Black screen of death??

Okay so I have this laptop(emachine E525) that just doesn't want to boot up. It runs on windows vista and every time I select the repair or start windows normally option it either freezes or sends me to a black screen.

Tried the whole F8 thing but it doesn't work.
Launched it in the last known good config and nothing happened.
Tried running windows debugger and nothing.

Running out of options here. Seems like satan's OS has something against me!!

Any advice?

Does it work in safe mode?

reply to post by Scops


Na gives me beep beep sound. Its starts loading safe mode but then it just starts beeping.

Its corrupted.....or your hard drive is packing up.
Try reinstalling the OS....if it wont install you will know its your hard drive on the blink

Check the HDD with another computer. The booting sector may be damaged.

When it goes to black screen, is the laptop still responding? E.g. Making noise, flashing lights...

I've been in this rodeo before. See if you can get into a command prompt. Try using chkdsk. You want to use both the /f /r commands (fix, repair). Can take a long time to complete.

CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[:size]]

Sounds like the HD or maybe the fan has blown out with it making a beeping noise.

Sounds to me like you got the CPU too hot, and it has failed. Check the beep codes. Had a HP, nice big laptop in here a few weeks ago with the same problem, black screen, no repair mode, start on Windows XP install CD, always black screen.

Check your hard drive.

It might need taken out and put back in, or maybe it has worked itself kinda loose over time so you might need to push it back in a bit.

If you get it to boot, change your settings so that you aren't using power-safe mode.

Yeah, seems to be the hard drive. I need a recovery cd or something... chkdsk... well i'm not sure how to enable it when I can't boot or how to bring up the command promt

reply to post by SlovenlyGhost


Did you try making sure it is still in good and tight?

If you already made it snug and there was not effect, take it out and make sure the connection points are clean and then re-install it and try to turn the pc on.

reply to post by Exuberant1


yup,took it out and put it back in. everything seems to be in nice and tight. i'll give it a double check,though

USUALLY WHEN A LAPTOP BOOTS TO A BLACK SCREEN, EITHER THE ONBOARD VIDEO CARD
HAS FRIED, OR THE BIOS IS CORRUPTED, OR THE HARD DRIVE HAS DIED.

TO CHECK

PUT IN HARD DRIVE FROM ANOTHER LAPTOP THAT WORKS.. YOU SHOULD GET INITIAL SCREENS
IF ITS DEAD HARD DRIVE

IF YOU GET SAME.. THEN ITS VIDEO CARD BAD, BUT THERE IS ONE THING YOU CAN TRY...

REMOVE BATTERY FOR 10 MINS, PRESS ON BUTTON FOR 1 MIN. , REINSTALL BATTERY AND BOOT UP
HOLDING THE SHIFT KEY DOWN... SEE WHAT HAPPENS..

IF THIS IS AN HP IT SHOULD FIX IT... THIS IS A KNOWN ISSUE ON HP LATOPS THAT ARE A FEW YEARS OLD...

reply to post by SlovenlyGhost


What kind of processor is in it? I had a similar problem on an Acer laptop, try burning a Linux cd and boot from cd if you can. I had a dual core processor and turns out that one of the processors fried. It would boot linux fine but windows would not boot.