HP Envy 20 Black Screen On Startup

[Durstee235]

Hi Chris_Gillian,

I've yet to have any luck in restoring my computer's screen.  I also fear that when/if I do get the screen restored I won't know exactly what to do from there.  I am willing to allow someone else to try and fix this computer for me, but I'm not confident that if I take it somewhere they will be able to resolve my issue.  Are you interested in trying to fix my computer for me?  You have been a great help so far, I just don't know if I can get this resolved on my own.  I would be willing to compensate you for your time and effort.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Matt

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[ChrisGillian]

Hi Matt,

Thank you very much for the message and I'm very sorry that your HP ENVY 23 TouchSmart All-in-One PC is not restored. Presumably, you're in the United States. Unfortunately, I'm not residing in the United States. Please don't be disheartened. Several people successfully restored their HP ENVY 20/23 TouchSmart All-in-One PCs and I guess many of them, if not all, reside in the United States. Hence, please do ask if they can help you out, and I believe they would very much love to help you.

Alternatively, you may wish to ask the HP Service Center to restore the CMOS content to get back the display and update the BIOS.

Best of luck, Matt!

Best wishes,
Chris

N.B.: I forgot my password for this forum and could not reset it. Hence, I created another account to reply you.

[0XiDE]

For some reason my original post was deleted. Here it is if anyone still needs it:

After half a week of trying, I've finally got the system up and running again!

After countless hours of googling, piecing information together and nail-biting experimentation, I was able to successfully flash the latest BIOS using a similar method to PhoenixForce. Here's exactly what I did:

What I tried:

- Removing CMOS battery overnight

- Changed CMOS reset jumper as per instructions around 35-40 times (left overnight to dissipate charge)

None of these solutions worked, so I went with drastic measures and attempted a BIOS reflash using the ROM_RECOVERY SPI header. The following is what worked for me, however YMMV - attempt at your own risk and only as a last resort.

Hardware required:

- A broken HP system (ours is a HP ENVY 23-d113a TouchSmart All-in-One Desktop PC)

- Arduino Uno R3 (I used a Freetronics Eleven R3)

- Jumper leads to attach to the Arduino and SPI header like these

- A working PC

Software:

- Ubuntu Linux latest

- VirtualBox

- Download the latest BIOS for your PC by googling HP drivers and your PC model (eg. v8.17 for me) and after double clicking the exe, find the extracted .ROM file (usually under c:\SWSetup\ )and copy to a USB

Steps:

1. On working system, install Ubuntu through VirtualBox using this guide BUT also install USB drivers where it says not to!

2. Close Ubuntu down and go to the USB settings in VirtualBox

3. Connect the Arduino via USB

3. Check Enable USB Controller, select the speed of your USB port (1.0,2.0 or 3.0) and Add a new USB filter for the connected Arduino

4. Start Ubuntu

5. To get the necessary software (flashrom, frser-duino) required for flashing the new bios, press the top icon on the taskbar, type "Terminal" and click the Terminal icon

6. Type "sudo apt-get install flashrom gcc-avr binutils-avr gdb-avr avr-libc avrdude git" without quotations and press enter

7. Type "git clone --recursive git://github.com/urjaman/frser-duino" without quotations and press enter

8. Type "ls -l /dev/ttyACM*" (without quotation marks, press enter) to check your Arduino is connected

9. Type "sudo usermod -a -G dialout <your username>" to add yourself to the dialout group

10. Reboot/logout from Ubuntu

11. When restarted or logged back in, open up Terminal again

12. Type "cd frser-duino" (without quotes/press enter)

13. Type "make u2 && make flash-u2" (as above) to write the program to your Arduino and close terminal once complete

14. On your HP, unplug power cord and remove the backplate

15. Remove the casing above where the memory/CMOS battery and jumpers sit

16. Remove your CMOS battery and place it to the side

17. Use a screwdriver to remove the 5 screws holding the metal casing above the motherboard and remove casing

18. Locate the ROM_RECOVERY header. It looks like this:

19. Remove the jumper connecting SPI_CS# and SPI_CS# and put it aside

20. If there's a jumper directly above the ROM_RECOVERY header, shift it to the right hand pins (closest to the SPI_CS# headers). Not sure what this does, but it worked for me.

21. The fun stuff. Connecting the Arduino. First, unplug the Arduino USB

22. Connect the arduino and ROM_RECOVERY SPI header:

Connect Arduino Pin 10 --> the BOTTOM SPI_CS# (ie. NOT the one next to SPI_MOSI)

Connect Arduino Pin 11 --> SPI_MOSI

Connect Arduino Pin 12 --> SPI_MISO

Connect Arduino Pin 13 --> SPI_CLK

Connect Arduino GND --> GND

Connect Arduino 5V* --> 3VSB

*Originally I tried connecting Arduino 3.3V --> 3VSB, however erasing/writing to the BIOS would fail every single time. As soon as I switched to 5V as a last ditch effort, it worked for me. YMMV.

23. Plug your Arduino back into the working PC

24. To create a copy of your old BIOS file, open Terminal and type "flashrom -p serprog:dev=/dev/ttyACM0:115200 -r old.ROM"

25. If all is correct, you should see your BIOS chip detected (my Spansion S25FL064K was detected as a Winbond W25Q64.V) and the process will start. sit tight until it's complete.

26. To write the latest HP BIOS, copy the *.ROM file downloaded and extracted onto the working PC to the Home folder in Ubuntu and rename to "new.ROM"

27. In Terminal, type "flashrom -p serprog:dev=/dev/ttyACM0:115200 -w new.ROM"

28. Bite nails for 15-20 mins

29. Wait for the verification to complete - the lights on my Arduino stopped flashing during verification so I actually pulled the USB out here. Probably don't do that - only if you have to.

30. Unplug the Arduino from USB and ROM_RECOVERY headers. Put jumper back over SPI_CS# headers and move other jumper back to left hand side.

31. Reinsert CMOS battery

32. Plug power back in and press ON button

33. System should start and then restart quickly. Let it do it's thing.

34. CELEBRATE!

35. When booted into windows, update BIOS the official way (run the exe file)

36. Leave system on for around 30-60 minutes.

I used these excellent resources in order of usefulness:

- http://systats.or8.net/hpspi/

- http://tomvanveen.eu/flashing-bios-chip-arduino/

- http://www.informaticanapoli.it/hp-envy-23-touchsmart-non-si-accende/

And of course a massive thanks to PhoenixForce who kickstarted the whole idea.

Good luck! If you have any questions, feel free to post them here.

[Durstee235]

Chris and all,

After several months of attempting to restore my HP ENVY23 AIO, it is RESTORED!!!!

I finally broke down and took it to Best Buy GeekSquad and explained the issue.  They weren't much help.  The tech was able to get the screen to come on multiple times which was further than I could get.  Once he had it running, he told me Windows was corrupted and couldn't do much.  I asked him how he got the screen to come on and I followed his method and BOOM it worked!!

What he did was unplug the power, and hit the power button on the computer multiple times (like 10-20) and after doing so the screen will work (at least in my case).  All the other attempts and moving CMOS jumpers and batteries I had no luck.

1. Once I got the computer to boot I updated the BIOS to the correct version of Windows 8.1. (8.16 Rev.A). 
2. I downloaded a copy of Windows 8.1 from Microsoft.
3. I used a Product Key (ShowKeyPlus) tool to determine my Windows Product Key to use during installation.
4. Burned the ISO to a DVD.
5. Ran the installation of Windows 8.1 and received an error: "Something happened: Setup has failed to determine supported install choices".  The fix is described here: "Just don't start the setup.exe that is in the first main folder! This one gives you this error. Go into the sources folder from this iso and there click this setup.exe inside the sources folder! Then Setup starts and you can downgrade to 8.1 within 10! No install media needed! Just mount the iso inside 10 with rightclick and attach (or how it is named) and then go into the sources folder. There click on setup.exe and it installs. I tried it on my Switch10 and it worked :)"
6. During the installation of Windows 8.1, it appeared that the installation was hung at "Getting Ready" screen for at least 20 minutes.  Then the power went out in my house and I thought for sure I would never get Windows installed!  When starting the computer I received another error after the HP logo: The computer restarted unexpectedly or encounter an error during installation.  Press OK to restart the Windows Installation.  This was stuck in a loop.
7. I then tried changing the boot order and booting from the DVD, but this did not work.
8. At the error screen of step 6, you can press Shift+F10 and this brings up a DOS prompt.  I then launched REGEDIT and changed the value of a registry key to start the installation of Windows again and it worked!!  See here: 

   On the same error screen press SHIFT+F10 and it will open up a black Window. (a command prompt window)

   In  the black windows type the word "regedit"(without the inverted commas and hit enter. That will open the registry editor.

           In the Registry Editor..

                   Browse to....

           HKLocal machine/SYSTEM/SETUP/STATUS/ChildCompletion, and after highliting childcompletion,on the right hand side check for setup.exe. if the value is 1 change it to 3.(by double clicking on setup.exe and changing the value shown in the box).

   Then close the registry editor and then also close the black window.

9. I am now in the process of cleaning up the disk of the Windows.old folder which is about 1TB.  I have Windows 8.1 installed and running.  I am going to verify my BIOS version again and all should be good from here.

Thanks for the help everyone, hope my story helps someone else!

-Matt

[dhellerstedt]

So I have the problem as described in the earlier posts. 20" touch smart with the larry-b mother board. Upgraded to windows 10 and shortly after started receiving the WDF_Violation. I rebooted into windows 10 trouble shooting mode and choose "reset this PC". That is when the black screen started. I tried all things in this post (except for buying the arundo board because I don't believe I have the same jumpers on the Larry-b mother board).

I was finally able to get the PC to book (sans pictures; screen is still black) by:

1. On a working PC download windows 8.0 bios sp69893.exe 8.16 Rev.A 4.3 MB Mar 19, 2015
2. Installing this will put a folder on the PC: C:\SWSetup\SP69893
3. copy the contents to a flash drive formatted to FAT32
4. Plug the flash drive into the touch smart
5. unplugg power
6. press power button several times (5-10)
7. plug in power
8. turn off right away with power button (the pc turns on as soon as you plug it in)
9. hold down windows key + B 
10. While holding the keys above, press and hold the power button. The light will come on, then turn off. When light turns off release power button, but continue to hold Windows + B keys
11. If this works the flash drive light will come on and pc will boot. 
12. on occation I've had to press F1 to conintue the boot process (not sure why but seemed to hang until I did that)
13. Note: I still cannot see anything on the screen at this point, but I know that it is working and has booted because I can see the processor light respond to keyboard input (and respond to touches on the monitor). From memory, If i press up arrow (to clear the lock screen), and tab 3 then press space bar I can get the "ease of access" button on the lock screen to talk to me. However when I select "Narration" it does not start narriation (my guess is i still have windows errors). 
14. I can log into the PC and have tried connecting an external monitor through a usb adapter, but I still cannot get the image to project to the external monitor. 

I've tried RDP-ing to this pc but it is windows 10 home so there is no capability to remote into it. I've also tried contacting microsoft to help me resolve the display issue via MSDT but they want me to sign up with a service plan first.

Any other suggestions for how to get the monitor(s) working? 

[Gordon2016]

Thanks for this info.  I have had the same problem for a while and despite weeks of resetting the jumpers I'm not having the success that a few of the other contributos have enjoyed.  So I am thinking about going down your route of reflashing the bios.  However this is completey new territory for me so I am wondering is an alternatve simply to replace the bios chip with one programmed for the motherboard? If so are there any obstacles to doing that that I should think about?

[phate008]

Hello,

I have the same issue as everyone else, except for me I had Windows 10 installed for about a month without  black screen issues. I was having memory leak and other glitches after installing Windows 10 so I backed everything up and restarted my computer to run factory restore. The problem is I stupidly chose the wrong option and instead clicked on the restore locacted in the Advanced options. What this did was reinstall Windows 10 and, voila, upon restart I have the black screen. Since I backed everything up, and considering I want revert back to Windows 8.1 should I launch the HP recovery tool if/when the jumper trick works and my computer gets back on? Or should I still get online and download the 8.1 Rev BIOS?

So far I have done the jumper CMOS reset twice, and it restarted the computer, but I still see nothing except a black screen. In my understanding this can take a considerable amount of tries, right? Some of you say 50+ tries. Thanks for the help

PS I have an HP Envy 23d-027c All in One PC

[binderclips]

Hello all. I have an HP Envy 20 Touchsmart 20-d113w.  I'm in the same boat as everyone else in this thread.  I've tried every variation of the CLR_CMOS-reset, battery-in-and-out, leave-it-unplugged-for-a-day routines countless times but I just cannot get mine to start normally.  Optical drive spins, LED lights on power, KB, and HDD are all on, but no video.  I've followed HP's to steps to reset BIOS to default settings (with a blank screen) - no luck.  Tried different CMOS batteries, HDDs, and RAM - no luck.  I even tried to plug a USB-to-VGA adapter (since the unit does not have a port for an external monitor) in hoping that an external monitor can show video - no luck on that either.  I've ascertained that it's not the mobo because it beeps when I remove the RAM sticks.  Furthermore, whenever I power on the PC, the power LED light flickers 5 times.  I found an HP webpage that explains that 5 flickers denote a problem with the RAM stick.  But as I mentioned, I tried different good working RAM sticks but with no change in result.

I appreciate anyone's input and assistance.  

[A4Apollo]

Hey, there @murrayme89@binderclips, Thanks for stopping by the HP Support Forums!
 
 I understand that there is a black screen on your Envy 20 All in one unit.

As I went through your case notes it looks like you have tried all steps which are recommended by HP. 

However, as you still have issues even after troubleshooting this looks like a hardware issue.

So please contact HP phone support for more assistance.

Please find the link to contact HP: http://hp.care/2bkTGBQ

Before contact HP please check whether you have tried all the steps mentioned in this link: http://hp.care/2bSue7u

Let me know if this helps,

Have a great day!

[dhellerstedt]

If anyone has actually had any success with contacting HP, as MrRobot suggests, please post here. Since most of these units are out of warranty I can't stomach the cost of pre-paying HP for troubleshooting without any real concrete solutions. My concern is that by the time you go multiple rounds with HP on this topic you'll quickly exceed the cost of buying a new PC (of a different brand of course).