TX2500 Dead after 18 Monts.

[brettiex]

Yes I know this is a hot topic for the TX1000's however I have a TX2500 specifically a TX2530EA.

The story so far is that I was using the laptop and everything was fine - put laptop into hibernate and later that night resumed.  This is where everything started to go pearshaped.  Resume was taking much longer than normal and got stuck so I had to reboot.  At this stage I was presented with a completely black screen (no backlight) fan going and leds on but not progressing past POST.  It was also evident that the caps and num lock lights were flashing.

I tried rebooting several times and tried the usual fault diagnosis - HD, Ram, Power Supply, Battery etc. all to no avail.  As a last resort I pulled the cmos battery and left for half hour and tried to reboot.  This time I got some text about an invalid cmos checksum and could F5 to reset all or F6 to continue, however keyboard wouldn't respond so had to reboot and was back at the black screen again.

I tried several variations of disconnecting leaving and re-trying all with the same results - just a black screen again.  Managed to get the invalid cmos checksum once more at which stage I used F6 as at least hoping to get into Windows or something but couldn't boot as some message about missing files on HD (I'm presuming this may have been because the cmos is corrupted and prevented reading of the HD).  I was hopeful that I would get this again so I could use F5 but have never got anything other than black screen since.

HP in their infinate wisdom don't wan't to know as I'm outside guarantee.  Paid support is an option but being an IT Admin myself I'm not paying for someone to go through the normal set of fault diagnosis just to be told I would have to send it back for a massive bill.

At the moment I am following several possibilites either the cmos is completely corrupted or the graphics are dead.  I would like to try and recover the BIOS before going any further.  As far as I am aware the HP's use Insyde BIOS and Insyde support BIOS recovery via USB however at this stage I am running into issues and don't know if this is even supported by the system.  I have read that by using a USB key and turning the laptop on with the Windows + B combination it should read the USB key and start the recovery process.  I have been unsuccessful in getting anywhere with this.

I'm not quite sure where my next options are apart from a new mother board.  Obvioulsy any pointers or information on likely causes would be appreciated.  I've also checked the flashing caps and num lock seqeunce and the flashed occur twice followed by a pause then twice again and so on until the laptop finally gives up and turns itself off.  According to HP's documentation this is a cmos corruption.  Incidentally I am using the latest firmware and I have also read that this has been a cause for a similar problem for at least one individual.  I think HP are going to stand firm on this and deny all responsibility but in all honestly after seeing my wifes £200 Eee PC the build quality of the HP makes me think it was put togther by a 3 year old.  Don't get me wrong I love the laptop and the tablet abilities but HP support frankly makes me wish I'd stuck with Dell.

Sorry fot the long post.

[oneturtledown]

I had the same problem after 11 months, just inside the warranty luckily. First it was overheating, sent it in for repairs, they only replaced the fan. Within a week it did the same as yours (black screen with flashing caps and numlock leds). Sent it back, they replaced the cpu (apparently the overheating had caused some damage) because the memory controller on it was dead. Seemed to work for a while only now the touchpad is dead and half the ports don;t work. Very disappointed with hp, The laptop was very good for about 9 months until the overheating started. Build quality is really terrible.

I'm hoping that they have a policy like dell (who replaced the entire computer after it broke 3 times in a month.

[brettiex]

Definately appears to be a design flaw inherited from the TX1000 series.  Why can't HP just bite the bullet and accept responsibility.  Their actions are only going to lose them customers as then end of the day.

Nothing is perfect but the judge of a company is how well they deal with problems.  I guess we know what HP's answer is 'Bury your head in the sand, and hope it dissapears'.  Really poor, especially for unlucky users who are outside their guarantee.  If I knew the TX2500 were plagued by these issues I would have stuck with something else.

I'm still clinging to a glimmer of hope but I guess that's futile.

[flyman3000]

Mine is 16 months...Has same problem. I took out the HD, RAM and bios battery, nothing changes. Guess its cpu died.

 so disappointed. like threwed 800usd into water..I only have 12 month warrant..

I think the repair fee is about 300~400usd. I dont think it's a good option. I plan to get another laptop, stay away hp ofcourse....

[Merle_Gogan]

I too joined the thousands of folks out there who had their laptop (mine is a tx2510us - 16 months old) cook itself and render itself completely useless, only to have HP tell me I was SOL. My laptop would only run the fan briefly, and then flash the CAPS LOCK and NUM LOCK LEDs in a sequence which indicated a bad CPU (one flash). It would not even boot to BIOS.

HP support (if you can call it that) and an HP customer service case manager both told me that my only option was to send the machine to them, pay them $400 to crack it open, and then pay whatever it cost to fix it on top of that. The case manager told me that I would be better off buying another machine. 

I refused to give up on my laptop, however (largely because I still owe a butt load of money on it), and after three weeks of troubleshooting was able to make a simple repair and get it running again (I just need to replace the keyboard, because one of the fixes I tried melted off half of the keys).

If you are comfortable with completely disassembling your laptop, you can try the fix that finally worked for me, and complete the steps in a few hours. If not, you may want to find (or hire) someone who is.

If you are experiencing the same symptoms as above, try this:

On the back side of the motherboard (in an area which is completely inaccessible without removing the motherboard, and then removing the fan assembly from the motherboard), there is a socket which holds the CPU chip in place. I believe that the socket loosens up over time (apparently after about 16 months) from the constant heating and cooling, and the connections get loose.

There is a small screw at one end of the chip. This screw tightens and loosens the pin grabbers within the socket. Turn the screw counter-clockwise to loosen the grabbers, remove the chip, and blow off any debris with a can of compressed air (this is a good time to also blow out any dust in the housing or on or around the motherboard). Re-insert the chip, and turn the screw clockwise to grab the pins. Re-assemble the laptop, and give it a test run.

I performed this simple fix, and am again able to use my laptop, and it seems to be running a-ok (at least for the time being - I fully expect to have to re-perform this fix every so often).

It is so simple, you would think that HP would tell people this. But then I guess they wouldn't feel compelled to pay for the repairs, or to buy a new machine.

They have lost me as a customer, though. I will never buy an HP product again, thanks to their sad support and their awful customer service policies.

I have posted this here because I couldn't find any helpful information anywhere. If you try this fix on your machine, please post a response here. I would be curious to know how it turns out.

[flyman3000]

wola!!!!! what a great news!!! thank god I come here and check b4 going to bed and thx god I didn't sell the broken tx on ebay.

I brought a sony i5 from cosco, but I will return it soon.

I saw some vedio in youtube about departing the tx series laptop, including tx2500. I will definitely try your way!

[flyman3000]

OK!!!!

Great new is my tx2500 is alive!!

just put it back together, and it can boot up normally.

I go to youtube to follow the tutorial to take apart the laptop, I recommand mark down which screw is for which hole, otherwise you need more time to figure out by trying every hole.

I take everything out, include cpu, everything looks good, then put them back together, try a boot, nothing, then I took out the heat sink and cleaned a bit cpu and video chip, then try again. it worked! that's it. I did not do any repair, just simply take everything out and put them back. problem sovled! I save my 800usd!!

Since so many people got problem with tx2500, it seems to only Gogan find out the solution. Thanks Man. I hope every people have same problem could read this post...

[Merle_Gogan]

That's great!

I figure that if I can help at least one person, that is one person more than HP!

[cbs_tony]

Hey Guys, just found this post. My 'fried' TX is at work at the moment - I can't wait to get it open tomorrow and see if your fix will sort me out. Thanks for the post...

Tony

[Merle_Gogan]

Good luck. Let us know how it goes!