Laptop not posting but will boot sometimes. Please Help.

Laptop: HP Pavilion TX1110us
Turion 64 X2
Geforce 6150 go

My boss asked if I could help fix his son’s laptop. He had taken it into a computer shop and they stated that the motherboard was bad and it would cost $1000. It is now 3 months out of the 1-year warranty.

Needless to say, he didn’t want to pay $1k to have it fixed. He brought it to me.
Here’s what happens for different scenarios:

Power on: Computer turns on, no post. Screen displays black (not off). Does not boot into windows. No startup screen, just black.

Power on while tapping F10 / Escape : Big HP logo “please wait”. Takes 2 minutes to load bios.
-> Exit saving changes -> no post, black screen.
-> Exit discard changes -> loads Vista to login screen.

The laptop has a fingerprint reader, so I can’t login but it clearly works.

My next step will be to try flashing the BIOS.

Any idea what’s wrong or how to fix this?
I've tried to find a replacement motherboard online, and have located one for $400. Not sure if it's worth the risk to buy it and replace it.

for 400$ you can nearly have a brand new machine , so it wouldnt be worth it to replace the motherboard...


i'd try flashing the bios for sure

I'd call HP and see if they can fix it under this recall http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c01087277&dlc=en

That recall does not apply. Already saw that.