HP G62-a18sa Won't boot, black screen with wifi LED

[Totoro23]

Hi there,

I have come to the conclusion that the problem with my laptop is probably the motherboard but I will describe the problem anyway.

When I power it the fan starts, the wifi button turns orange and then that's it. Just a black screen.

I've tried the hard reset, I took my hard drive out to check if it's working and it is. I took out the RAM and replaced it. I also plugged in my monitor and that didn't work either.

Can anyone think of a reason why this would randomly happen, as it was working fine about 2 hours ago 😞

As noting appears on the screen I can't enter bios set up or system restore.

Any help on how I can get this fixed will be greatly appreciated!

[Cloud_Strider]

Are the caps lock/num lock keys blinking at all?  This is usually the report of a POST test which can be translated using this to get a better idea of what is happening. 

Electronics equipment is a little finicky and can fail at any time without warning even with the best of care. 

Some times, there are some precursor symptoms but not always. 

By chance, do you have an external monitor to connect it to?  It could be that the LCD panel has failed in some way.  If it works on an external display, then that would confirm it is somewhere between the LCD panel and the motherboard rather than the motherboard itself. 

[Totoro23]

No blinking lights at all, just the orange WiFi light which stays on. I've plugged in my external monitor and it didn't work.
When I press the on button the fan briefly comes on as it normally would but then stops, but the lights stay on. The keys don't respond and the monitor doesn't blink, and it doesn't sound like its actually turned on.
I'm kinda hoping for a loose connection or something!

[Cloud_Strider]

If it is a loose connection, it's one that I had not seen before. 

To be honest, this looks like your initial diagnosis is correct.  The power button and the motherboard are connected, or it wouldn't react at all when the power button is pressed.  Sorry.  😞

Since the caps/num lock keys aren't blinking, it's not POSTing which is generally a motherboard failure.

If you want to explore the internals of the notebook, you can use this guide to get an idea of what is involved with that. 

If it is under warranty, you can contact HP.  If it's under an extended warranty from a store, you can contact them.  Otherwise, it may be worth getting a repair quote from HP and comparing that to the cost of repairing it or replacing it. 

[G62User]

Did you ever resolve this? My G62 was running quite happily last night - I was listening to music and not paying it any attention, and I assumed when it stopped it was becauase the battery was flat.

However, I now cannot get it to wake. I tried removing the battery, I tried holding the power button for 60 seconds and I've tried it with no hard-drive in case it was trying to wake from a corrupt hibernation file or something - but nothing.

When I turn it on, the fan comes on and the wi-fi light comes on. The 'charging' light also works correctly.

It doesn't however appear to boot the BIOS: the screen doesn't flicker, and I don't think it s doing anything but just with no screen because the HDD light doesn't come on either.

It also will not boot from USB, although the light does come on on the USB stick to indicate that it gets power.

It seems it is not booting the BIOS at all. I can only think it might be the BIOS battery that has failed. Does this sound plausible?

Thanks for any help.

[G62User]

Hmm.

I've removed the BIOS battery (don't have a meter to test it) and it does the same - although I suppose that makes sense as flat battery is the same as no battery?

[G62User]

It doesn't work with a new BIOS battery either, although the old one was a little flat.

Symptoms: It powers on the fan and the wi-fi light. The power light is solid. The battery light changes from white to amber (charging) when you plug in the power supply. The optical drive 'chugs' as it turns on.

The screen does nothing. There is no option to enter BIOS. The Caps Lock light will not come on. The HDD light dosen't come on. There is power to the USB sockets but I cannot boot from them.

There has been no odd behaviour from the laptop. It is dual boot Windows/Ubuntu and has not been crashing or behaving erratically. The only slight oddity was some trial software we had on Windows - the 'days remaining' went from 30 to 29 and then never changed again, but I assumed this was a software glitch (and didn't investigate obviously!) Perhaps this indicates an issue with the BIOS clock?

I've tried:

Booting with no HDD

Booting with no RAM

Re-sitting RAM

Booting with no CMOS battery

Booting with a new CMOS battery

Removing battery and holding power button for 60 seconds

Booting with no battery

Booting from USB

And I still have the same thing - a laptop with the fan on, the power light on, the charging light on and the wi-fi light on, but nothing else.

It looks like a falure of something critical, but the odd thing is that it wasn't even beong touched when it failed. It was in a room with nobody in attendance. It had been re-booted since last being used (I shut down before bringing it home from work) and was absolutely fine - I'd used it for web browsing and playing music that evening with no issue, and left it playing music when I went into the other room - and at some point after that it failed, when no-one was touching it or moving it. Does that sound likely? I can't think what else to try.

[abhilash_b]

Hi G62 user,

I am facing the same problem with my laptop, power and wifi light remain on, but the screen remains blank. I thought it to be a virus problem and formatted my C-drvie, but no, the problem still remains. Can you help me with what exactly is wrong if you happen to find a solution?

[Totoro23]

This was some time ago but to help you out, the problem is with the motherboard and sadly there is nothing you can do about it.

Your problem sounds exactly like mine, from what I remember.  All of the components of my laptop actually worked but it wouldn't boot at all. I sold it for parts on Ebay 😛

It's a pretty old laptop, it will cost you more to fix it than it would be to buy a new one!

[henzy]

i have the same problem here