Blank screen at startup, 5 LED blinks, then starts up after 1-2 hrs.

[Fluxify]

Hey Peeps,

I've got a HP Compaq 615 laptop, had it for about 1.6 years now. Wednesday evening, I did some work on the laptop and switched it to hibernate when I was finished (as I normally do). Thursday morning when I switched it on, the screen remained blank (not showing the HP/Compaq startup logo) and the Caps Lock LED was flashing 5 times. At the time it didn't mean much and I left the system on the entire day. When I came back home that afternoon, Windows was prompting me to logon.

So I restarted the laptop and it did it again. I then estimated that from the moment the system is turned on and the LED blinking is happening, it takes about 1-2 hours for the system to suddenly boot up. After that everything seems normal.

I changed the memory, changed the HDD, removed the DVD drive, troubleshoot as much I can but it did not solve this issue. I understand that this is known as a general system board failure, but why does the system boot up after that awful long time?

Any ideas on why this is happening or advice, will be greatly appreciated.

[erico]

What is your installed operating system?

If it is Windows 7, have you ever installed the Essential System updates for Windows 7? There is a long list of enhancements and in your case it is especially well worth reading and perhaps installing. 

This is what the Windows 7 Essential system update covers.  It is quite along list!

- Adds support for new notebook models. - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 975599, "Stop error when you put a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 to sleep or into hibernation, or when you restart the computer: "0x9F"." - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 978526, "Windows Explorer may stop responding when you insert a recordable BD-R into the Blu-Ray drive on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2." - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 2292867, "You experience a long startup time on a Windows 7-based computer that has an unused external SATA port." - Removes the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 975741, "Some function keys or keyboard shortcuts do not work correctly on a computer that is running Windows 7." (This fix is superseded by KB977074 included in Windows Update.) - Removes the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 977015, "You are repeatedly prompted to insert a new disk when you use the Backup and Restore tool in Windows 7 or the Windows Server Backup tool in Windows Server 2008 R2 to back up your files or to create a system image on a recordable Blu-Ray disc (BD-R)." (This fix is superseded by KB978526 included in one of the fixes.) The following fixes from earlier SoftPaqs are also included: - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 975806, "The video image flickers when you configure Windows Media Player 12 to display the subtitles of a DVD in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2." - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 982018, "A hotfix rollup that improves the reliability and the performance of an Advanced Format disk with a 4KB physical sector size on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 is available." - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 2254251, "A Bluetooth Personal Area Network device may stop responding after a surprise removal of the device from a computer that is running Windows 7." - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 982667, "Windows intermittently does not detect the optical disk drive when you start a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2." - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 981761, "An optical drive that supports DIPM does not enter a low power state when it is installed on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2." - Adds a feature that enables users to select which fixes to install during an interactive installation. - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 976755, "A new user cannot use touch capacity to log on to a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 after it resumes from sleep or hibernation." - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 978258, "USB devices that are connected to a computer may not work after the computer is idle for more than one hour in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2." - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 977632, "A computer that is running a virtual machine in Windows Virtual PC may stop responding or restart when you resume it from sleep or from hibernation in Windows 7." - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 975778, "The Chkdsk.exe program does not start correctly on a Windows 7-based computer." - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 975617, "An update is available for the UDF file system driver (Udfs.sys) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2." - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 974090, "An update is available that allows for a potential power saving in an AMD multicore processor that is running an x64-based version of Windows Vista SP2, of Windows Server 2008 SP2, of Windows 7, or of Windows Server 2008 R2." NOTE: This update is not applicable to 32-bit versions of the operating system. - Adds the fix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 97447

The web suport portal for your notebook

This could be BIOS or operating system related. It is not necessarily a systemboard failure.  The issue is related to the hibernation or idle state.  Shuting down your system as you do by using hibernation is not necessary a good practice to always follow. Completely shutting down the system is a far better option and practice. 

[SSDdrive]

Agreed: 'Shutting down your system as you do by using hibernation is not necessary a good practice to always follow. Completely shutting down the system is a far better option and practice.'

Hibernation is only meant for extended pauses, ex: I am working on something and will be going back to conclude it after my friends leave.

Just refreshing. . . .


If it were a rattler. . . .

[Fluxify]

Hi Erico,

Currently I've got a dual boot configuration for Windows Server 2008 R2 (primary OS) with Windows Server 8 beta. I recently upgraded my HDD and I don't think I installed the 'Essential System Updates' however Windows was up to date. Also, the main reason for hibernating instead of shutting down is that when I'm home, I can just resume the project I'm working on instead of re-opening all the relevant applications.

I did a full shut down yesterday but the symptoms are the same.

[erico]

Try installing the essential system updates.

Many portions of this update is fron the Microsoft knowlegebase and QFEs. Theye are not all standard Microsoft updates.