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This EZ533UA Pavilion boots intermittantly and when it does, the hard drive isn't seen. The notebook looks for a Network boot device. I installed a new ATA-6 hard drive. Sometimes I can boot from the XP CD and the XP install loads the temp files then stops at the "Starting Windows" screen... I've changed the RTC clock battery, and I can access the old 80GB Hitachi Travelstar HTS541080G9AT00 hard drive files on another system. Any ideas?

can you boot using USB-stick?

Thanks for the reply lamo. I received an email from HP support. In it, they gave me some instructions to follow. Things like releasing the "flea" (static) power from the hardware components, reseating the hard drive, memory sticks and replacing the RTC clock battery. Trying to power up with and without the battery installed. After doing all this, I was able to get into the bios and reset to defaults.

The computer boots to the "start Windows" option screen consistantly now, but I get a blank lighted screen when i attempt to boot into Windows. I believe the bios got corrupted and this corrupted the boot sector or MBR of the hard drive. I've tried to repair the MBR but this hasn't helped, A fresh OS install still stops at "starting Windows"... I'm going to format the Hitachi drive in my desktop system and attempt to reinstall Windows on a single partition. The drive has 3 partitions now. 1 recovery FAT32 and 2 NTFS partitions

Tmagic650, again, can you boot from USB-stick? i'm asking this question not accidentally. the bios isn't corrupted, 'cos if it's corrupted you'll receive blank screen after powering up.

This is a copy and paste from my post here, it's proved itself useful to me many times and it may work for you.

Ok people,
I've backed up the Hitachi drive on my desktop system. I have also reformated the Hitachi and reinstalled it back into the HP laptop. The laptop will start up, and boot from the CD ROM with a XP Pro install disc... The XP "clean" install will stop at the "Setup is starting Windows" screen and nothing else happens. It just stays on that screen. The notebook will not POST with the Hitachi hard drive removed.

...and lamo,
what do I have to have on the USB stick to be able to boot from it? A boot loader file of some sort? There is a "boot from LAN" option in the Phoenix Bios

Tmagic650, this is standart procedure for identifying the southbridge faulty. if you can't boot from USB flash drive - be prepared for replacing the southbridge

and what do you mean with "no POST without HDD installed"? Do you mean, that laptop won't start?

You may wish to try Memtest on your Ram. A faulty ram card can cause this error (with Windows trying to load ad the bar never ending it's rotation)

You may also want to test you harddrive (whilst mounted in the laptop)
You can download a Diagnostic utility HERE

I've even had CD/DVD drives do this too, if you have access to another USB CD/DVD drive, please test Windows install with that.

Note: it is always best to start clean (ie not just format but removal of all partitions)

Please reply back with the results.

Tmagic650, you didn't noticed, is the HDD is visible in BIOS?

Lamo,
yes, when I remove the hard drive the laptop will not start.Lights are lit, but I get no POST or video. I install the hard drive and the system will boot normally every time now. Replacing the Southbridge means replacing the motherboard, right? I am considering replacing the motherboard, if I can find one.

kimsland,
the Phoenix bios has a hard drive test utility included. I have run this successfully. I have also booted the system with a "Ultimate Boot CD"... and run the test utilities including Memtest86 successfully.

To add to this problem, the customer said the laptop started all this when she attached an MP3 player to a USB port on the laptop. The laptop immediately shut down... I had never heard of such a thing

Again,
the laptop will start installing of XP and Vista, but will freeze at the point of "starting Windows"...

Tmagic650
>>I had never heard of such a thing

this is standart situation of southbridge burning via USB static electricity.
if you have soldering equipment(IR soldering station) and skills, you can replace the chip. i don't know, how much the new MB costs, but i suspect, that replacing the southbridge will be cheapier(at least in my country new MB's are VERY expencive)
good luck!

Tmagic650, this is why i mentioned, can laptop boot from USB flash drive. i recommend you remember such things. this is easy way to do diagnosis of southbridges faulties.

You never told me what I need on a flash drive to be able to boot from it. Is it something like installing a Windows 98 boot disk program on the flash drive, or just making the flash drive bootable by formatting?

This laptop boots ok now, but any OS install freezes. I have done surface mount IC repair before. I'll check into replacing the southbridge IC

Tmagic650, use the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. you can google it
i use this flash for RAM tests and HDD tests.

HP USB Disk Storage Format Utility
Http://downloads.pcworld.com/pub/new...ls/SP27608.exe

But actually one last idea,
(and lamo I am slowly comming around to agree with you, it's just that you're so dam technical )

Go to CMOS turn off all USB
Install Windows
If that works great - then turn on USB in CMOS after that.

If it doesn't, I'd like to know how to do the southbridge replacement myself.

Thanks Lamo,
I found a refurbished motherboard for $185.16. The customer will go for the repair in about 2 weeks. I'll Google that "HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool"...

...and thank you too kimsland and Zenosincks!

I do this computer repair as a side business, and I have worked and repaired computers and other electronics for at least the last 37 years. It's in my BLOOD!

This HP is only 2 years old and it is pretty sweet:
AMD Turion64, 2.0GHz
80GB hard drive
1GB system RAM
CD/DVD combo burner
15" Wide screen

I was just thinking about turning off the USB ports. We must be in tune with each other... The Phoenix Bios seem to be a little lacking in options overall. Memtest86 has been running for almost 3 hours now with no errors

Tmagic650 and kimsland, turning off USB ports won't solve the problem(well, it can solve the problem PARTIALLY on some laptops(like Asus laptops)). at least it is useless in systems with 82801DBM chips. another way to check USB ports is to check the resistances between D+ and D-, AND, check the resistance of these contacts between ground. sometimes there's short circuit between D+ and D-, and sometimes D+ or D- are grounded. and you should know, that USB contacts leads right into the chip without any logic ICs.

I can't disable the USB ports anyway, there is no option in the bios as I suspected. I will check the resistance lamo, but at this point, I really think the mothboard replacement will be the way to go. I'll have to pull the motherboard to see what the southbridge is. I may still attempt to replace the IC

Hello all,
I got an exact used motherboard from Ebay last Friday for $241 plus $15 shipping. It installed perfectly. The laptop is fully functional now, with Windows Vista Home Premium as the OS. It had Window XP Media Center Edition originally...

Thanks for the help