New HP Victus laptop stuck on black screen after boot

[anderson2105]

Hello!

I've just bought a HP Victus Gaming Laptop 15-fb1013dx, with Ryzen 5 processor and RTX2050 graphics.

It was fine when tested in store (this was important, because it'd be hard to come back to the store). Also, it run fine for 1 day.

After that, the black screen problem started. It looks like it tried to install an automatic UEFI or BIOS firmware update, and maybe it didn't went well?

When rebooted, for the next 3-4 times, it would display the following messages, in sequence, as show in image below (Firmware update msg; invalid CMOS checksum error; then boot to black screen):

After a few reboots the update/error screens weren't being displayed anymore. It just boots up to a black screen, and stay there. The only thing visible is the mouse pointer, which alternates between "busy"/"background busy" pointers.

I've run several of the available hardware tests, including the extensive system test. No problems were reported.

I've tried doing a reset ("Reset this PC"). After completion, it still boots to a black screen, as before.

I've also tried booting in Safe mode and Safe mode with network. Both lead to the same situation of booting to a black screen. (Except, it's in lower resolution apparently. As the mouse pointer looks bigger than in normal boot mode.)

I've read a few similar posts, and haven't found a solution that works for me. Already tried the usual turn off, press power button for 15/25 seconds, then turn on again. Still, no changes.

So here I am, hoping someone has some advice to offer on how to resolve this problem.

Should I do the USB Bios update? To latest verion (F.06)? (Current version is F.03.)  Already tried the Windows Key+B BIOS recovery method, which looks like it went as expected, but still not booting Windows properly.

[anderson2105]

UPDATE:

So, I've done the BIOS update. (Not sure it it matters.)
After that, I tried doing another reset ("Reset this PC"). This time without keeping anything. I could go through it this way. However, when Windows reboots itself at the end of the process, I'm back at the black screen.

Next, I did another reset, but bypassing the network configuration step. It looks like this way Windows won't reboot itself at the end (?). And, finally, this is the only way I got to see the Windows screen. But that, also, did not last long. After leaving it for a few minutes, it got to sleep and would wake up to black screen again! Of course, rebooting leads to... you guessed it! Black screen!

So here comes another reset. This time I tried to configure a power profiles with no sleep, first thing. I don't know what the threshold is but, eventually, we got to black screen again after a short time. I thought I was temporarily safe now, after i came back the first it tried to turn off the display and I got it back immediately (like within 2s).

From this last time, I was able to notice that it's not possible to access the settings app. Some settings would just briefly open a blank window that's promptly closed without saying anything. For some other settings, like display settings, an error window like this is displayed:

Which leads me to conclude this machine somehow came with a bad copy of Windows 11.

So, can I download and install Windows 11 from MS? Do you think that could solve it? Will I lose something important by doing so? Like, my main concern is will I keep my license (from buying a laptop supposedly with preinstalled Windows 11)?

Thanks.

TL;DR: I'm pretty sure this machine came with a bogus copy of Windows 11. Will I lose something by installing from MS?

[Raj_05]

Hi @anderson2105,

Welcome to the HP support community.

Please help us with your HP unit serial number or the product number on a private message for further assistance.

Here is the link to find the product number:- Click here

In order to access your private messages, click the private message icon on the upper right corner of your HP Support Community profile, next to your profile Name.

Alden4

HP Support