording, AFAIK most flash drive will not let you update or install firmware to it. You can only copy the BIOS file to the flash drive, but not install to the flash drive. Although I could be wrong. However SSD can be update-able.

 

[JollyBaker]

Ok, I did the USB BIOS thing, but now I encountered "Boot Device Not Found Hard Disk (F30)", then I tried the hard drive check... and "No hard drive installed. Please check that the power and data cables are connected properly."

TL;DR: The BIOS recovery worked, but my hard drive's corrupted.

 

[ILuvGames]

Not sure why you updated the bios as you never stated your reasons. If you go back into the bios again, choose to load the optimized default settings for the bios and see if you get the same error after it restarts. If you still get the same error, make sure the hdd/ssd is properly connected as you were asked and try to boot it again. If the drive was failing or had some connection issues, you could have found that out before you updated the bios by watching the video I linked to. If that's the case, updating the BIOS won't have magically fixed it AFAIK.