Stream 14 RTC Battery MIssing

[OriginalOreo]

I purchased an HP Stream 14 the week of Christmas `19 for my daughter. The first sign of trouble began a few months when ago my daughter told me she couldn't log into her laptop. It appeared to me that she had just forgotten her password because she tends to create multiple accounts.  When I revisited with her a few weeks ago and now the computer would power up and display the 3F0 error - Boot Device Not Found. Please install an operating system on your hard disk.  Following the instructions from the virtual assistant, I sought to reseat the hard drive after going through the troubleshooting steps. During disassembly, I found there is no RTC battery present. There is an obvious position where it should go, but no battery. There's also no port on the motherboard to plug one in. I viewed a couple of disassembly videos on YouTube and an RTC battery and port were present. Could this be the root of the problem?

[erico]

https://youtu.be/MsiOkTRbLy8

A Stream notebook has no hard disk. It has 32 Gb of eMMC memory integrated onto the systemboard. I am surprised that you disassembled the Stream. The factory warranty is for  a period of one year.

If you were able to enter the BIOS make changes and save them, there is an RTC battery present.

[OriginalOreo]

Erico

Thank you for your response. Although I purchased the device less than a year ago, when I entered the serial number into the HP warranty verification page it returned that it was built at the end of July `19 and the warranty was expired as of 8/1/20. I've submitted a claim to dispute this and I'm waiting to hear back from HP,  but the fact is I don't have a receipt from Walmart to prove when I purchased it. This along with my daughter starting college this morning led me to assume worst case scenario: HP will deny my warranty claim. This is why I chose to proceed with opening up the device when prompted by the HP troubleshooting assistant. In the meantime, as far as my daughter's needs, I had to buy her a new computer yesterday.

Full disclosure is I wasn't aware that the device had a 32 Gb eMMC card instead of a hard drive when I opened it up...but, I assure you the troubleshooter prompted me to "Reseat the internal hard disk" and directed me to the "Maintenance and Service Guide". (For the record, I copied and pasted the bold type phrases directly from the virtual assistant troubleshooting chat conversation).

Now, regarding the YouTube link you provided....yes, that is exactly where I expected to find the RTC battery. It's not there. No battery, no wires, not even adhesive residue (as described in the video) where a battery had been....nothing but the clean circular shaped spot where it should be. Also, as I stated in my initial post, there is no connector of any kind soldered to the board present in which to plug the battery. I can attach a picture if you'd care to see.  So either there is a battery located somewhere else and I can't find it (I did look) or you are mistaken and BIOS changes can be made and saved without the RTC battery present or there's another scenario neither of us are familiar with. I look forward to any additional suggestion you may have.

Regards,

OriginalOreo

[erico]

It also appears that, according to my insider HP contacts, that there is no replaceable RTC battery in the HP Stream 14. 

There may be a CMOS reset button or switch on the system board. The CMOS reset could also be there in the form of a jumper. 

I started a thread about this very subject regarding a different notebook and was told that it didn't have an RTC battery. I asked about your model and given the same disappointing information.

The lack of an RTC battery is a rather radical departure from what I and others know about notebook hardware architecture. So fat, I have been unable to glean information on this new direction for the internet. HP asked myself and other HP Experts if we would like a Tech brief on this and I said it would be appropriate. 

A picture of the system board, top and bottom would be greatly appreciated. 

The video which supposedly shows replacement of the RTC battery mislead me as well into believing that there was one. 

I hope this does not mean that the industry is moving towards faster planned obsolescence by removing some of the ability to repair/replace some of the  hardware in a notebook. 

[OriginalOreo]

Hi, Erico

Thanks again for your response. As requested, I've provided a couple of pictures of the board. I look forward to whatever suggestions you may have.  

Edit comment.  I'll have to post the back of the board in a separate post. For some reason it keeps getting corrupted when I try to save it here.

Regards,

OriginalOreo

[OriginalOreo]

[erico]

Thanks for providing the images.

After seeing the images of the top and bottom of the system board, they appear to confirm what my HP source told me. 

The only things we cannot see are beneath the heat spreader, since your Stream 14 appears to be fanless.

If you registered the notebook it will still be in warranty.

The " 3F0 error - Boot Device Not Found." in this case would indicate a failure of the eMMC memory on the system board. The only solution  viable for that would be a replacement of the system board.