HP tx2000 Tablet/Laptop stuck in Hibernate

[Doctor Micro]

History on this machine: Had a bad mobo. Laptop was under warranty, so the owner sent it to HP for warranty repair. Before she sent it, I removed the hard drive and made an image of it. She gets it back, brings it to me and HP has replaced her hard drive (with a refurb, no less) and loaded the basic factory install. I remove the drive, image the factory install, then restore her original image. Voila! She's back in business. I update her AV and a few MS updates that were pending, test wireless and ethernet... all ok. I give it back to her. Later that night, she calls and says she can't connect to the wireless in her apartment complex. Doesn't even see it. Says the wireless light is orange (no connection or turned off). I remind her that it was working when it left my shop and ask her if she'd done anything. She says no, just brought it home, fired it up, checked to make sure her docs and pics where there (they were) and tried to connect to the wireless and the internet. No go. I tell her to bring it back.

She drops it off later that evening, and the next day, I put it back on the bench. Plug in the power supply and hit the power button. While it's booting, I notice the wireless led is blue. Hmmm.. Go to HP wireless assitant and it tells me no connection found and that the wireless has been either disabled in device manager or in the bios. Reboot, go into CMOS. No wireless setting... just very minimal settings at all, mostly just informative and non-changeable. Boot devices, boot order, time and date, BIOS and User password set, that's about it. Ok, reboot into windows (Vista Ultimate, Tablet Edition, 64-bit, SP1) and check device manager. No wireless listed.

Pull the back plate, check the connections to the Broadcom Atheros card, all ok. Battery back in, AC back in and reboot. HP Wireless assistant still showing nothing. Go to Network Connections, manage wireless, and there is my lab wireless network, showing 5 bars. Click connect. After about 10 seconds, I have a connection and I'm on the net. Great! So, I figure the HP wireless assitant software is knackered and go to HP's website from my lab machine. Download the latesst driver set for the Broadcom to my NAS, and all the other drivers besides, just in case I get another machine like this or need to update or refresh any of hers.

In the meantime, on her machine, I clear a stuck MS Office compatibility service pack that was stuck and get it installed. Check for more updates while I'm there, and Vista SP2 shows up. I figure "Why not?", especially since I'd read on a couple of posts that some people who'd had minor glitchy problems had them solved after installing SP2.

Download SP2, start the installl and leave the machine until morning to finish.

Get up this morning and the machine has gone into hibernate/sleep. Little small blue LEDs slowly blinking. Hit the power button to bring it out of Standby/Hibernate.

Nothing.

Try again. Still nothing. Hmmmm

Hold the power button down to turn off. Okay, all lights off. Wait a minute or so and hit the power button. Lights on, fans on, no HDD activity and from all indications, still in Standby/Hibernate.

Shut down (Hard shutdown with power button again). Pull the AC, Pull the battery. Wait a few minutes. Try again. No go. Still stuck.

Repeat above process, except this time, I pop the back cover and remove the CMOS battery. Press and hold power button for 30 seconds. Insert AC only. Press and hold power another 30 seconds. Reinstall CMOS battery. Power up. Still stuck, and now so am I.

Tried booting from CD. Nope. Won't boot. Same indications, lights on, no HDD activity, just two little blue LEDs (left and right of the keyboard) slowly blinking. Even tried booting without the RAM and the HDD removed. Same thing.

Help!

 

[rusty.nells]

After shutting down, it should not be in hibernate/standby mode. Does it POST? If so, have you tried a live CD?

EDIT: Never mind the live CD, you said it wouldn't boot. And I guess it's not POSTing either. Have you tried booting with minimal hardware?

EDIT 2: Seeing as how the wireless was the initial problem, I'd at least try to boot without it attached.

 

[JosephLeo]

Wow, this situation is pretty tough. I never heard of something like this happening. Maybe before shutting down you/someone else accidently deleted hiberfile.sys without disabling hibernation mode?

Sorry, I doubt that's the problem but that's all I could of think of.

 

[Doctor Micro]

@Joseph: Hibernation/hiberfil.sys. Nope, I didn't delete anything except an empty start menu folder that was leftover from an old Symantec trial subscription (long since removed). Even if that were the problem, I've tried to boot it from CD/DVD and with the HDD and RAM removed, hoping to at least get some beeps, force an entry into BIOS or get anything on the screen or any change at all from the current.

@rusty: If pulling the DVD, HDD, CMOS Battery and RAM counts as booting with minimal hardware, I'd say yes. I'll try pulling the leads from the Broadcom wifi card. I doubt that will make any difference, but what the hell, I'll try anything at this point.

Some forums have spoken about a reset button on the bottom of some HP/Compaq models, and I looked on this one, even under the battery compartment and in the HDD compartment (where the CMOS battery normally lives) and didn't see anything. HP FAQ and troubleshooting quick tips either don't apply or are no help. Perusing their forums now.

 

[JosephLeo]

@Joseph: Hibernation/hiberfil.sys. Nope, I didn't delete anything except an empty start menu folder that was leftover from an old Symantec trial subscription (long since removed). Even if that were the problem, I've tried to boot it from CD/DVD and with the HDD and RAM removed, hoping to at least get some beeps, force an entry into BIOS or get anything on the screen or any change at all from the current.

@rusty: If pulling the DVD, HDD, CMOS Battery and RAM counts as booting with minimal hardware, I'd say yes. I'll try pulling the leads from the Broadcom wifi card. I doubt that will make any difference, but what the hell, I'll try anything at this point.

Some forums have spoken about a reset button on the bottom of some HP/Compaq models, and I looked on this one, even under the battery compartment and in the HDD compartment (where the CMOS battery normally lives) and didn't see anything. HP FAQ and troubleshooting quick tips either don't apply or are no help. Perusing their forums now.

If there was no Disk Drie, Hard Drive, Memory and CMOS battery- then it's almost obviously a bad motherboard...or a short. Try looking for some busted or bulging caps- also I don't know if anyone else does this trick but sniff the motherboard and if it smells "burnt" then you got a bad motherboard. Burnt smell is bad- but don't confuse it with the smell of metal.

 

[Doctor Micro]

Full/correct model.

Re-read the tag on the bottom. Top says tx2000, then below that, in smaller print, says "tx2525 Refurbished - 90 day warranty". Wish I'd taken a picture of the original machine when I first had it in the shop or marked it somehow.

Update: pulled the leads from the Broadcom WiFi card. Nada.
also shorted the + and - board points on either side of the CMOS battery holder. No help there, either.

 

[cmerepair]

I have had this work once before. Sounds like you have either a bad Mobo or the bios is just hosed.

1. Remove the battery and unplug the laptop.
2. Hold down the power button for 60 seconds (don't cheat)
3. Don't put the battery back in, rather plug it back into the power brick and try turning it on.

If it doesn't work, it was worth a try.

 

[Doctor Micro]

If there was no Disk Drie, Hard Drive, Memory and CMOS battery- then it's almost obviously a bad motherboard...or a short. Try looking for some busted or bulging caps- also I don't know if anyone else does this trick but sniff the motherboard and if it smells "burnt" then you got a bad motherboard. Burnt smell is bad- but don't confuse it with the smell of metal.

No smell. I do the sniff test too.

 

[Doctor Micro]

I have had this work once before. Sounds like you have either a bad Mobo or the bios is just hosed.

1. Remove the battery and unplug the laptop.
2. Hold down the power button for 60 seconds (don't cheat)
3. Don't put the battery back in, rather plug it back into the power brick and try turning it on.

If it doesn't work, it was worth a try.

Did this earlier, but only for 30 seconds. I'll give it one more go for 60+ seconds.

 

[rusty.nells]

If the original problem was a bad mobo and this has similar symptoms, you might check the ports/plugs/sockets. Perhaps the user has attached something that fries the mobo. I've also seen a few damaged USB ports that stop a computer from booting.

 

[Doctor Micro]

I have had this work once before. Sounds like you have either a bad Mobo or the bios is just hosed.

1. Remove the battery and unplug the laptop.
2. Hold down the power button for 60 seconds (don't cheat)
3. Don't put the battery back in, rather plug it back into the power brick and try turning it on.

If it doesn't work, it was worth a try.

Nope... held it for 90 seconds, no change. I'm stuck and out of ideas. The crazy thing is that it was working all day yesterday, no indications of problems (other than the wireless issue mentioned earlier), downloaded files, accessed the internet, opened up control panel, opened up my computer... all good, until the problems that surfaced this morning. As a last ditch, I'm going to re-restore the earlier image, but since it won't go into BIOS, absolutely nothing on the screen at power-on, unable to boot into live CD or the Vista Boot CD (it does recognize that there is a disk in the optical drive, but nothing happens), I don't hold out much hope.

I'm thinking that it's time to give it back to the owner and advise her to send it back to HP one more time.

 

[studiot]

Since your original report says you don't get a peep without the HD you need to prove the hardware before the software.

That includes the charging system.
Is there any possibility the new (???) motherboard is shot in the charging circuits and the main battery is now flat?

Do you have a minipci post card?

It's also possible there is a backup maxi capacitor to the CMOS battery. I usually use a flying lead with 2 croc clips across the coin cell battery holder terminals to be certain of fully discharging everything.
Some boards have no jumpers as such but there are two pads somewhere on the board you short out with a probe lead to reset.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I'd send it back to HP, I think that's all you are left with at this point. Its obviously a hardware issue. You'd be surprised how many warranty parts I get that are DOA or are back again for the same part that just got replaced within a month. All these manufacturers just refurb bad parts and recirculate them out agian for repairs. I was doing a large number of warranty LCD replacements on iMacs some time back which had tons of super sticky tape on the old ones. Every new display I installed still had the super sticky tape remnents from whatever machine it was yanked out of before it was refurbished and sent back out into circulation again.

 

[Doctor Micro]

If the original problem was a bad mobo and this has similar symptoms, you might check the ports/plugs/sockets. Perhaps the user has attached something that fries the mobo. I've also seen a few damaged USB ports that stop a computer from booting.

Visual check of all external connectors is OK. Besides, wouldn't that have shown up yesterday when it booted up okay and worked for several hours and a couple reboots and shutdown/restarts in between?

 

[Doctor Micro]

Since your original report says you don't get a peep without the HD you need to prove the hardware before the software.

That includes the charging system.
Is there any possibility the new (???) motherboard is shot in the charging circuits and the main battery is now flat?

Do you have a minipci post card?

It's also possible there is a backup maxi capacitor to the CMOS battery. I usually use a flying lead with 2 croc clips across the coin cell battery holder terminals to be certain of fully discharging everything.
Some boards have no jumpers as such but there are two pads somewhere on the board you short out with a probe lead to reset.

Battery is fully charged. Earlier, with the battery out and AC unplugged, I shorted the + and - pads coming off the CMOS battery. I do not have a minipc post card.

I may pull the battery and CMOS battery one more time and let it sit for the rest of the day after re-shorting the pads. Was thinking of letting the battery drain, but since it exhibits the same characteristics when I try to boot with the battery removed and just running on the AC mains, I abandoned that idea.

 

[JosephLeo]

No smell. I do the sniff test too.

Glad I'm not the only one then!

Oh and also, yeah this is obviously a manufacturer error. There is only one solution at this point and that is to send it back to the customer and tell them that HP never fixed the problem. Sorry mate.

 

[eggy53]

There is a troubleshooting file on hp about those two leds, Cap Locks on left and Num Lock on the Right, It depends on how many blinks they do.

At least this cover the HP Pavilion TX2510us

 

[Doctor Micro]

There is a troubleshooting file on hp about those two leds, Cap Locks on left and Num Lock on the Right, It depends on how many blinks they do.

At least this cover the HP Pavilion TX2510us

Thanks, I did look at this, but it doesn't describe what I'm seeing here. On this laptop there are two flush embedded small rectangular LEDs in the frame; one center left of the keyboard and the other upper right of the keyboard. When the power is applied, these two LED's start blinking slowly and continuously. All other LED indicators (with the exception of the HDD activity LED) come on immediatly and stay on. Pressing Caps Lock or Num Lock does not have any effect.