blackout [HP laptop will not boot past POST screen]

patrick001 - Welcome to the Board

It is helpful to have a Meaningful Title - Posting Rules #3 to your thread - a very brief summary of the problem - to draw the attention of others. As you are new here I have edited your thread title.

Please give us some more detail as to what happens when you try to boot up the HP (which model?) and what you have done so far. The HP screen you refer to I know as I also use an HP laptop ....

In no particular order ....

Does the hard drive light come on when you boot up? Can you hear the hard drive spin up - you may need to hold the back of the computer to your ear

Do any other lights flash up when you boot?

Have you tried booting up with the computer connected to mains power via the adaptor?

Have you pressed the reset button while the computer is powered up? - on my Omnibook the reset button is on the bottom of the computer.

Remove and replace the battery and try again?

Have you tried removing and reinserting the hard drive (power off, of course )

If you see no hard drive light and cannot hear the hard drive spin up there is a strong possibility that the HD has failed.

There is a good troubleshooting guide in the manual which covers most of the above