Omen 16 gaming laptop booting to black screen

[fulltartan]

Without wishing to upset anyone, I think it's important that other community members know what the private message entails.  There are far too many posts on here where there is some promising initial advice for members' problems, only for the thread to end in 'I have sent you a private message'.  This leaves all other members, who may have similar issues, in a position where they don't know if there was any further action they could take to address their own problems - this is extraordinarily frustrating!

So, in the spirit of openness, Hawks_Eye's private message to me was literally only to point out that HP Regional Support should be contacted and a case should be raised with them.  No further advice on the issues, which is not in anyway intended as a criticism of Hawks_Eye, merely a way of keeping other community members informed.  Coincidentally, I have already raised a case with HP Regional Support (UK) in any case, and will be phoning them tomorrow.  I'll post any useful updates on here if I get them.

[Hawks_Eye]

@fulltartan 

My sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused to you.

We'd hate for you to be stuck in a situation like this. Because you matter to us.

 

If you have any more questions or need further assistance, please don't hesitate to ask. We're here to help! 

Thanks again for letting us know, and we wish you an amazing day ahead! 😊

Regards, 

Hawks_Eye

[fulltartan]

Update - laptop being picked up tomorrow for shipping to HP for repair under warranty.  I have to say I was very impressed by the lady on the support phone line - very helpful and knowledgeable, although I did get quite frustrated by the seemingly never-ending, soul-destroying, interaction with AI before being put through to an actual human HP agent.

Anyway, realised that I'd left passwords on the laptop so I thought I'd fire it up one last time to see if I could remove them, along with personally added software - and blow me if it didn't just start up fine and keep working while I cleared all my personal stuff.  It even restarted fine, although the mouse was temperamental.  Let's see what HP come up with - repair slated to take 10-15 days.

[Hawks_Eye]

Hi @fulltartan 

Thanks for the update.

It sounds like you've had quite the rollercoaster with your Omen! 

At least the final startup gave you a chance to secure your personal information—what an unexpected twist. 

It's great to hear that the HP support representative was helpful, though I can understand how the initial AI interactions could feel.

Hopefully, HP's repair process will resolve the underlying issue for good. 

Fingers crossed they turn it around sooner than the 10-15 day estimate. 

In the meantime, if you need help setting things up once it's back or have any other tech troubles, I'm here for you! 😊

Thanks again for your confirmation, and we wish you an amazing day ahead! 😊

Regards, 

Hawks_Eye

[fulltartan]

OK, well this is a pisser - got repaired laptop back on Friday 11th April, just 3 days ago.  The repair note stated that the the SSD was replaced as it was, quote, a bad part.  The attached HP repair Quality Assurance sheet stated that all tests had been passed - including tests on components which don't actually exist on this laptop, and it was unsigned.  Way to go HP.  Anyway, all seemed fine - booted up OK and I downloaded and installed all the Windows updates - just like coming back from a factory reset.  Also reinstalled software which I had removed prior to sending off for repair - primarily Autodesk Revit LT and World of Tanks.  Worked fine for two and a half days, and tonight, while playing WoT, it's gone back into its Modern Standby tailspin.    It appears to be 'sleeping' at the moment, but the pressing the power button, or flipping the lid, has no effect.  It has dropped into black screen again, with the occasional, short (maybe 5-6 seconds) flicker back onto log-in screen.  Looks like it'll have to go back to HP for ANOTHER repair - lucky it's got 4 days left in warranty.  Although I might have expected to have that extended to cover their unsuccessful repair?

[fulltartan]

Item 1 - 'standard' HP Limited Warranty states that there is an extended 90 day period following a repair, so I should be able to get free repair/replacement/refund at HP's expense. 

Item 2 - I had a brief conversation with HP Support Europe phone line, and was given the suggestion of creating a recovery USB via Cloud Recovery Tool. 

Item 3 - Created USB recovery disk, but couldn't switch off laptop to follow correct procedure - AS IT WAS STILL IN BLACK SCREEN AND POWER BUTTON WAS UNRESPONSIVE! 

Item 4 - Couldn't force restart with normal key process, so removed AC adaptor and waited for battery to drain to 0% and laptop to shutdown itself. 

Item 5 - Once this happened (took about 3 hours), inserted USB recovery disk and powered up with F9 key held after power button.  The laptop started into Recovery Manager options, chose USB and started process.  About 20% progress, after Windows partition reformatted, the screen went to black.  Screen reappeared at 50% progress of Restoring Files to he Hard Drive and remained through to Software Installation stage (USB removed).  Screen flashing on and off again (mostly off).  User log-in screen appeared, but screen still flashing.  Went back to continuation of Software Installation stage.

Item 6 - Recovery complete!  Booted up into Windows 11, now going through 'normal' initial set up process from factory settings - rename, updates etc.  Will keep you posted on success or otherwise.

[fulltartan]

Final (possibly) Update:

I was asked by HP Support to try using the Cloud Recovery Tool to create and use a USB Recovery Disk in order to address the issue.  As the Omen 16 was in black screen and the power button was unresponsive, I had to create the USB Recovery Disk on a separate laptop (lucky I have one here), while unplugging the Omen AC Adapter and letting the machine power off once the battery drained.

I managed to reboot the laptop using the Recovery USB Disk, and reinstalled Windows 11 OS.  On restarting the Omen 16 I decided to run all UEFI Diagnostic quick tests to check that everything was working properly.  All tests passed except the Fan Thermal Test, although the Omen 16 was flickering in and out of black screen (same issue as previously) throughout the testing process.  (Event Viewer noted constant dropping in and out of Modern Standby - as per previous issue)  The UEFI Fan Thermal Test cancelled itself and noted a fail, but the actual test log noted a pass.  I then ran all extensive UEFI tests, and all passed (although the black screen flickering was still evident).

I downloaded and started playing World of Tanks, with all settings set to recommended (ie HD and very high graphics load) - the Omen 16 immediately went into black screen flickering as before, and the game was unplayable, as per previous issue.  The Omen settled once the game finished (while the screen was black) and the graphics load was minimised, and I was able to access the game settings.  I tweaked the graphics settings to quite some way below the recommended high performance levels, and both the game and the laptop have been working fine since, with no reversion to  black screen flickering/modern standby.

However, although this is obviously encouraging, and a solution of sorts, I bought this Omen 16 on the understanding that it had the capacity to play games at a high level of graphics performance, which it is patently incapable of doing.  I am reduced to playing games at a a significantly lower level of graphics performance than I paid for.

I have asked HP if they are interested in offering me any kind of compensation for not being able to use the Omen 16 to the level it was advertised as being capable of.  I'm not hopeful, but I'll update if anything changes.