# Hp dv6-1030usa



## swordfish5945 (Jun 20, 2010)

My laptop will not get past the HP start up screen, all it says when I turn it on is "Press the ESC key for Startup Menu" and then the "HP Invent" logo. If I press ESC it just says Pause Startup Menu... or something like that and if I press any of the F1 to F12's it doesnt affect the computer at all it wont take me to any other menu it just keeps me on that screen. 
Please help


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Hi and welcome to TSF.

If you do not press anything does it boot directly into Windows?


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## ricktricity (Oct 31, 2008)

I know this is a bit late to reply on this thread, but I thought it might help someone else out there.



I recently had the same problem with my HP Pavillion dv5-1235dx. When I tried to boot up, it froze at the HP Invent splash black screen, with "Press ESC for Startup Menu" down in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. When I tried to press ESC, nothing happened, other than that message changed to "Press ESC...pause". None of the keys (or key combinations, including cntl-alt-del) would respond at that point. When I tried to use any of the f-1 through f-12 keys during the first couple of seconds, when trying repeatedly to start the laptop, it would show in that same lower left-hand corner a word or two about what that option was, but wouldn't respond at all beyond that. I couldn't reach the BIOS setup, boot order, or any other screen. I tried to put a Windows installation disk in, but even that wouldn't work. I could see and hear the disk being read, but nothing would happen on the screen, and the keyboard, touchpad, and external USB mouse all were completely unresponsive. Nothing that I read online in any of the forums worked. I tried removing the battery for several minutes; tried removing the CMOS battery; tried removing the HDD; and tried removing the DVD-RW drive. None of these attempts helped in the least.



Finally, two things clicked: One, I read several different posts where those with a similar problem mentioned having put the computer into hibernation just before the problem arose; and two, someone suggested that bad RAM might cause such a problem. After I thought a little about it, I remembered that the last time I'd used the computer, I'd tried to put it into hibernation, but simultaneously, the battery - very low on juice - gave out, and the computer shut itself off.



The solution: I removed ONE of the two RAM memory modules, and then tried to start the computer. It suddenly whirred to life, coming up with an error message, saying that all unsaved data might be lost, and asking if I wanted to continue. I clicked on "yes", and the computer then started up normally. Thinking the memory module was bad, but wanting to make sure, I shut the computer down, replaced the missing module, and restarted the computer. It started up just fine.



Apparently there can be a problem, under the right combination of circumstances, with the Hibernation option (making this problem, I would think, a Microsoft software problem - (my laptop runs Vista). When entering Hibernation, the computer is supposed to save a snapshot of the currently opened programs and windows to a file on the HDD. Then, when the computer is switched back on again, it should read that file back into the computer's RAM memory. I'm guessing that, because my laptop's battery just happened to go dead enough to cause the computer to shut down - IN THE MIDDLE OF WRITING THE HIBERNATION DATA FILE (before it was complete) - it caused the computer to hang on startup, as it tried to write that (unfinished) hibernation data file to the RAM modules. When I removed one of the modules ( I think they're supposed to be installed in PAIRS), it finally broke the hang/loop and brought up the error message. There was nothing actually wrong with the memory module itself.



I hope this helps someone in the future. I'll pass this along to Microsoft, and see what they think of it.


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## ricktricity (Oct 31, 2008)

Thinking a little more about it, I guess the problem could actually be HP's, as the laptop is actually interrupting Microsoft's Hibernation utility when it unexpectedly shuts down, due to the low battery. Anyway, I think HP and MSFT need to put their heads together on this!


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## Kristin56 (Mar 2, 2011)

Ricktricity, your analysis was spot on. I had that frightening freeze out this morning and had put my HP Mini 311 in hibernation the night before and it was running on battery. I didn't remember that it was that low but it certainly could have been. There appears to only be one memory chip in that machine so pulling one wasn't going to work. I found a less dramatic solution on HPs support page. 

HP Notebook PCs - Overview of How to Troubleshoot Problems When a Computer Does Not Start Up or Boot Properly - c01443371 - HP Business Support Center

Basically pull the battery, all peripherals, power cord and then hold down the power button for at least 15 seconds. Then with the battery still out plug in the power cord and turn it on. It will boot up. Of course you still need to put the battery back in. When I shut down and put in the battery and then started back up again, the OS ran through a battery of diagnostics. Interesting that didn't happen the first time. But the computer did come back up normally. Thanks for your great post!


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