I did a fresh install of Slackware 14.1 64-bit lost my BIOS. Literally. I run a hp Pavilion dv8000 with dual 100GB Hard Drives, 3GB of RAM, on an AMD 64 Processor. The install went great after minute or so in KDE it froze up and crashed. It powers on but the hard drive light stayso the DVD drive loops. No access what so ever, tried hard resetting it, no luck. Same with resetting the BIOS and now I'm at a loss. Any ideas?

Possible, you encounter hardware fault.
Start with try to swap another PSU, if no luck - disconnect all additional cards, try to put out RAM modules and so on - shortly, go in detect faulty hardware sequence first, i think....

Start with swapping RAM as that is the most likely the cause. Remove all RAM sticks and try them one at a time. Then you can try the rest of the hardware.

I did a complete tear down and rebuild to check for motherboard flaws. I swapped all additional hardware for the computer with working extras that I had around the shop. No Luck. The problem seems to occur when BIOS does its preliminary check for hardware on start up.

Hi,

Do you see the POST screen?
What about trying to enter BIOS and resetting to default? Try a reboot.
Do you see anything on the screen?

EDIT: What about your hot key menu for boot device select? Try to enter a few seconds after reset.

After setting the BIOS to default, you can enter the necessary media boot order. Place the installDVD into the drive then do a power on boot.
See if you can boot the installDVD then enter your boot parameters at 'boot:' prompt to boot your install.
Do you see anything on the screen?

Hope this helps.
have fun & enjoy!

It's likely coincidental - you've experienced a hardware failure around the same time you installed a new OS. Not unheard of - system gets a workout with particularly high I/O and that can finish off a tired component.

Best of luck finding the culprit.

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Thanks for the prompt reply. I have no access to BIOS at all. I have also tried to boot from the Slackware dvd since the DVD drive was being looped by BIOS. Nothing. I've also tried all hot keys to try and get some sort of sign with no luck. When powering on the hard drive light stays on with no sign of activity, along with the DVD drive looping. That's as far as BIOS gets. It shows nothing on the the display it doesn't get that far.

That sounds seriously related to a Motherboard problem, if you don't see the prompt to enter into the BIOS, it's possible it's the on board video card, but most likely the Motherboard. My 2 cents from afar.

1 members found this post helpful.

Does it make any kind of sound (in the form of a beep)?

Does your motherboard have an on-board graphics chip? Do you have a separate plug-in graphics adapter? I've seen a problem similar to your description when my computer switches to the on-board graphics adapter instead of my add-on card. In that case I have to plug the monitor in to the on-board graphics adapter and change the display device in the BIOS setup. In one case I had to unplug my add-on graphics adapter to get the BIOS to come up.

Unplug the hard disk, optical drive and all USB devices except for the keyboard. Also try pressing and holding the power button for a long time when you turn off the computer. That will take the computer out of any standby mode it might be in.

If you can't get the BIOS to display anything then there isn't much point in worrying about booting. The BIOS probably didn't get that far. The hard disk and DVD activity are probably due to the hardware reset and don't necessarily indicate that the BIOS is doing anything with the drives.

Can you connect a speaker to the motherboard to hear beep codes? Some BIOS software will beep the speaker in a pattern to indicate what has failed.

Is there a jumper or solder pads to clear the CMOS (setup information)? Have you tried clearing the CMOS?

You should be able to get the BIOS to display something on the monitor with just the keyboard, CPU, RAM, power supply and graphics adapter. Double check that the RAM is installed securely and the CPU socket is closed and locked completely. If you have a voltmeter, check the power supply voltages for +5 (red) and +12 (yellow). There are also some other supply voltages for the CPU that use other colors. You can find the power supply wire colors online. Black is common (negative).

No beeps. Not even when I pull out RAM boards. BIOS finds the hard drives because light goes off when removed but hangs when dvd drive has been found then loops at that point before BIOS access. The last thing I haven't tried yet is to either flash or replace BIOS chip. I was looking for an alternative if there is any.

Hi,

If you do not get into or past POST then I do suspect a hardware issue. You say that BIOS was cleared? You did remove the battery then short the BIOS reset pin to ground? Be sure to check the PSU voltages if you have the means.

Be sure to power down to add or remove anything from the system. You should use good ground techniques when handling your system components. You can purchase a anti-static ground wrist strap or make one by using a 1 MΩ resistor & length of small gauge wire(24 AWG will work), place the resistor in series with the wire. Attach the open resistor end to your body (via watch band or simple bare wire loop). The opposite wire end(piece long enough to reach a ground position) should be placed at ground(I use a alligator clip to attach).
I do suggest that you break the system down to minimal hardware then power on to see if any changes. If you get power on POST then allow the system to process until you get an issue. Note that. If you do not have a problem with minimum then add peripherals one at a time to see what occurs. Just shot gunning components will not always identify a problem. By breaking the system down to a minimum you are changing the load on the PSU and other components within system. If you have on-board graphics, I would switch to this and remove your Graphics board (This will have a large load). Do you get any beep codes?

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

1 members found this post helpful.

There are known cases of "Linux kernel bricking the computer", due of the incorrect access of the proprietary EFI, but these are the famous Samsung laptops...

If you suspect that Linux bricked your computer, you should determine first if you are running EFI. If there is just the pure BIOS, the chances of BIOS failure caused by the Linux kernel are minimal, and it is just a hardware failure.

Ok.. try to connect a speaker to see if you hear something.. Other then this.. Try to make sure the internal display is used by using the keyboard hotkey, or connect an external display to make sure.. Also, according to the manual you should make sure the internal display is on by pressing the lid switch.. If all this fails, you're going to have to either go to a professional or start opening the laptop yourself and try to reset the cmos and all that other stuff that other people already told you...

Loosing access to the motherboard firmware could be a clear sign of a severe hardware failure such as a bridge chip going out.

If you get more than a simple beep at POST or no POST at all, check this database for what might be related:

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm