How do I get my HP Laptop to get past the start up screen?

Q. Here's the problem: When I turn my laptop on, the HP invent start up screen comes up. On the bottom of the screen it says to press ESC to change boot order and press F2 to enter setup, F12 to boot from LAN. It won't go past this screen. When I push ESC, F2, or F12 it does nothing... It stays on the start up screen. I've asked a friend or two and they think that the hard drive may be fried. What do you think?
Here's some more info: My Laptop is a HP Pavilion ze4400. I can't get past the very first boot screen. I've tried removing the memory and putting back in and it doesn't help.

A. Well its either the board or hard drive. But hard drives dont necessarily will freeze after the boot screen. Motherboards will. To verify if the hard drive is bad is to undo the harddrive caddy and remove it then boot the PC. It will boot up and then say hard disk 0 not found then it will mean the motherboard works but the hard drive was bad. BUT only try that if its NOT UNDER WARRANTY. If you still have a warranty let HP to all the grunt work and troubleshooting.

Sounds to me the board is bad.

How do I know if a HP laptop harddrive would work on other brands of laptop?

Q. My HP Pavilion laptop recently bit it. I would like to use the harddrive from it and, if possible, install it on a used laptop. But I want to make sure that it is compatible with a particular kind or brand of laptop.

A. HP laptops use generic PATA or SATA hard drives.
They are not proprietary.

Please add details to your question with the model #'s of both laptops & we will give you a definitive answer.

regards,
Philip T

How do I get my HP Laptop to reboot Windows 7?

Q. My laptop came with Windows 7 already installed. I keep getting an error while trying to boot which says, "Bootmngr:Device not found". I've read that you need to reinstall Windows when this happens but I do not have the CD, What do I do to get my laptop up and running again?

A. First do you have the Activation code for your version of Windows 7? It should be on a sticker, on the bottom of the laptop.

Go here:
http://techpp.com/2009/11/11/download-windows-7-iso-official-direct-download-links/
and download the correct 32 or 64 bit version of Windows 7 (Home, Business, Pro, or Ultimate) and burn that ISO to a DVD-R and then do a reinstall.

You should back up all the stuff you want to keep just in case you lose it (to several DVD-Rs, they are cheap and will not crash like a external HD). And then reinstall Windows over the old location. As you do the install you might get an option to "Repair" the installation, if that comes up go with it instead of the install.

And after all this you will have a Disc of your copy of Windows 7. Make sure to WRITE ON THE DISC YOUR ACTIVATION CODE (with a sharpie), so you have it and put it in a dvd case not a cd case (they are made differently and that is why they are stored in different cases.

After saying all this and you can not find your activation code then go here and buy a new one Cheap:
http://www.cheapsoftwaresonline.com/windows_7
64 bit is for 3 GB of RAM or more AND a 64 bit processor (if you don't have BOTH, don't get the 64 bit version).