Laptop only shows image on the screen if I boot without being connected to the power plug

[J_P_Fidalgo]

Hello Everyone,

I've been having this issue for a long time but only now I have the time to try and fix it.

The situation is, my work laptop on a cold boot, shows the Bios screen and the initial Win7 screen loading up.

Once I am suposed to see the credentials to unlock, I hear the Win7 opening sound, but I get no image on the laptop screen.

Now 2 things can happen.

1 - CONNECTED ON DOCKSTATION (or with the power chord)

If I am connected on the dockstation, The external screen shows the credentials screen and I can login and everything shows up except for:

- Laptop keyboard does not work;

- Laptop screen is not available;

- Laptop touchpad also does not work.

2 - ON BATTERY

If I'm only on the battery power, I can press the power button once for the laptop to sleep, and again to wake-up, and now I have the backlight up on a black screen. If I keep trying sleep/wake-up, I can get it to actually show the login screen and go into windows on the laptop screen. and now everything works.

- Laptop screen works;

- Keyboard/touchpad on the laptop works;

- If I connect again to the docking station, I get external monitor on top of the laptop monitor and external mouse;

- Basically everything works as normal.

So, as some extra info. As the cold boot is happenning, everything works because I can get into Bios and do everything (with touchpad/laptop keyboard/external mouse/external keyboard).

Also, If I go to Win boot options with F8, and I pick any of the Safe Modes. The Laptop boots Safe Modes just fine on battery, OR If I'm in the dockstation, everything on the external interfaces.

In a short summary:

- If using docstation/power chord -> everything works externally

- If on battery -> after some sleep/wake-up cycles Everything works internally and externally, and even connecting again to dockstation/power chord.

I tried to understand the issue, but I can't fully relate the issues. If I boot from a Windows CD on the dockstation, I also get the image/input only on the external monitor/external peripherals. Also if the boot drive is Linux based.

I do the same on battery, I get the image on the laptops screen and I can use onboard keyboard and touchpad (which by the way, does not happen with external booting source on the dockstation).

In a side note, this has been happening for a few months but I only needed to do office work, but now I have a little of free time so I'm trying to fix this. And if I have to go on the field, this is going to be a disaster.

Just to add up, the ssd gave the chkdsk error 766f6c756d652e63 3f1. I managed to fix it with a new ssd. I created an image of the previous ssd with Yumi/Acronis, loaded the image in the new ssd with the same Yumi/Acronis. Then booted up, still had the chkdsk error, booted from Win7 CD, made a repair, and now it is back on where it was before.

The only reason why I didn't try to do a fresh install so far, is because I have lots of software on this, and with server managed licenses and it would be an absolute pain to install everything again. Probably would take a few days to get it back on working condition again.

I already have the backups, just in preparation for the worst case scenario.

So, any ideas?

I'm sorry it this was too long, but I wanted to leave (what I think) is as much relevant information as possible.

Cheers.

[J_P_Fidalgo · Accepted solution]

So I got it fixed, it is a software issue. Somehow I was missing a few firmware and updates that windows update did not get.

Easiest solution was to actually use the HP Softpack download manager.
It automatically picked up everything installed and highlighted critical missing software updates and firmware.
You can find it here https://ftp.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/HP_SDM_Setup.exe

After the installation it started working normally again.

Cheers.