System hardware malfunction preventing boot. Which hardware is dead?

[woggles]

Got an HP Envy 17 3200 CTO loaded at the time. Quad core, Radeon HD 7850M, etc.

Well the other day the thing blue screened but froze during that process and the graphics glitches during that screen. Corruption and blocks appeared and disappeared. I was forced to shut it down during the blue screen as something big wasn't working during the crash dump process, it stood at 0%.

Upon restart the unit screen doesn't turn on and no noises are made like beeps indicating an issue. The Bluray makes its usual prep sounds it does at every start up. It sits with a blank screen that doesn't even appear to be powered on. The only other indicator is the caps lock key flashes a few times and goes off, then flashes a few times and goes off, repeating this sitting there..

What part likely died on this sucker? CPU? Dram? Motherboard? Graphics card? How can I trouble shoot it if it doesn't power on ..

While it sits there various LEDs on the keyboard are on as said .. Caps lock flashing.
Power LED on. I think the wireless LED is on too.. The HP envy light on the hood is also on..

Coming here for tips because I do self repair. No warranty. I will purchase the required part and self install like I always do for my laptops.

[SDJL · Accepted solution]

Hi @woggles,

Thank you for posting at HP Forums! 

I have read your post and wanted to help.

I understand that your laptop crashed with blue screen, and after forced shut down, it starts with blank screen and some LEDs flashing.

You can refer to the link for the LED codes: HP Notebook PCs - Computer Does Not Start and Emits an LED or Beep Code

It is better to follow the steps on this link: HP Notebook PCs - Computer Does Not Start (Windows 10)

Let me know how it goes.

If this helps you to reach a solution, please click the "Accept as Solution" button down below in this message. If you wish to say "thanks" for my effort to help, click the "thumbs up" to give me Kudos. :catvery-happy:
 

Regards,

[woggles]

Two flashes. BIOS corruption failure. What should I do? Will research it but tips welcome.

Initially following this guide to reinstall a clean BIOS.

In case I don't find a guide is there a way to backup the bad BIOS? Worried a hacker or NSA killed my BIOS. I am a huge political activist. I know secret classified info on NSA. I am under active surveillance and being hacked and messed with by them. This could be yet another weapon thrown at me.

No BIOS update has been done by me so why would it be corrupt recently?

I want the BIOS and data backed up in case someone erroneously installed some type of traceable data to corrupt my BIOS.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02693833

www.drrobertduncan.com

The corruption can be installed a variety of ways including satellite and radar interferometry to physically alter the flash and other storage media.

[SDJL]

Hi @woggles,

Follow this link to restore the BIOS, which you already knew: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02693833

If the BIOS cannot be restored, please use the following link http://www.hp.com/contacthp to create a case for your issue, and contact HP. If you live outside the US/Canada, please click the link http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-phone-assist.html to get the contact information for your region.

[woggles]

The instructions for bios restore don't work. My hard drive is brand new and there is no hp tools partiton; pressing windows key plus B does nothing at all.

The BIOS install file does not allow it to be installed to the flash drive

... So attempting to perform the restore from external drive can't be done.

My warranty is expired so I presume no method of contacting support will matter.

[woggles]

according to the HP diagnostics page, the LED blinking on the caps lock means the BIOS is corrupt.

anyone experience this with their unit and know how to restore the BIOS? The guide to restore the HP BIOS on HP's site is not applicable to the Envy 17 because the BIOS install file doesn't allow one the option to install to an external drive.

they claim you will need the correct files on the USB drive and press windows key plus B and then hold, while pressing the power button on.

inside the BIOS installation if you extract it with 7-zip, are two .fd files. I tried renaming both to .bin and placing both or one or the other on the USB drive and booting via windows plus B plus power, but nothing appears to happen. I'm not sure which .fd file is applicable to my system either, apparently both BIOS files are for specific units depending on the precise model.

from inside the BIOS installation .ini instructions for the Insydeflash :

FD#01=PCI,0,0,0,2C,FFFFFFFF,1851103C,01851.fd (which systems get this file? it's based on the ID code 1851103C)

FD#02=PCI,0,0,0,2C,FFFFFFFF,1852103C,01853.fd (which systems get this file? it's based on the ID code 1852103C or 1853103C)

FD#03=PCI,0,0,0,2C,FFFFFFFF,1853103C,01853.fd

Info on LED light codes: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01732674

two blinks BIOS corruption failure.

Info on restoring the BIOS that doesn't seem to be applicable 100% to HP Envy 17t-3200 CTO per say: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02693833

help someone familiar.

will trouble shoot if the BIOS battery is dead because someone said if the battery is low, his system also wouldn't boot.

[woggles]

Hi guys.. Found out the problem.

The issue was in fact a bad or low or dead CMOS battery.

Here is how you fix it. Just unplug the battery from the motherboard until you buy a new one.

As soon as I unplugged the battery the system booted up and screen turned on. Went into Windows no problem. I refreshed the BIOS to be safe but I bet it was not necessary but did so just to ensure the BIOS was in full newly flashed working order until I get a new battery.

Bet others will be suffering this problem quite a bit as these systems age and the battery dies. This unit was built in 2012, made it to July 2016 till the CMOS battery puked.

During the flashing of my system I was able to learn the quad core Radeon HD 7850M variety is the 1853 BIOS;