I've got a tx2028au, when I put the dvd drive in the laptop it stops at the hp logo I can't even enter bios. Pull the dvd drive out and it starts fine. I had the same trouble with the wifi card until I flashed the latest bios with whitelist removed and that sorted that problem out. I can't even eject the tray it's as though the drives are dead I've tried 3 different drives and all the same. 2 of the dvd drives where pulled from tx2500. Is this the bios that's stopping it or is something else causing it. I've been trying for over 3 days to sort this out so any suggestions to what it can be would be grateful. Thanks
Those things still get hot as hell? I suspect heat related damage. Usually wifi acting up is a first indicator. Then graphical issues and other connected hardware (optical drive, modem, data ports etc.). Has the machine been stripped apart and cleaned? Edit: If the machine dies on you sometime, I have had great luck baking motherboards @ 400 F > 204.444C (say 200 - 205) for ten minutes. Oven preheated and slow cool down. Remove everything possible (even tapes and whatnot) and bake graphics card up. After complete cool down, connect enough to get a POST. One of those I baked was a tx20-something. Turned out real nice with Win 8.1 Enterprise. Can you believe it was OEM with Vista? I only add this because if one has a known dead motherboard: Really can't do any harm, eh?