HP 17 laptop will not boot up. Continually switches on and shuts down.

[sekuoia]

I'm trying to fix a HP 17 laptop (model: by-0511na) that is out of warranty.  It tried to do a BIOS update a few days ago but it was accidentally shut down when the progress update box had only reached two bars.

Now when it is switched on it sounds like it is trying to boot up.  It stays on for six seconds I can hear the CPU fan and the hard drive start up, and then it switches off.  It stays off for four seconds then automatically starts up again. This process continues until I switch the laptop off manually.

I've tried the following things to try to get this laptop working:

- Starting up the laptop with the Windows key and B keys pressed down, and the Windows key and V keys as suggested on the HP Support website

- I've reseated the battery, RAM module and the SATA hard drive.

- I removed the battery and tried running the laptop from the mains cable.  The battery is internal, attached directly to the motherboard, so I've removed it and re-attached the laptop casing before powering the laptop back.

According to my observations and the official HP maintenance guide, the laptop doesn't appear to have a CMOS battery.

- I've created a USB recovery flash drive and tried to boot the laptop from that, with the Windows and B keys held down.

I've tried to boot into the BIOS by pressing the Esc key on startup, (and also the F10 and F12 keys, for what it's worth).

I can't think of anything else to try. Can someone please advise me whether there is anything else I could try or is this laptop beyond help? Thanks.

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi
Hopefully one of these documents will cover (and solve) your problem...
https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c00042629
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02693833
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04126730

[sekuoia]

Hi, thanks for the reply.  I have already tried all of these things, except the procedure to reset the CMOS.  I have tried that now but it has made no difference. 

By the way, I don’t see anything on the laptop display (even when I look really closely on the display and shine a flashlight on it, so I don’t think there’s an inverter problem), and the laptop doesn’t beep at all.

I have also connected the laptop to an external monitor but I don’t get any picture on that either.

I have removed the SATA hard drive and connected it to an external caddy.  Then when I view that drive on Windows Computer Management on a working computer, the drive shows “Healthy GPT Protective Partition”, but it doesn’t appear in the list of devices in Windows Explorer so I can’t view any data on it.

Does this mean the drive has a problem?  I would have expected to see a “hard drive error” if this was the case, not the laptop continually shutting down and switching itself back on.

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi

The usual thing is that a HDD in W10 is put into suspend mode when being shut down. This sets a dirty bit and makes working with the HDD difficult, may not be your situation, but.......

""A volume's dirty bit indicates that the file system may be in an inconsistent state. The dirty bit can be set because: The volume is online and it has outstanding changes. Changes were made to the volume and the computer was shut down before the changes were committed to the disk. Corruption was detected on the volume.""

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/manually-reset-or-clear-dirty-bit-in-windows-without-chkdsk/

ELSE  --  https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03518165   Black screen seen.

OR  --   https://linuxmint.com/download.php

Works without a HDD being present, so test your PC with it, taking Microsoft out of the equation.

  Make a Bootable USB, AnyBurn or Rufus, as a Lo-Cost/No-Cost option.

If in doubt please ask.

[sekuoia]

I've created a Linux Mint DVD and tried to boot from it. I can hear the DVD drive whirring so it sounds like the laptop is trying to boot from it, but the laptop is still shutting down four seconds after it switches on so the DVD doesn't have time to load. I think that rules out the hard drive doesn't it? I still don't see anything on the display.

Now I'm thinking it's a problem with the BIOS, the motherboard or the power supply. I've started it with just the battery and just the power adapter, and it does exactly the same with both. I don't have a spare adapter or battery so I can't rule those out, but I think it's unlikely.  So that just leaves the BIOS and the motherboard.  If it was anything else it would be indicated by something on the display or some error beeps, wouldn't it?

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi

If you prove the DVD is bootable in another PC then that eliminates Microsoft and the HDD.

Leaving HP and it's hardware/firmware to contend with.

Rapid shutdown? 

Thermal event causing a problem.

POST not completing.  CPU?

Memory module fault.

BIOS.

Main Board.

I think you have a paperweight on your hands, but I could be wrong, I often am.

[sekuoia]

Yes, I'm also thinking it's a CPU, BIOS or motherboard fault, and therefore a paperweight.

Thanks for your help.

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Sorry about the outcome.