Laptop stuck in endless repeating reboot loop: powers up; hard drive spins; clicks; powers down

[H_Pod]

I'm hoping for some advice please on other things I might be able to try to bring life back to my HP 250 G4 laptop...

Apologies for the lengthy post, but I'm hoping to demonstrate that I've tried a great deal of things already (to save people suggesting those things)...

I bought 2 x HP 250 G4 laptops 18 months ago, both exactly the same spec:

HP 250 G4 Laptop, Intel Pentium N3700 1.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, 15.6" LED, DVDRW, Intel HD, WIFI, Camera, Bluetooth, Windows 10 Home 64bit.
(Both Hitachi 500GB HDDs).

Upgraded both to Windows 10 Pro. Bitlocker activated on both.

1 of the laptops recently started having issues when booting: after pressing the power button (from the switched off state), the power led comes on, the hard disc starts to spin up (but there's no HDD led light flickering), there's a click, then laptop powers off (power led off). Then it tries to restart again - and it keeps going round the same loop repeatedly until the AC power and battery are removed to cut all power.

Pressing the Esc key, or any of the Fn keys during this cycling has no effect what-so-ever. Nor does pressing and holding down the power switch. The machine just carries on going round the power up/spin/click/power down cycle until the AC power and battery are both removed.

If I'm right, the Power on self test (POST) is failing - which happens before the UEFI/BIOS start up...

The issue with the failing laptop started in an intermittent way.

Sometimes the laptop would boot up normally into Windows just fine and the laptop could be used with no problems at all once booted - no HDD failures, no apparent issues (even with hours of use). Other times from a power on it would just cycle round the power light led/hard disc spin/click/power led off/restart loop as described above and the only way to stop the cycle was to remove AC power and battery.

I recognised that the HDD was probably on its way out - and running HP diagnostics (via Fn key on one of the successful boot cycles) identified a short DST fail on the HDD.

I copied all the important documents/files from the failing HDD on another of the successful boots into Windows and ordered a replacement Seagate 500GB HDD to replace what I assumed was the failing (Hitachi) one. Plus an external HDD usb caddy.

Once that arrived, I mounted the new Seagate HDD into the usb caddy and on a successful boot into Windows on the failing HDD machine downloaded Macrium Reflect and tried to clone the failing Hitachi HDD onto the new (same sized) Seagate HDD. The clone process reported errors and failed (I assume difficulties reading areas of the failing Hitachi HDD). No great surprise. And new Seagate drive didn't work when replaced into failing laptop (same cycle as above).

I then took the good laptop apart. Took the working Hitachi HDD out of that good laptop to try in the failing laptop. This then exhibited exactly the same problems as described above (power led/spin/click/power off cycle). Rather indicating that the problem might not *just* be the failing Hitachi HDD...

I also took the HDD out from the failing laptop and installed it in the good laptop. It then booted up to the Bitlocker recovery screen (so the 'failed' HDD *may* be failing, may work intermittently or may be fine and it's some additional issue with the failing laptop - which causes the report of a short DST fail...). I think I ran HP diagnostics on the 'failing' HDD in good laptop and got short DST error message - so I'm satisfied that the failing Hitachi HDD isn't in the best of health...

I took the working Hitachi HDD back out of the failing laptop and put it back into the good laptop. Good laptop still working fine.

I then downloaded the Macrium Reflect clone software onto the good laptop and cloned the good 500GB Hitachi HDD onto the new Seagate 500GB drive (wiping all previous partitions) - which cloned without any errors.

Installed the new Seagate HDD into the failing laptop. With exactly the same result: power led/HDD spins (no HDD led)/clicks/powers down.

There is no opportunity for any of the Esc/Fn key diagnostic tests as this power cycle happens before the stage at which key presses are recognised (at POST stage I'm assuming).

Other things I have tried along the journey:

On the failing laptop, removed the CMOS battery - and swapped with the same from the working laptop. No difference.

Removed the memory from the failing laptop - which then displays the 3 flash cycle on Caps Lock key indicating no memory. Memory back in. On boot, the power light took a little longer on the first cycle (presumably checking the memory in some way), but then back to the power cycle above.

On the failing laptop if you boot with no HDD installed it cycles as above - just without the HDD spin sound. The power led comes on, one second later a very faint click, then 2 seconds later powers down and repeats.

I tried recovering the BIOS via an external USB drive. Neither the Windows+B or Windows+V key combinations worked to boot from the USB drive. Tried this repeatedly. Laptop just stuck in the power on/click/power off cycle.

At one point the machine did boot - and I got the message about no HDD present (which it wasn't at that stage, the HDD was out of the machine) - so the display is still working...

And swapped the memory between the two laptops - still no difference.  Failing laptop still stuck in cycle, good laptop boots fine with other memory - so memory doesn't appear to be the problem...

Anyone got any more ideas please?

Thank you.

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

To me this sounds ominous- usually motherboard failure exhibits the power on/click/power off repeating.

[H_Pod]

Thanks for your reply Cheryl.

I was sort of heading in that direction - disappointing as that is.  I'm not going to attempt replacement of the motherboard - if that's even possible (because I've never done a motherboard before and it's probably not worth it cost-wise when I can get a new laptop with new warranty).  Sighs.

I was hopeful that because it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't that there might be another angle along the way.  Apart from the tap, tap with a hammer approach...

It seems odd to me (and annoyingly tantalising) that it would work sometimes and not others... Hey ho, the mysterious joy of computers!

Can you tell me if you think the BIOS recovery via USB might be worth persevering with (i.e. keep trying to catch the machine in one of its brief working moments)?

And if so, do you know if it's Windows+B or Windows+V on the 250 G4 to get the BIOS recovery from USB drive to fire up - I don't want to try that on my other laptop as that doesn't need that sort of intervention - and from what I've read the BIOS recovery just starts up without asking...!

Thanks again, Patrick

[CherylG]

I'm sorry ,I don't know if it is Windows+B or Windows+V. HP doesn't make it easy to determine that. And,of course, no harm in continuing to try-till the hammer tempts you anyway.:smileyvery-happy: