Question about my new Pavilion a1250n--can anyone help?

Hardware and technical stuff
1

I’m very happy with the system so far–running like a dream, and with the video card I added (Radeon X300SE 256MB–don’t laugh, but the price was right) I can run most any game I’m playing at max.

The only question I have is, when I start the computer up first thing in the morning–after it’s been off overnight–there is a whirring noise from the back as if a fan is going full blast, and the hard drive light in front glows solid, as if the HD is being accesssed full blast or something. This lasts for about 90 seconds or so…then the noise quiets down, and the computer starts up normally. During the time of the loud fan noise there is NOTHING on the monitor–black screen. Anyone have any ideas? HP Tech Support would have been great if they could speak comprehensible English :(.

2

might be one of those wacky hardware based software integrity checkers. The kind of things that make sure windows doesn’t break, etc, by keeping a mirror on a hidden partition. Could be doing the checking pre-boot. Check around for a bios option to turn it off.

3

Only thing I can think of is either a)your BIOS is having a hard time detecting your hard drive’s geometry (Fool around in ‘Stand Bios’ setup: LBA/CHS), b) Weak power supply, (try rearrainging power leads) c)hard drive is mis-reporting itself as Master/Slave [check jumpers] ) d) Major defragmentation ( unlikely if it’s a newish install… try to to defrag anyways just in case) .

After that, upgrade that BIOS baby! ;)