Boot issue (likely dead) HP Pavilion 15-cw0000 Laptop PC

[R1ptyd3]

Last weekend I was unable to power on my laptop. I assumed it was a dead battery, plugged it in and got back to it today. When I press the power button I hear no sounds. The light comes on and I can hear the HDD spin up. There are no other sounds, no LEDs, to screen flicker. NOTHING.

15 seconds later the drive spins down and the LED powers off. 3 seconds later it attempts to boot again and repeats the cycle until I hold the power button and turn the laptop off. 

The HDD spin-up implies I've got mobo power and power to the peripherals. The lack of any other response implies that's about the only thing the motherboard is capable of. No POST codes, nothing. I have tried all the online tips for resetting the PC and BIOS. I tried the WinKey+B trick to reset the BIOS.

This is a light-use laptop I use for coding. Hasn't left the house, hasn't been abused, no heat issues. Until last week I had no complaints. Now it appears terminal. 

So I sat through the chatbot and when I got to the "can I connect you to a human" step, it tells me my warranty expired 4 days ago and disconnects me. SERIOUSLY? I even checked my email and was never notified my warranty was about to expire. I'd have tried to fix it Saturday had I known.

This kind of treatment is why I stopped buying DELL laptops after purchasing 18 machines over 10 years. If I can't get this fixed I'll be canceling the HP laptop I ordered for my son to take to college, because if I can't fix this (and I've scratch built machines) I certainly can't trust my son will be able to fix his. I'll take him and his three roommates back to DELL. 😠

[Echo_Lake]

@R1ptyd3

Thank you for posting on the HP Support Community.

Don't worry as I'll be glad to help, however, to provide an accurate resolution, I need a few more details:

• Did this happen after a recent window or software update?
• Have you made any hardware/software changes?
• Did you make any changes on the settings of your PC prior to the issue?
• When was the last time it worked fine?

While you respond to that, let's try these steps: 

Hard Reset: Follow steps from the link: https://hp.care/2GnkMa8.

BIOS default: 

1. Turn off the computer and wait five seconds.
2. Press the Power button to start the computer and repeatedly press the F10 key to enter the BIOS setup menu.
3. On the BIOS Setup screen, press F9 to select and load the BIOS Setup Default settings.
4. Press F10 to Save and Exit.
5. Use the arrow keys to select Yes, then press Enter when asked Exit Saving Changes?
6. Follow the prompts to restart your computer.

Hope this helps! Keep me posted for further assistance.
Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

[R1ptyd3]

Good day.

I tried both the Hard Reset and the BIOS default. Neither had any affect on the laptop. It's behavior is the same as before - pressing power spins up the HDD, there are no visible lights apart from the power LED. No keyboard illumination, no caps lock, nothing. No sounds are made - not the initial BIOS init sound nor any POST codes. After 15 seconds it power down, waits three seconds and repeats the process.

Is there something else I can try?

[Echo_Lake]

@R1ptyd3

Thank you for posting back. 

I appreciate your efforts to try and resolve the issue. as we have limited support boundaries in the support community as of now.

I would request you to contact our Support and our Support Engineers should be able to sort this out. HP Support can be reached by clicking on the following link:  www.hp.com/contacthp/

Please feel free to contact us here anytime you need any further assistance. Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

[R1ptyd3]

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to contact support. My warranty ran out two weeks ago while I was trying to figure out this issue. Direct support seems to be completely unavailable for out-of-warranty products. All links keep looping me back to the main support page, with no support actually available. As noted earlier in this thread the Support Bot terminated our session when it determined the warranty had expired. There are no service centers available within 50 miles of my location.

How exactly am I supposed to talk to support? If I'm correct and the motherboard is dead, how am I supposed to buy a new one? Or are parts only available to in-warranty hardware? As far as I can tell, the only place I can troubleshoot the laptop is in these forums. We're already past tier 1 support so the unspoken implication is I am out of luck.

Is that accurate? If it's out of warranty, fine I can live with buying my own replacement parts, but to be unable to contact anyone is very uncool. That would make my only option to buy a new laptop. Is that HP policy?