Black screen first boot, then fine next boot?

Something strange is going on with my HP dv8000 notebook?

Since yesterday, when I go to boot the first time, I get a black screen, all the blue lights are on. To shut it off, I have to hit the power button. Then when I turn it on again, it works fine like nothing happened. Then the next time I boot again, it is a black screen again?

I'm not sure yet if this is from unpluging my notebook from the AC everynight or not?

Am I missing something? What is this?

 

If you have two memory modules in the unit, one could be going bad.
But as usual, it could also be the system board or cpu. If you have access to an external. See if that works 100% of the time.

 

I have a 1GB & a 512MB memory sticks in the modules, both new less than a month ago. Notebook new a month ago.

What do you mean by access to an external? Would that be like my Lexar with the sony stick that is in the usb?
I took that out and since the notebook has fired up four straight times.

I'll do it a few more times to see if that is it.

 

external monitor.

And who installed your memory? Did you or they use proper ESD equipment? That's almost the #1 killer of electronic items.

Can't say one way or another on the usb, too early to tell.

 

What is ESD? The 512 was installed by the store, the 1GB was installed by me. I did the usual touch the metal bit and all. I've changed memory many times on other desktops and notebooks.

 

Get MemTest86+, burn it to CD and boot it. See if it flags any memory errors. This is good practice after any memory upgrade.

 

I went to the website and downloaded this file:
Memtest86+ V1.65 (10/01/2005)
Download - Pre-Compiled EXE file for USB Key (Pure DOS)

to my usb with memory reader.

There were no instructions on how to use anything there?
What do I do?

 

Electrostatic Discharge. And no you did not follow procedures. Refer to this guide for more details.

 

Okay then, I have this question: I installed that memory 19 days ago.
Wouldn't it go bad then or before now if it had gotten zapped?

 

Not necessarily, there is no set time/date for a circuit damaged by ESD to go bad. It could last a year or just a few days or seconds.

 

There were no instructions on how to use anything there?
What do I do?

 

it could be something changed in your registry. I changed something in my registry once and it woun't start after the first press of the button, I had to shut it off and then start it again and it would work. You could try a system restore for some time before this started happening. Also scan your computer for viruses that might have caused it.

 

I did both yesterday and it was still doing it. And it IS a good idea too.
Thanks!

However, I think I may have found the problem!
I got to thinking when I first hooked my notebook fan/cooler last month, that when I tried using one of the four usb's on it, the notebook did the same thing, no screen and all the blue lights were on. If I used the other three, no problem. Then I forgot about it. Until this morning. I took out the cooler and it has since booted up every time, (about 10 now).
I recalled the whole time, every once in a while in the lower right corner of the taskbar, would pop up a small screen saying there was a usb failure. Everything was working, so I didn't worry about it as I thought is was that one usb.

 

Ok, so then it's the USB. Try plugging in different devices in the faulty one and see if it depends on the device or not. There might be a patch for this.
As for Memtest86+, download the regular file which you can burn to a CD (the ISO file). The CD is bootable and Memtest86+ will run before Windows starts loading; then follow screen instructions. Leave it for a few hours, overnight probably. There must be no erros.

 

Also remember (if you plan to use Memtest) to check the bios settings and if they aren't, to set it to boot to CDROM.

 

Thanks for all the tips guys!

 

It was the usb's of the cooling pad, so I trashed it.
Instead of getting another cooling pad, I kinda made up my own. I lifted the rear of the notebook by two inches and got a small 5" fan and it blows under the notebook.
When I check the notebook after I turn it off, it is barely warm. Fan is on the left of notebook:

 

That's nice but just make sure the external fan does not blow stuff (crumbs, e.g.) under the laptop because it will suck it in

 

There is nothing over there by the fan, just the corner.

I added another pix to the one in my last post above.

Is anyone using a fan setup like I am?

 

I always use a fan setup similar to yours ... in addition to a KingWin cooler underneath. My cooler pad, however, is powered by a an A/C outlet instead of USB.

Here is another link to the one described above ... just find the document you need ... Prevention and Control of Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) AN-40-005 ... http://www.minicircuits.com/application.shtml

 

Thanks for the tips. Can you post a pix of your setup so I can see what it is like? What cooling pad are you using? So, just a fan like I'm using may not be enough? Those of you just getting here, there are two pix of my fan setup three threads up ^^^