[h4xor]

everytime I try booting the computer it goes to a black screen and it says 'start windows norally', start with safe mode ,then when i try either of them it freezes

information about the pc

hp pavilion 510n

OS windows xp

[lilxkid24]

Did you install any new hardware lately like a video card? Did you do any drastic to your comp lately? Are you able to access the recovery page?

[coastie65]

Hi h4xor, First welcome to the forum. Your information is pretty sketchy. I checked our your computer and it came with 256 Mb ram and XP Home. I don't know what you have running at start up, but it sounds like you may be pushing the envelope as far as memory is concerned. Have you added memory ? I saw that you can double it to 512 Mb which would be a good idea. I would also go to a PCI graphics card, such as an FX 5500 with 256 Mb ram as the onboard stuff shares your memory. We would need some more information to be sure, like what did you do before the problem surfaced. Did you add any start up applications for instance. I noticed that your computer came with McAfee for security, this will use some memory at start up. You didn't say if you added any memory or are still using 256 Mb. 256 Mb is bare minimum for running XP home and if you have alot of start up items running, you will find yourself short of memory. You could have a PSU going bad, or even an overheating CPU for whatever reason, generally one fan or the other either going or have gone bust. coastie65

[FenderGuy2112]

Hi H4xor,

Other than the correct information above ^, All I can add is: can you list the most recent tasks you've executed on your computer? Also, have there been any noticable crashes with your graphics card? This might just need some simple manually BIOS config, or completely new components (such as upgrading that onboard to a PCI express graphics card).



Please post more details,
FenderGuy2112

[VladTheImpaler1990]

Hey coastie, the nvidia FX 5500 256mb graphics card is a AGP slot.

[Tunz]

Here's a PCIe FX5500 - quite a bargain too! :p
http://reviews.cnet....7-32072509.html

[VladTheImpaler1990]

Yes but that is the Quadro the old Nvidia fx 5500 is a 256 agp slot. You are talking about the the newer one, and coas said its a 256mb not 1 gig.

[coastie65]

Hi all, That computer came with an onboard chipset and no graphics expansion slots ( AGP or PCI-E). There is an FX 5500 256 DDR PCI video card. It is put out by 3D Fuzion. I had one in my last machine as I didn't have AGP or PCI-E either. The Pavillion 510n is basically an entry level machine with little expansion capabities other than the HDD, some memory, and possibly PSU. I believe it uses the "old" 478 socket as well. coastie65

[Tunz]

Just kidding Vlad, I wasn't seriously suggesting that we pu a $3000 card in a $300 machine, but a FX5500 PCI would be very reasonable upgrade for that machine - there are a lot of them for sale on ebay.


FX5500 PCI


But, getting back to the problem at hand, h4xor, if you are getting a black screen with no error message, early in the boot process, then you should check for power issues like PSU or leaky capacitors. You can usually eliminate bad caps as a possibility by visually inspecting them.


http://www.pcstats.c...m?articleID=195


http://home.earthlin...eli/index27.htm