Vista Stuck at First Screen (Boot Screen)

Ok here goes. I have had this computer for about a year and a half. A few months back the video card fan started making rattling noises. So I went to the manufacture's website to see if there is a solution. Turns out there was a replacement program going on that would replace that card with a new one that had a different fan.
So I took the opportunity to get it replaced and surely, it was perfect, it made no sound. Before I had it replaced, I would open the case everyday, unplug the power and used tooth pick to pull up the fan, so it wouldn't hit anything on the bottom, and rattle.
Two days after I got it replaced. I turned on the computer. THe computer had been working fine before the new graphics card and during those two days. But two days later, it woudn't go past teh first screen. You know the screen with press so and so F key to go to some diagnostics or setup or something. But it wouldn't actually go to diagnostics or setup if I presed the keys. In fact, nothing works here, its just stuck, and without showing any symptoms of any hardware failure like freezing every now then, errors, etc... nothing!
So I contacted HP immediately. They said reseat the hardrive, graphics card and RAM, and so I did with no luck. They said try the beep test. So I pulled out the RAM, the motherboard beeped.
I emailed back, and they said the graphics card needs to be replaced, and they linked me tot he replacement program. But the program only replaced the video card with the old fans. So emailed back, and they sent me some new instructions about taking out all the power from the "tower", then reducing heat instructions. All fans worked and there were a total of four fans in the system. So i emailed back and they said the BIOS is gone corrupt and they need to reload it. They will charge because my warranty has run out.
They said to backup any files and send it to them. I was like WTF? How am i supposed to back up my files? The computer doesn't go past the boot screen. They sent me some instructions, requiring the use of F keys. I had already explained to them that those did not work. :blink:

All throughout I had been researching, I found an article on globe and mail which said remove everything: hardraive, ram, video/graphics card and Cd drive.
i did that and here's what I got.
When nothing was in place, the motherboard beeped.
When ram was in place, no beeps but I figured it was because I had an integrated video card. So i plugged my monitor to that and sure enough it asked for a drive to boot from.
so i put in the video card, and plugged my monitor into it and again, it asked the same thing. I think that means that the video card works fine.
So next thing I plug in my hardrive, (CD drive is out at this point) and it's just stuck at the Boot screen again.

So now I have two problems.
computer is stuck at boot screen and if I do send for repair, I don't know how to back up my VERY important data.

Any help is appreciated!

Hi prince911. As this was your first post on this forum, i would like to suggest you something. Please search the forum before you generate any query as i can find there are many such queries already discussed here. Anyways, i hope you can find the solution in them. Just check this out:

http://forums.techarena.in/operating...ms/1131848.htm
http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/941787.htm
http://forums.techarena.in/vista-set...ll/1039907.htm
http://forums.techarena.in/operating...ms/1267478.htm

Yes I have already. :) I did quite a bit of google searches before I posted and some were from this forum. I didn't find much help for my situation.

Have you tried booting in to "safe Mode"? When you first turn on your computer, right when you first start to see the post screen start tapping the "F8" key to see if you can get the PC into safe mode. If you are successful,you will be prompted that windows is running in safe mode. You then may be able to backup those important files. It may be some corrupt drivers, or your boot configuration is corrupt causing it not to boot all the way up. In that case you may be able to do a "Repair" on your OS. :book:

no, that doesn't work. No Fkeys, DEL, etc work in the beginning.

If you are unable to surpass the initial screen in Windows Vista I guess you will have to re-install it. I had used Vista and I was subjected to a lot of problems regarding booting my computer. To get your important data back-up you may try using any Linux distribution to boot your system through a pen-drive. This will boot your system with Linux and you can access your files which will make it easy for you to back-up your data.

Kamal can you please explain the steps? :blink: I am no expert at this.