Envy 16 Power light incorrectly shows status

[MaartenB]

Two weeks ago (August 2022) I bought the just released Envy 16-h0275nd, which is an Evo laptop with Alder Lake i7-12700H CPU and Arc A370M discrete GPU. A nice upgrade from my four-year-old EliteBook 850 G5. 😉

There seems to be something wrong with the power/battery/battery status indication.

The power light on the right side of the Envy behaves weirdly:

• When the laptop is off, and not connected to anything, the power LED blinks white. There is no description in the (Service) Manual what a blinking white light means.
• When I turn on the laptop, still totally unconnected to anything, the LED turns off. This is normal and expected.
  However, Windows 11 shows in the bottom right corner that the the laptop is plugged in (which it is not). Then Windows shows the battery is NOT plugged in (as it should). And after a few times going back and forth between plugged in and not plugged in, it seems to settle on not plugged in, which is correct.
• When I charge the laptop with the provided 150W adapter through the barrel plug (NOT USB-C), the power light turns amber. This is also normal and expected.
• When I remove the AC power cable (barrel plug), the power light blinks amber. According to the manual, this means that the battery level is dangerously low. However, it is fully loaded, and Windows showed 98% charge.

I've tried several things, like resetting the laptop by keeping the power button pressed for 15 seconds, or removing the Windows Battery driver. Nothing changed anything.

I tried Kubuntu Linux, and when the laptop is not connected to anything, the battery icon constantly alternates between "charging" and "not charging".

The Question: Should I send in my brand new Envy 16 for repair, or is this something that can be fixed by BIOS update/software/etc.?

Maarten

[Nirvana_95]

Hi @MaartenB

Welcome to the HP Support Community. Thanks for bringing this to our notice.

I see that you are facing issues with your system. Do not worry, we are here to fix it.

Did you make any hardware or software-related changes to it?

Since it is a new system, I would suggest you please use the link below and update the drivers. Once done, let me know the outcome of it: https://support.hp.com/in-en/drivers 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. 

Click the “Yes" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping. 

[MaartenB]

Thank you for your response!

I updated all drivers, and the BIOS. Also ran the HP Hardware Check (both in software and UEFI), and both reported everything as OK. However, the problem persisted, so I started to suspect a hardware problem.

I called HP support, which led me through updating all drivers and running tests. They were very supportive. And they reached the same conclusion: there's something wrong with this machine.

I've bought six HP laptops over the past 18 years, and two of them arrived with an undetectable-by-hp-diagnostics hardware problem. That's 33%. I hope HP can improve their quality control. Because finding the root cause of a problem (half-faulty hardware), talking to support, returning the laptop and waiting for the new one to arrive, takes a lot of time.

So yeah, I returned my Envy 16 a couple of days ago and am currently waiting for a new one to arrive.

Maarten

[Nirvana_95]

I am really sorry about the experience you have had. I am glad that our phone support team helped you get a replacement.

If you would like to thank us for our efforts to help you, go to the public post & give us a virtual high-five by clicking the "Thumbs Up" icon below, followed by clicking on the "Accept as solution" on my public post. 

Have a great day ahead!