Laptop not booting, and CAPS lock blinking.

[TheKLF99]

I've had my HP laptop for many years now, since about 2005 and it always has run absolutely fine.

I was that impressed by it's longevity that when my two friends both asked which laptop I'd recommend them to get I told them that the HP laptops are pretty good.

Now three years after advising these two friends they both have exactly the same issue.  Both of them bought similar laptops - one got the HP version and the other got the Compaq version.

One of them decided that rather than have the laptop repaired he upgraded to Apple Mac and give me the laptop for me to have a play with and see if there is anyway to get it going again.

The other one has left me with his laptop at the moment in the hope that there is some way to fix it.

Both laptops when you switch them on the wi-fi light lights up and the white caps lock light starts blinking constantly.  It doesn't stop blinking, but just starts blinking constantly.

On one of my friends laptops this has happened before and he took it to someone else then to see if they could fix it as he lives a long way from me.  The person he took it to told him to fix it you jam a piece of metal into the fan and stop it spinning, let it overheat and then it will reflow all the solder -  When he told me this I was quite shoced - do that if you want to risk getting an electric shock, and it's not really a proper "solution", the proper solution is trying to find out what on earth has gone wrong and see if it's fixable.

I looked on HP's website and it states that a constant blinking light is the error code for a problem on the power side of things, there is a different set of flashes for a GPU error, so it got me thinking that even though some people seem to be giving solutions on here, and some of them seem to be working, is it just luck that they're working.  My initial thought is that if it's a power problem - could it be that one of the capacitors has got to hot and blown or isn't holding enough charge (possibly when people overheat this faulty cap it then begins to work normally - just a thought - we had an old CRT TV many years ago that had a faulty cap that on first turn on the screen would be all screwed up at the top, and then as it heated up it would correct itself - I remember that being a faulty cap as my dad is a retired TV engineer and he took the TV apart and replaced the cap).

So does anyone have a clue where this issue is, is it somewhere on the power board, or is it certainly a GPU issue even though the caps lock light message is suggesting otherwise?  If it is a GPU issue I might see if I can replace the GPU in some way and see if I can put some kind of extra heatsink and top of the range thermal paste on it to keep it extra cool.

[Captain_Bob]

The "baking" trick does not "reflow the solder".  It heats up the heat sink compound between the cpu and the cooling fan heat sink and gets the cpu working again.  One blink every 2-3 seconds is the code for a cpu problem.  Once you get it working, you should follow the You Tube videos and disassemble the unit and reapply the heat sink compound.  I did it, and I have NO experience in working on these lap tops and notebooks.  It takes a few minutes, but it is not difficult.  You will need a No. "1" Phillips screwdriver, some alcohol swabs, and a tube of heat sink compound from Radio Shack.  My HP G56 had the problem.  After reassembly, it still would not boot, but the light was blinking twice every 2-3 seconds.  That code is for a BIOS failure.  Fix for that is to turn it off, and then hold down the "windows" key and the "B" key and pressing the "On" button for 1-2 seconds, and releasing all the buttons.  This will get the "BIOS", whatever that is, working again.  I had given up on this notebook for many months, but have successfuly got it to work again.  Good luck!

[Physics]

How to remove the bad Heat Sink Compound?

[TheKLF99]

Thanks for the reply - I'll try re-applying thermal paste to the CPU, I have already done that in the past with another one of these which one of my other friends had bought but I noticed that one before it got to the stage of caps lock blinking as I thought this seems to be getting a bit hot (the CPU on that was hitting 60 degrees and starting to run really erratically.  

I remember it being a pain in the backside to get to though as the heatsink is only accessible from the other side of the motherboard so the entire motherboard needed to be removed on that one, hopefully these two laptops I've got in aren't as problematic.

The reason I thought it was a power issue was because of the blink code table on the HP website:-

1 Caps Lock/Num Lock CPU CPU not functional

2 Caps Lock/Num Lock BIOS BIOS corruption failure

3 Caps Lock/Num Lock Memory Module error not functional

4 Caps Lock/Num Lock Graphics Graphics controller not functional

5 Caps Lock/Num Lock System board General system board failure

6 Caps Lock/Num Lock BIOS BIOS authentication failure

Continuous blink AC power adapter LED Power adapter Insufficient power

Count the number of blinks in the sequence (between1 and 8 blinks).

After the sequence of blinks or beeps, there is a pause for a few seconds, and the sequence is repeated (usually 3 or 4 times). The blink sequence can be repeated by pressing the power button again.

1 blink is CPU, where as continuous blink is insufficient power - and it says it should do this mode 3-4 times where as this is just continuously blinking, it doesn't stop after 3-4 times.  I suppose I've got nothing to lose by re-applying the thermal compound and then if that fails put it down to a power issue.  

Just noticed actually the continuous blink for power adapter problems isn't the capslock light, it's power led light....

Thank you for your help and advice.

[Captain_Bob]

Yeah, on both my HP's you have to get to the undeside of the motherboard.  More time, but not too difficult.  There is a You Tube video of the process, and the guy just carefully scraped off the old heat sink compound with a knife or razor blade.  Then clean it up real good with an alcohol swab, and apply what he calls a "grain of rice" amount of compound.  I believe I sitll may have some sort of issue with the cpu, as the air coming out of the old G56 model seems to be hotter than the air coming out of my newer hp 2000.  So I do not leave it on for very long, and shut it off when it is not in use.

BTW, how do you measure the temp of the cpu?

[TheKLF99]

There are loads of software items out there that monitor numerous temperatures within a PC - CPU, hard drive, fan speed, etc...

This program shows CPU temp as well as numerous other values.  Whenever I've got a PC appearing to have heat issues (normal heat issues are random resets (CPU overheating) and sometimes snow on the screen (GPU overheating)) normally the first thing I try is this and check the temperatures.

http://openhardwaremonitor.org/

[bigkirsty73]

Pls help i have compaq i just bought no money dont know much about computers n oranfe light flashing it wont ho on help pls

[colorboi]

im having the same problem i hope this works

[Captain_Bob]

Believe there is still a problem with the cpu, as I had to do the "baking" trick again.  Probably do need a new mother board, but an internet search reveals that it would cost around $75, and I do not want to put any more money into the notebook.  Anyway, I left the computer for a week or so on our sun porch, which this time of year is really a freezer porch as it has no heat.   Apparently the battery was dead, and even though it was plugged in, it would not boot up.  Performed the "baking" again, left it plugged in for a while to charge up the battery, and it started up and it has been working OK since.  I now keep it plugged in, and in a heated area.  Also don't leave it on if it is not being used.  Haven't tried to download the software to check the temps as I have had a problem with viruses lately when downloading certain things, and am a little scared.  Anyone have any idea what is going on when the cpu fails, and exactly why the overheating resets it?  Is such a puzzlement!

[TheKLF99]

ok I've now tried re-applying thermal paste - still dead, bought a new CPU for it to check the CPU (matched the CPU with the old CPU to ensure it's compatible) - still dead.  Anyone any ideas - I can only assume it's the motherboard that's gone.