I get a black (not blank – black) screen with NO mouse pointer, cursor or characters after the POST portion of boot-up displays the usual HDD detection and so forth. Sometimes I see the XP splash. F8 gets the usual boot choices, but choosing any of them gets a black screen – sometimes picking safe mode results in a few screenloads of the usual pre-safe mode display and then the black screen again.
Additionally – the system stays “up” as long as necessary to reinstall. I reinstalled once by using the built-in (?) HP PC Recovery option, but got the black screen shortly after establishing internet connectivity.
I also reinstalled with a MS XP CD to ANOTHER HARD DRIVE and the same thing happened – black screen shortly after finishing the install.
This is an HP Pavilion A705W with no user modifications – 1GB RAM, 75GB HDD (more or less)and minimal dust in the case. I even pulled the cpu cooler and re-pasted it (looked dry) just in case.
So – any ideas?