Brand new HP Pavillion s3514 broken....

Status
Not open for further replies.

rebeccagiunio

Baseband Member
Messages
27
Hi Guys

I'm new here so please forgive any stupid questions before I ask them!

last week I bought a brand new HP Pavillion s3514 slimline desktop.
One night last week the screen froze and became green and pixillated.
I turned it off tried to reboot.

However, It will not POST or enter BIOS. I get a series of long beeps, lasting about 15 seconds with the same interval inbetween each one. I looked at some beep codes but cannot find this particular one.

The monitor says no input signal received and goes to sleep. I tried this through a laptop and it works fine.

Now obviously this is still under warrenty or guarantee or whatever BUT -
I have ALL my business files and personal familly pics etc on here literally everything. Because it was a new machine I didn't yet back up.
I don't want to take this in for repair, because I have heard so many stories of drives being formatted for no reason or as standard practice. i just cannot risk this happening!
So I need to try and fix it!
Please help guys if you can, I am depending wholeheartedly on you!

Thanks so much in advance
Bex
x
 
Hi carnagex..

thank you so much for responding, I'm so excited to have some help! lol

I am going to try that right now... I have no knowledge of the internals of computers whatsoever so I really appreciate you putting it in simple terms, it saves me writing back to find out what CMOS means!

I'll be back shortly with my report!

bex
x
 
CMOS is just the BIOS memory. Sometimes resetting it can help.

Also, what were you doing on the computer while it froze/gave green lines? Have you by chance tried a different monitor if possible?
 
CMOS = Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor

There will be a little coin / watch type battery on the mother board that you will need to remove to clear the CMOS.
 
Okay, I'm back...
I reset CMOS and replaced the little coin battery after 15 mins.
Plugged in and no change.

I then removed one RAM stick at a time and tried to boot - nothing
I get the same beep code. Continuous beeps around 15 secs long.

Fan is working fine and when I switch on, the CPU makes computer
processy noises like it should for a few seconds.

I can also open CD drawer when power is on and get lights on the keyboard.

In answer to your question Carnagex, I think I was watching an
episode of Fawlty Towers when all this ocurred!

I am standing by for further instructions.
It is actually quite exciting learning something new from you
guys!

Bex

x
 
Now obviously this is still under warrenty or guarantee or whatever BUT -
I have ALL my business files and personal familly pics etc on here literally everything. Because it was a new machine I didn't yet back up.
I don't want to take this in for repair, because I have heard so many stories of drives being formatted for no reason or as standard practice. i just cannot risk this happening!
x

Soooooo, why not pull the hdd out and slave it to another pc to get your data off then take pc to repaired under warranty.
 
Wicked this sounds like a plan... a very good one considering I shouldn't have to be going to all this trouble for a brand new PC!!

But I would not have the first clue where to start....
where which who how why.... ??????? lolz
I'm not entirely sure what slave it means but could I slave it to a laptop?

I would be very grateful for your assistance!:)

Bex

x
 
What you could do, is go to an electronics store, and buy an external enclosure for a hard drive (for a SATA hard drive, which is sthe interface your drive has). They're normally around $30USD for a decent one. Buy one of those so it can hook up to USB to your laptop, remove the drive from the desktop (usually simple...just unhookign 2 cables, and removing a few screws), and put it in the enclosure. Then hook it up to your laptop, and it should recognize it so you can retrieve all of your files and save them onto your laptop.
 
Hey carnage!

Wow that sounds cool and I reckon I could probably do that.
So just to clarify... I would remove the Hard Drive from the PC, put it in one of those external case thingys and hook it up to the laptop just like an external hard drive?

I have just done a google search for a hard drive external enclosure / SATA and there seems to be different sorts.
2.0 2.5 3.0 etc, which one would I need ?


So I could then remove all my files and photos to the laptop, put the Hard drive back in the PC and send it back for repair or replacement?

Bex
x
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom