HP Pavilion Laptop - No Boot Issue

[AndyM]

Hi,

I am sure that I have seen this somewhere on the forums before, but no matter what I'm searching for, I don't seem to be able to find the issue, so any replies here would be greatly appreciated.

I have a HP Pavilion G6-1325ea laptop that will not boot.

Power on, no video output (either to monitor or externally). Caps Lock flashed twice pauses for approx. 5 seconds, then two flashes (repeated). F12 (amber wireless) light is on.

I have reseated memory (unable to check with known good memory, as my memory is too big for it - 8GB sticks)

I have attempted to flash BIOS using the EUFI utility from a USB stick.

===================

I want to assume that it's the graphics chip, but I know very well that assumption is the mother of... all things that can go wrong!

Many thanks,
Andy

 

[FremontPC]

Pull the battery and the power cord, hold the power button down for 30 sec.
Try starting up with just the AC power and see if you get a different result.

Try removing the memory entirely. What was the result?

Check the ports to see if any are broken or if there's something lodged in one of them.

Pull anything that isn't needed (wireless card, etc, perhaps even DVD) just to see if you can get a different result.

 

[AndyM]

Pulled the battery, which made no difference.

Pulled memory, which gave me three lights on the caps lock key, with the three beep codes.

All ports appear to be intact.

Pulled DVD and wireless card, still with no joy.

One thing that I have noticed, is that the error code - three lights on the caps lock key, there's no beep codes. just silence.

Andy.

 

[CLC]

LEDs blink 2 times BIOS BIOS corruption failure, pull the cmos battery and see what happens.

 

[NYJimbo]

I have attempted to flash BIOS using the EUFI utility from a USB stick.

What result did this produce ?

In my experience many times a HP will do a read from USB port on the "hold down all arrows" while powering up but will only read the BIOS if its a external FLOPPY drive on the USB port and not an actual USB stick.

 

[AndyM]

Thanks CLC. Pulled the CMOS battery, but still no joy.

Just about to take Jimbo's advice.

Andy

 

[AndyM]

Alas, there's no way I can get all of that data onto a 1.4MB Floppy.

Andy

 

[NYJimbo]

Alas, there's no way I can get all of that data onto a 1.4MB Floppy.

Andy

You only need the actual BIOS file, not all the boot stuff and programming/flash tools.

 

[AndyM]

I'll try that tomorrow. Hopefully it will sort things out...

Do I just need the plain BIOS file on the root of the floppy, or does it need to be structured the same was as the USB drive?

As I said previously, the biggest hindrance is the lack of output to the screen, so I'm hoping I don't screw anything up.

Andy

 

[NYJimbo]

If the process works with this laptop all you need the is BIOS file on the disk. It should be formatted first. Sometimes when you download a HP BIOS they will have similar file names but slight differences for the same model. If there is more than one BIOS for your model try to put all or more than one of the BIOS files on the floppy and the boot process will pick the right one.

Its pretty much a blind process. It will seek the floppy and then you will hear the heads seeking in and out and then clucking as it reads. If it works properly it can take a minute or three to read and then it will reboot or power down.

I haven't done one in a few months but we had this issue where different people were telling what to try and the only thing that worked was the correct BIOS file on a floppy plugged into the USB port and then holding down the 4 arrows keys and powering it up. A USB stick would not work for this method.

 

[AndyM]

The BIOS files that I can see in the extracted SWSetup files, are all BIN files. The latest files I can see are:

23/10/2012 16:01 2,294,656 0165CF53.bin
23/10/2012 16:01 2,294,656 0165EF53.bin
24/10/2012 16:15 2,294,656 03564F53.bin

As you can see, these are all double the size for the floppy. The current BIOS is F53.

Am I looking in the wrong place?
Oldest files I can see in the support section are the F43 BIOS Files. Again too big for floppy:

16/11/2011 20:07 2,294,656 0165CF43.bin
16/11/2011 17:20 2,294,656 0165EF43.bin
16/11/2011 15:03 2,294,656 03564F43.bin

(Oh, if only this were an intel board, and I had a .BIO file.....)

Andy

 

[FremontPC]

You may have to dig up a 2.88 floppy somewhere.

What method did you use when you tried the USB stick?

Maybe have a look at this:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...=5048672&prodTypeId=321957&objectID=c02693833

 

[BillMoney]

anytime no video and caps lock is blinking on HP it is a bad system board, replace board or laptop