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My HP Pavilion dm4t-1100 with windows 7 will not boot past the Starting windows animation screen.

Here is the procedure:

Press the power button, the hp logo with the "Press ESCshows up normally, but for an extremely long time (~1min)

Then, it says "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key".

The computer fell off my desk and i tried to save it with my foot but I guess it must've screwed something up inside.

How can I resolve this problem?

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  • This sounds like you could've corrupted your hard drive from the fall. Try booting windows from a boot disk. The long wait may be because the computer is searching through all available boot options (and being under the assumption that your hard drive is corrupted, it would skip the primary boot device and proceed down the list).
    – Bennett Yeo
    Jun 7, 2017 at 1:26

2 Answers 2

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Can't really resolve things without figuring out where the problem is.

  • I'd try a boot disc of some sort to see whether it's isolated to the hard drive itself. If the boot disc is bootable obviously you can rule out motherboard issues as well
  • I'd then run some scans of some sort to see whether the hard drive (and the machine overall) has physical or software problems
  • if it's a software problem you can try running a recovery boot disc of some sort. Worse case scenario is that you'll need to re-install your operating system
  • if it's a hardware problem you can obviously try tapping the hard drive, dropping it, freezing it (put it in a air tight plastic bag and then stick it in the freezer for a while. It should reduce tolerances and allow the thing to boot if physical shock caused some things to move out of kilter), or else physically opening the drive and re-adjusting things to make sure they are in good working order (wouldn't recommend this option unless things are desperate though as modern drives are a bit more complicated to deal with especially given the data densities we're dealing with and hence the need for a cleaner environment and sometimes specialised tools and screwdrivers you need to get them open). You can also try re-opening the thing and seeing whether anything is out of place. Something may have been unseated or broken in which case you simply need to re-seat a connection here or there or replace something
  • obviously, final option is to take it to a technician of some sort. Laptops are a bit specialised (though my guess is that you should be able to diagnose and come up with a solution to this yourself)
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I believe this is caused by a slight offset to the hard drive, after it fell (I recall been in same situation after my laptop was squashed whilst boarding a taxi) Anyway to cut the long story short, here is what I did to fix it:

Turn the laptop upside down with one hand holding it, gently pat the backside of the laptop with the other hand using your palm a few times. After that place it back on flat surface, try to switch it on and see if you can boot.

I believe this is nothing more than a hardware eror unless you are absolutely sure its corrupted OS, in which case try repairing it during startup, or using a bootable disk to fix MBR

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  • Tried that, didn't work.
    – Registered User
    Jun 11, 2017 at 1:42
  • Sorry that didn't work, perhaps this had a serious impact on the HDD
    – xavier_fakerat
    Jun 11, 2017 at 11:13

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