Laptop won't boot past the mfr POST splash screen

dragonbite · June 7, 2014, 3:38pm

I recently received a Compaq Presario CQ56 laptop with an Intel dual core T4400 motherboard (thanks ML! :)) which has Windows 7 installed in a primary partition and most of the disk partitioned in an extended partition. I tried a couple Live USBs (openSUSE (Gnome), Fedora (KDE) and Ubuntu) which worked fine.

Last night I installed openSUSE (Gnome) with 4 separate partitions in the extended drive; <swap>,/boot, / & /home. I installed it from a LiveUSB session and did not see any errors. I set up the /boot partition and in the last screen I enabled booting from /boot instead of the MBR.

When I rebooted, the system comes up to the Compaq splash screen, where it tells you to hit ESC for the options.

And that’s it. It doesn’t do anything whether I hit ESC or leave it to finish; doesn’t boot, doesn’t go into options, nothing.

After removing the battery and reinserting it and striking F8 quickly when the screen comes up (F8 is the option for choosing boot-up location, which you see after you hit the ESC key) the text message changes to the Select boot device message (or something similar) but nothing happens.

I haven’t tried opening it up and either removing & replacing the CMOS battery, check the hard drive seating or seeing if there is a jumper switch yet.

In the past when the boot or hard drive is in a state that it won’t boot, I can at least be able to boot from a Live session USB or CD/DVD but in this case I am not getting that far.

Other than the already mentioned actions I plan to take (when I get a block to do it, so I am not rushed), do you have any suggestions on what could be the cause or how to fix it?

jetchisel · June 7, 2014, 4:07pm

If your installer is a DVD then you can try to boot your unbootable system with that.

boot dvd --> select installation 
Once booted and greeted with the EULA  --> select abort
Abort installation --> an error occured during the installation.
press ok --> then select start installation
boot installed system --> choose the root partition .

Then wait for it to boot ( cross your fingers too ) . You might get some boot errors but what matters is you can boot the unbootable system.
Check yast2 bootloader once booted sucessfully.

malcolmlewis · June 7, 2014, 4:35pm

On Sat 07 Jun 2014 01:46:02 PM CDT, dragonbite wrote:

I recently received a Compaq Presario CQ56 laptop with an Intel dual
core T4400 motherboard (thanks ML! :)) which has Windows 7 installed in
a primary partition and most of the disk partitioned in an extended
partition. I tried a couple Live USBs (openSUSE (Gnome), Fedora (KDE)
and Ubuntu) which worked fine.

Last night I installed openSUSE (Gnome) with 4 separate partitions in
the extended drive; <swap>,/boot, / & /home. I installed it from a
LiveUSB session and did not see any errors. I set up the /boot
partition and in the last screen I enabled booting from /boot instead of
the MBR.

When I rebooted, the system comes up to the Compaq splash screen, where
it tells you to hit ESC for the options.

And that’s it. It doesn’t do anything whether I hit ESC or leave it to
finish; doesn’t boot, doesn’t go into options, nothing.

After removing the battery and reinserting it and striking F8 quickly
when the screen comes up (F8 is the option for choosing boot-up
location, which you see after you hit the ESC key) the text message
changes to the -Select boot device- message (or something similar) but
nothing happens.

I haven’t tried opening it up and either removing & replacing the CMOS
battery, check the hard drive seating or seeing if there is a ‘jumper
switch’ (http://tinyurl.com/ofpq58b) yet.

In the past when the boot or hard drive is in a state that it won’t
boot, I can at least be able to boot from a Live session USB or CD/DVD
but in this case I am not getting that far.

Other than the already mentioned actions I plan to take (when I get a
block to do it, so I am not rushed), do you have any suggestions on what
could be the cause or how to fix it?

Hi
F9 should be the select a boot option?

Did you try installing into the extended partition rather than mbr
or /boot? Is the /boot active (as in the asterisk present)?

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 13.1 (Bottle) (x86_64) GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.11.10-11-desktop
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!

dragonbite · June 7, 2014, 5:01pm

Yes, F9 provides for changing the boot order, while F8 allows you to choose for that one time.

Unfortunately it is at the manufacturer’s splash screen (orange, or red, with the “Q” logo in the middle) and if I hit ESC, or F9 or F8 it changes the text but doesn’t go any further.

That’s what has me stumped! I can’t do the normal selecting the boot device (to DVD or USB) so as to boot to something else. It just hangs.

If it was a bad /boot configuration, that would be one thing but this, as far as I can tell, isn’t even getting to that point.

malcolmlewis · June 7, 2014, 5:03pm

Hi
Check the BIOS settings for boot order etc.

dragonbite · June 7, 2014, 5:07pm

I can’t.

It says it is entering any of the other modes (boot order, boot device) but never does. It freezes at that point.

malcolmlewis · June 7, 2014, 5:15pm

Hi
But you can boot from a live usb/dvd? Pull the drive out and see if you can get to the BIOS.

dragonbite · June 7, 2014, 5:17pm

I boot from the Live USB and installed openSUSE.

When I rebooted it does not even allow me into the BIOS. With or without a USB plugged in or DVD in the drive.

malcolmlewis · June 7, 2014, 5:26pm

Hi
Even booting into windows7? All very weird…

dragonbite · June 7, 2014, 5:34pm

I don’t think it is getting to the booting from a device stage.

Unless there was some way of bypassing that “Q” splash screen in the beginning, and see if there is an error hidden behind it.

malcolmlewis · June 7, 2014, 5:40pm

Hi
If you remove the hard drive and boot, any joy there?

lwfinger · June 7, 2014, 5:46pm

On 06/07/2014 10:26 AM, dragonbite wrote:
>
> malcolmlewis;2647903 Wrote:
>> Hi
>> But you can boot from a live usb/dvd? Pull the drive out and see if you
>> can get to the BIOS.
>
> I boot from the Live USB and installed openSUSE.
>
> When I rebooted it does not even allow me into the BIOS. With or
> without a USB plugged in or DVD in the drive.

If the hard drive has failed, the BIOS would behave just as you describe. Try
removing it and try rebooting.

gogalthorp · June 7, 2014, 6:09pm

You describe a MBR partitioning but you seem to have an EFI BIOS??

You can’t really mix modes so you can not install Linux under EFI if Windows is instilled under MBR

If you installed openSUSE under MBR then it should not touch the EFI BIOS But if you install under EFI changes will be made to the EFI.

dragonbite · June 7, 2014, 6:25pm

I’m going to try the hard drive crosses fingers

dragonbite · June 7, 2014, 6:37pm

That was it! I unplugged the hard drive and the system booted up and was responsive!

Whew! I was afraid it was something like a motherboard or something more involved.

Thanks everybody for your help! It’s an easy fixable thing!

malcolmlewis · June 7, 2014, 7:40pm

On Sat 07 Jun 2014 04:46:02 PM CDT, dragonbite wrote:

That was it! I unplugged the hard drive and the system booted up and
was responsive!

Whew! I was afraid it was something like a motherboard or something
more involved.

Thanks everybody for your help! It’s an easy fixable thing!

Hi
If your going to dual boot, I recommend a 250GB or 320GB drive, if just
one OS a 160GB or 250GB drive 7200rpm SATAII. I like the WD Black
versions and a reasonable price on Amazon. Else a small Vertex or
Agility OCZ SSD which should rock along…

I like the OCZ’s as you can download a bootable iso to upgrade the
firmware (I’m sure other brands do as well?).

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 13.1 (Bottle) (x86_64) GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.11.10-11-desktop
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!

dragonbite · June 7, 2014, 7:49pm

I was debating about getting and SSD, and to see the performance difference.

I’ve been spoiled with my other laptops because they were easy to pull out one hard drive and slide the other one in!

Fraser_Bell · June 7, 2014, 9:32pm

Just to clarify, though:

You said you could not enter the BIOS, but you do not mention the key for entering BIOS setup, only for boot choices, etc.

Did you try the following, which is appropriate for your machine?

Plug the AC Adapter into the computer if it is not already connected.

Turn off the computer and wait 5 seconds.

Press the Power button to start the computer and repeatedly press the F10
key to enter the BIOS Setup menu.

While in there, you can also disable the Compaq splash screen, disable quick boot, and you will get a proper boot showing you what is happening and showing errors instead of the blind splash screen.

Helps diagnose (will be handy next time you run into a bootstrap problem).

lwfinger · June 7, 2014, 9:55pm

On 06/07/2014 02:36 PM, Fraser Bell wrote:
>
> dragonbite;2647920 Wrote:
>> That was it! I unplugged the hard drive and the system booted up and
>> was responsive!
>>
>> Whew! I was afraid it was something like a motherboard or something
>> more involved.
>>
>> Thanks everybody for your help! It’s an easy fixable thing!
>
> Just to clarify, though:
>
> You said you could not enter the BIOS, but you do not mention the key
> for entering BIOS setup, only for boot choices, etc.
>
> Did you try the following, which is appropriate for your machine?
>
>>
>>
>>> >
> - Plug the AC Adapter into the computer if it is not already
> > connected.
> - Turn off the computer and wait 5 seconds.
> - Press the Power button to start the computer and repeatedly press
> > the F10 key to enter the BIOS Setup menu.
> >
> > > >
>>
>
> While in there, you can also disable the Compaq splash screen, disable
> quick boot, and you will get a proper boot showing you what is happening
> and showing errors instead of the blind splash screen.
>
> Helps diagnose (will be handy next time you run into a bootstrap
> problem).

On HP and Compaq laptops, if the BIOS detects that there is a disk connected to
the system, but that disk does not respond to probing, then the BIOS hangs
forever with the disk active light lit. Nothing that I have found can abort the
operation other than removing the disk.

dragonbite · June 9, 2014, 2:48pm

That’s what it seems to be doing, which is why I couldn’t get into the BIOS until it was unplugged. So now I have it unplugged and am using USB Live drives until I can get a new hard drive.