Solved Does booting to the boot menu make the computer decide where to boot from?

A while ago, my computer gave a notification to scan for drive errors and I clicked it and I'm pretty sure it ran chkdsk. After it was done it wouldn't boot and went to a black screen with a mouse that was frequently showing the loading icon. The HDD light was flashing a lot too. I did a force shutdown and it turned on, skipped the HP loading screen, and showed a black screen with no mouse and the HDD light didn't come on at all. After another force shutdown, the HP loading screen was back. I tried some things and decided I would just clean install again later.

Today, I decided to start on the clean install. I pressed the power button and started spamming the Esc key to get to the boot menu. The HP loading screen didn't show the first time I turned it on, so I did a force shutdown, and turned it back on. I spammed the Esc key and this time the boot menu appeared. The USB didn't show on the list of bootable devices and I think this was because I plugged the USB in after I pressed the power button to turn on the computer.

So I pressed Esc to exit the menu, but the computer kept booting. I didn't want to force shutdown during the HP loading screen, so I waited. The lock screen appeared. So I logged in. Then the desktop appeared, and I am now in Windows 11 again. I'm back where I was after either the third or fourth clean install and before I scanned for drive errors.

I am confused. Did opening the boot menu, just to exit it, fix my computer? I am perfectly fine if there is no explanation. :)

Thank you!

Not sure what's going on. But reinstalling Windows may not repair the boot issues.
Have you tried resetting the BIOS to defaults?

I vaguely recall you and I talking about this laptop? Or am I mistaken?

Yes. I made posts on this before. I thought the laptop was working fine but file explorer won't open. There was an error message about the memory of explorer.exe, I don't remember. Someone mentioned on another post that the hard drive is failing. Do you know if I can just do another clean install and keep using the hard drive until it eventually dies?

HPUser said:

Yes. I made posts on this before. I thought the laptop was working fine but file explorer won't open. There was an error message about the memory of explorer.exe, I don't remember. Someone mentioned on another post that the hard drive is failing. Do you know if I can just do another clean install and keep using the hard drive until it eventually dies?

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Most likely.

My family will probably keep using me until I die, most likely the same process.
What will tell, is if you get Windows to load and it just… wont… work properly.

Have you considered getting a new drive for it?

HPUser said:

There was an error message about the memory of explorer.exe

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I have read about this before with more than a few people stating that disabling "gaming input services" in services.msc worked

I've imagined getting a new drive for it, but no I haven't considered it. I figured the drive would last maybe a few more years since I don't think the laptop is really old; it's from 2022. As for the laptop, the boot menu isn't doing anything. It's putting me in automatic repair again. I think I'll do a fourth clean install. Thank you!

Regarding the boot menu. If you ever have problems with it, you can repair it.
Not something I have had to do more than once so I wouldn’t attempt to help you.


If it’s only from 2022 and the drive is failing, I wouldn’t hesitate. 2 year old is a laptop worth having run correctly (If it is the hard drive, diagnostics should help to determine)

Do you mean you wouldn't hesitate to get a new drive?

The HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI application is a comprehensive set of tests to help identify, isolate, and diagnose possible HP Personal Computer hardware issues. This tool runs outside of the Operating System, is easy to use, and in just a few simple steps can greatly assist in troubleshooting hardware problems quickly.

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Select “Outside of the OS”

HPUser said:

Do you mean you wouldn't hesitate to get a new drive?

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Yes.

If it’s the drive. If you’re sure it’s the drive

I think I did the hardware diagnostics.

HPUser said:

I did the storage test for the hard drive in system diagnostics:

Quick check:
SMART Check : PASSED
Short DST : WARNING

HDD 1 Temperature: 0 degrees Celsius

PASS ID : 23976-64210-09456
Serial Number : 5CG2105MZN

Current Version: 2.2.8.0 - BIOS

Extensive Check:
SMART Check : PASSED
Long DST : FAILED

FAILURE ID : 0SPN1L-B3LC8L-MFGK0J-61EL03
PRODUCT ID : 4S324UA#ABA

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HPUser said:

I think I did the hardware diagnostics.

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Yes, posts on HP forum suggest the failed DST tests would most likely indicate a failing drive.

Your notebook's M.2 slot supports NVMe SSD's.
SATA M2 SSD's are not supported, according to chapter 1 of the service manual.


Just have to make sure it’s compatable.

Okay, thank you!

Sorry, fixed the Amazon link.

M2 not SSD

So, in answer to your question about installing Windows until it dies. I personally wouldn’t bother.
If you can afford it, you can get 1TB NVMe M2 drives for around USD$60 upward.

From reading your posts, a new drive is your only option to fix the problem. Do you feel comfortable opening up the laptop? Most laptops are complicated to open. It's not just removing the screws. Some of them may be hidden under the rubber pads. You have to carefully pry open the bottom. The times I have opened up my laptops I searched for How-To videos. If you're not comfortable to do it your self, You'll have to decide if the cost of taking it to a shop is worth it.

I found a video of what I think is your laptop. Scroll down until you see 1ACCEPTED SOLUTION. How to replace hard drive in HP 17- cn0053cl laptop. also get manual.

Winuser said:

From reading your posts, a new drive is your only option to fix the problem. Do you feel comfortable opening up the laptop? Most laptops are complicated to open. It's not just removing the screws. Some of them may be hidden under the rubber pads. You have to carefully pry open the bottom. The times I have opened up my laptops I searched for How-To videos. If you're not comfortable to do it your self, You'll have to decide if the cost of taking it to a shop is worth it.

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Yes. I've taken apart some laptops. The older ones were sort of easier though because they weren't really sleek. The laptop with the drive problem is going to involve some prying, and I feel like I would break the exterior, but I guess it's better that the exterior is a little cracked than if the laptop doesn't work. Thank you!

HPUser said:

Yes. I've taken apart some laptops. The older ones were sort of easier though because they weren't really sleek. The laptop with the drive problem is going to involve some prying, and I feel like I would break the exterior, but I guess it's better that the exterior is a little cracked than if the laptop doesn't work. Thank you!

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I bought a special tool kit for working on laptops. Here's a link to Amazon US. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=laptop+d...p+tool+kit,aps,110&ref=nb_sb_ss_pltr-mrr_4_15