Flach Dock EC yes or no

[TallFry]

Hi everyone,

This is an older issue, but I thought I would relate my experiences since it may become more prevelent as time goes on with these Split laptops.

The HP Split laptops have a battery in the tablet, and another in the keyboard base. The keyboard battery isn't just to power the tablet, though. The keyboard battery is necessary for the keyboard to operate! This is the design flaw in these devices.

The hardware is designed to drain the keyboard battery first so that the user has optimal battery life in the tablet. Now, it should stop fully running off the keyboard battery at 5% or 10% to preserve keyboard function, but whether through hardware fault or battery degredation, when I come back to mine after letting it sit it's at a flat 0%. I still love the in-use battery life on my device after two years, but the sleep and shut down battery life is terrible. So, how does this all relate to the Flash Dock EC error?

When the keyboard battery is dead, the keyboard does not work. You can tell your keyboard battery is dead by looking at the wireless and mute lights on the keyboard. If they have a slow blink (1 sec on, 5 seconds off), then  your keyboard battery is dead but your tablet battery is still good. Fun fact, during the blinks, the keyboard works! Try it, though you have to be quick. I can only enter about two characters reliably during the on phase.

The dead keyboard battery causes the Flash Dock EC error because your machine cannot see your keyboard. To get your machine working - plug it in. It's a simple, though inconvienent solution. I still like the built quality on this, but HP should have enabled the keyboard to receive power from the tablet rather than its own power supply.

As with all errors, there could be other problems floating around, but I hope my experiences relate to some of the users on this board or someone looking for a solution through Google.

[Caifanmayor]

My deck mute and wireless keys do not light, however I took it out and had it test with a voltmeter which return 12 volts.
I am unsure whether this test suffices, but I'm reluctant to order another battery.
I will follow up later.

[mdklassen]

> voltmeter returns 12 volts.

Use the voltmeter to measure "amperage", too.

Remember that the output "wattage" is calculated by multiplying the voltage by the amperage, e.g., 110V and 3A gives 330W.

[palmyrans]

I am having an issue where I have been in the BIOS, defaulted it using the F9 key and charged the docking station until the light goes off on the docking station. I still get the Flash Dock EC message when booting as long as the tablet and docking station are docked. Once I undock the docking station or press no to the Flash Dock EC message, the tablet boots fine. What do I need to do to resolve this?

[kevin-t]

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