Apr 28, 11 08:56 pm — I have a four year old HP laptop, a HP Pavilion dv6000 to be exact, that has been dying a slow death for a very long time now.
First the battery burned out, won't hold a charge for 10 seconds. I can only use it plugged into an AC outlet.
Next, just a few months ago, the wireless card gave up the ghost. I bought a USB modem to get The Internets on it, which has worked well till now.
NOW, my new problem is that for some time now, the computer would have trouble booting up. The lights would come on the keyboard and you could hear it try to start up, then it would stop and start over, sometimes dozens of times, until finally I would hear the Microsoft sounder that the computer was booting up.
Someone loaded Auslogics utilities for me, and once I got the thing going, I would run the program which would correct some Registry errors, some disc errors, and then recommend defragging the hard drive. I was running the defrag every single time I got the computer on, which was just about every day. The registry and disc errors were also always present, but always 'corrected' by Auslogics.
Now, finally, the computer will try one time to boot up and then stop. Since that time, last week, I have not been able to get it to boot up at all.
I need to get it turned on at least one more time to copy my files to an external hard drive.
Any suggestions?
Sorry Gramps I I ain't the computer savvy one, best bet would be to bring it with you when you go to purchase your new one and have the geek-squad help you at the store.
Good Luck.
Thanks, man, it is sure starting to look that way. 
it will not start in safe mode? will it even boot far enough to give you that option? Which version of Windows is/were you using?
Screen stays black, but the keyboard lights up and the fan starts turning. Unfortunately, this unit came with MS Vista installed.
Sounds like a failing hard drive, but bad RAM or motherboard could be the issue. Turn off and unplug the laptop before opening anything on each step. To test the RAM part remove both (or the one stick) and try to turn on. If it comes on, but goes to the Bios screen (black with white type)and reports RAM error then replacing the RAM one stick at a time can elimnate which stick is bad. If replacing the RAM one stick at a time still results in windows boot failure then it seems unlikely to be RAM. Best bet at that time would be to get an external hard drive enclosure for $10-15 at newegg or tigerdirect. You will most likely need a parallel (PATA) type enclosure (SATA is the newer connection and not common 4 years ago). Remove hard drive place in enclosure. This will make your laptop hard drive into an external hard drive and MAYBE you information will be there to copy to a new computer. You can then format that hard drive, place back in the laptop and install windows. I it fails to install or quickly becomes corrupt again then bad hard drive and replace. If it will not boot windows installer most likely bad circuit board. I am not a computer professional.
Thanks for the advice ars, sadly my RAM sticks check out okay. They don't seem to be the problem.
So, that only leaves bad hard drive or bad motherboard. Bad news either way. 
Thanks to all MVers who posted! 
USB 2.0 to IDE/PATA 2.5" Hard Disk Drive HDD Aluminum External Case Enclosure 500GB Max Capacity
This drive enclosure is on amazon with free prime shipping.
Gramps,
If the goal is to get documents off your 2.5 inch PATA (IDE) laptop to a desktop or other laptop
try this converter - you will have to take out the old laptop HD - not that hard to do
converter.
You might be able to get something like this at a local computer store - or get thru Amazon.
You just connect the old hard drive through a SATA (or IDE) connector to the 'new' system
I've used this model to get data from many a failed system for family and friends. You can get more expensive versions - I found this to be satisfactory (the reviews are decent too). If the laptop is dead - it could be that some of the HD files can still be salvaged with this method. It could be that the HD is truly kaput - you won't know until you try.
I have even put laptop HD's that had failed and put them in a freezer for a day and used this tool and the HD spun up and I could get data .... but that is another story - just to say - all is not lost.
If the goal is to try and use this laptop again (Good Luck) you could try installing an OS on it and see if it is just some HD boot sector files that are corrupted - or some windows files that are corrupted.
I have this one beater laptop that my kids use that I have to re-install XP on it every few months cuz the HD is not worth much and gets corrupted.
Try the converter tool first - if you reinstall windows then you 'could' lose your documents.
If you want to be adventurous - you could use a linux disk and see if you can boot up - you might be able to see the files in question and save them off.
Again - I'd spend $20 and try the converter first.
Sometimes RAM can go bad - you can try taking out the other stick you put in and just try the original - does the HD make some funny noises when you boot uo?
You can also go into the BIOS (probably hit the delete key when it boots up and see if the computer is even recognizing the HD - it sounds like it is .. otherwise - Windows wouldn't even try to boot up .. you'd just get the constant rebooting thing without the windows screen.
If you still have the windows vista install disk - then you could try a repair of the OS.
Aren't computers wonderful time savers !
Let me know if you have any questions - you can send me a message if you want.
I'm guessing you have another laptop or desktop now.
HEAVE IT OUT THE WINDOW!!!
No! Don't! I got beaned once by a frustrated user heaving his HP Pavilion dv6000 out a window. It hurt. A lot. The ambulance ride was fun, though.
Sorry about your bashed-in head, ML but that wasn't me. I can prove it.
First I still have MY HP Pavilion dv6000 and secondly, I can't throw it all the way from Florida to the US West Coast.
It is useless as a Frisbee (or computer) but maybe I can use it now as a paperweight. I have a LOT of paper laying around.
Had a 6150 that went the same way, that's when I found out all of the 6000 in the DV series shipped with faulty graphics cards, which is almost certainly what's causing your problems (read more here:http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-35186-hp-pavillion-dv6000-graphic-card-problem). What you can do is pull the HD (it's sata) and then just open any external drive and switch the connections. The drive will become an "external" complete with USB port allowing you to save all of your data.
fOx
oh, and hi everybody!
Gramps
My hearty thanks to anyone with a suggestion that doesn't involve heaving the thing out the window. I have already thought of that idea.
UPDATE: HP tech support says that loose RAM chips might cause my problem. I put those chips in myself so it is possible that they have come loose. So far they don't appear to be loose on visual inspection. I will have to remove them and put them back in, but first I need to find the instructions because it isn't obvious how to do it. I remember you push something and the chip pops up, but I have to read the step by step to get it right.