Laptop does not boot, no access to BIOS

[Kasperczak]

I recently wanted to swap put the hard disk in my laptop for an SSD. The laptop had an M2 SSD to boot the OS from and a 1TB hard drive for the data storage. I purchased a Samsung EVO 860 2TB SSD to replace the hard drive with. I successfully removed the HD and copied the data to the SSD. I then put the SSD into the laptop and fired it up. So far so good. The OS booted up. All that remained was to change the /etc/fstab file to add the UUID of the new drive to mount. The entry for the old drive was commented out (with #) and an identical entry, exceopt for replacing the UUID, added for the new drive. Upon reboot, unfortunately the laptop did not come back up. There was nothing on the display and no access to the BIOS, although the keyboard still response to the Fn + number key to turn on the backlight and the fans come on, first just one and after a couple of minutes the other.

The SSD drive was removed and checked on another PC and the GPT partition table was found to be corrupted. A new partition table was created with fdisk and the drive partitioned and formatted using Gparted and finally the data from the hard drive copied to it again without any problems.  I therefore believe the SSD drive to be OK.

I am unable to test the M2 drive as I  have nothing to put it into to test it.

I have tried a number of things but to no avail:

1. booting from a Linux liveUSB image on a USB stick
2. hitting Esc several times (something I saw on another thread)
3. trying to get into the boot menu with F9.
4. trying to get into the BIOS with F10, F2 or Esc including holding down these keys during power on
5. disconnecting the battery and holding down the power button for 30+ seconds and the booting up using the PSU
6. connecting to an external HDMI monitor
7. removing and re-seating  the memory SODIMMs, swapping their positions and leaving one and then the other out.

There is absolutely no output on the display and no flashing light on the Caps Lock to indicate a post code.

I am hoping that someone has some other ideas, but I rather suspect that the BIOS is corrupted or the main board has failed somehow? If the BIOS has been corrupted, how do I reset it?

[WAWood]

Sorry, but the reference to etc/fstab clearly indicates you are running a Linux distro -- and HP provides no support for Linux, so basically, you are on your own.  Your best bet is to contact the support forum for the Linux distro you are using.

[Kasperczak]

Wow! Was not expecting that from a major manufacturer like HP! No support for Linux? Seriously? That is difficult to believe. I know organisations that run Linux servers on HP gear server hardware so I am really surprised if this is the case. This, will at the very least, be a deciding factor as to what brand of laptop I will buy to replace this failed Omen. It seems a shame as it otherwise it ran very well and everything worked.

Nevertheless, I appreciate the reply, especially as you are a volunteer, but since I cannot even get into BIOS or pull up the boot menu via F9, the problem seems to be related to hardware, rather than the OS, which is why I raised it on this forum. Once I can get into BIOS and to a point where the laptop can boot into either Windows or Linux and so ruling out the hardware, then it would seem to be a good time to go the appropriate OS related forum if still needed.

Therefore, for now, I would be grateful if someone could help me figure out why I can't get into BIOS?

I have taken some further steps, including 1 and 3 here:

https://support.hp.com/id-en/document/ish_6885024-6885081-16

Unfortunately, I still get nothing at all on the built-in display or via HDMI.

Incidentally, when I removed the RAM, M2 and HD as in step 1, I did get 3 long and two short flashed on the Caps Lock LED which correspond to a problem with RAM - expected since it has been removed. When the memory modules were put back, the flashes stopped, so it seems that at least POST seems to be working.

I guess the obvious question now is, whether on the balance of probability the motherboard is toast? Or is there anything else I might try to get into the BIOS? If it has failed, then can I get a replacement?

[WAWood]

Here is an HP thread describing beep and blink codes for their laptops:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_1997719-1528356-16

[Kasperczak]

While the beep code information is helpful, thank you, this laptop is currently not generating any. Screen is just blank, nothing on HDMI out. The only things that seem to work along with the power LED/button, are the fans and keyboard backlights.

[WAWood]

With Windows PCs, the laptop starting but not booting Windows is fixed with a Windows boot repair utility -- but we have no such utility for Linux.  When I installed Linux, I had the boot in verbose mode -- so I could see any error messages, and while a LOT scrolls by, you get to see the last messages which generally identify any boot issue.

You really need to check a Linux distro forum for support to help diagnose this.

[Kasperczak]

WAWood, I have been patient with you and polite but am now getting rather annoyed because you seem to be fixated on the OS. This is NOT an OS issue. I don't even get as far as the BIOS, never mind the OS. A Linux forum is not going to be able to help. There is absolutely NOTHING being displayed on the screen - no BIOS messages or anything else. I believe the issue to be a corrupt BIOS and need to know how to fix it, or even whether this is possible?This certainly isn't going to be fixed with the Windows Boot utility because I can't boot any OS, Windows included, either from hard drive or USB.

[WAWood]

I've tried to be helpful, but I'm clearly wasting my time.

Your problem can only be fixed with utilities and tools -- and ALL of the stuff that HP provides runs ONLY IN WINDOWS.  So, you can't do a BIOS reinstall to fix this because that only runs in WINDOWS. You can't use the HP BIOS Recovery tool to fix this because that only runs only in WINDOWS. You can't even use their videos of running diagnostics because, guess what, those diagostics run only in WINDOWS. You can't even use the  HP Cloud Recovery tool to create a USB stick to boot your PC to see if that can do repairs because it runs only in WINDOWS.

You have chosen a path that cuts you off from using any HP tools or utilities, that is not MY doing, it is YOURS.

I'm done with this thread.

[Kasperczak]

Thank you for your last comment. As previously mentioned, the laptop was running BOTH Windows and Linux in a dual boot configuration. Whereas you have made it abundantly clear that HP does not support Linux, it DOES support Windows and the Windows installation along with the "REPAIR" partition are still present and always have been. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, the laptop won't boot into either OS or even the BIOS. I also still have the original M2 drive with original Windows installation on it and have tried putting that back, but there is no change. It still does not boot.

I appreciate your last post confirming that one has to be able to boot to Windows to run any of the HP tools. As I understood it, the BIOS recovery tool is supposed to work from a USB stick and needs the SSD to be present, although the documentation does seem to indicate that the process may not be supported on all HP hardware. In any case, the laptop won't boot from USB either.

Since the laptop is still running Windows, I see no reason why the path that I have chosen (dual boot) should "cut me off" from using HP tools? The problem is that the laptop will not boot into EITHER OS in the dual boot setup, nor into Windows only with the original M2 drive, nor even the BIOS. Since HP tools run under Windows and I can't boot into Windows, then I do agree that would rather prevent the laptop from being diagnosed and repaired. This is something of a catch 22, but hardly my fault. The first problem to solve is why the laptop won't even bring up the BIOS or boot into ANYTHING, if indeed that is even solvable?

The other question I asked, to which I do not yet have an answer, is do HP have a spare parts department where I might purchase a replacement motherboard (assuming one is available)?

[WAWood]

Sorry, but we don't maintain any inventory of HP computers and their associated parts.

If you don't have the HP part number, you can use the HP link below and your PC information to determine the part number:

https://partsurfer.hp.com/Search.aspx