if you try what I suggested it will enter the bios and save the new settings and boot.....

Try this press f1 it will go into the bios press F10 and then the Y key on your keyboard and press enter key did it reboot into windows? it could be an issue with the battery like chris metioned

If it doesn't save the settings then it is probably the CMOS battery, yeah. Before you save the settings make sure the RAM sizes are right, though.

if it reboots after that check the date in windows if it is wrong you battery is flat and needs replacing it very simple to do.

info here to replace it Replacing the Motherboard Battery | Hardware Secrets

It could be more than just the CMOS battery, but in this case it probably is.

I doubt a 4 month old computers Lithium battery is failing.In post one the OP mentions a flashing underscore. This to me makes me think the system is trying to access the boot sector of the hard drive but is failing.

Later when the OP states it says F1 to enter setup does the system hang here or is that just a message saying what button to press if you need to enter? If the cmos settings had reset it normally says " cmos checksum incorrect press F1 to continue or F2 to cntinue"
If the system coninues to post on its own I feel it has nothing to do with cmos battery.

Incidentally Cpu and Memory tests occur before hard drive detection

What I would do myself is press F1 goto the save tab and select defaut settings then press F10 and exit. If the pc now boots all well and good if it does not I feel there could be a windows problem

Madmatt2006 I see you are Tech I have been told I have to acknowledge Tech if they are already posting I hope you do not mind me offering advice here

Thank you ZB, I'm sure he'll be cool with that

OK, I'm still to stupid to understand how to run a program on my computer without acessing that file on that computer, so not sure on memtest. The only screen it hangs on, is just black background and flashing white underscore _ after the first text appears (Geforce, version whatever, etc.) it runs the next screen fine, with press F1 for setup at the bottom. After that it switches to the hanging screen. I set it to default, and it runs the first screen, but instead of the second one, with Primary, Secondary stuff, copyright at the top, and press F1 at the bottom, it runs a blue background, with the HP logo in white, then switches to the hanging screen. Now I'm semi-worried about how to change it back, but more worried about not having a computer. (my cooling fan sucks too)