Boot to BIOS Failure

[bentover]

HP Pavilion DV7 3160US
- Your product’s warranty expired on June 7, 2011.
Product: WA793UA#ABA
Windows 7 Home Premium

Initail Problem: Bios will not load

Resources:
1. https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c01732674
2. https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c00042629
3. https://support.hp.com/ca-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-dv7-3100-entertainment-notebook-pc-seri...
4. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Free-shipping-TMZM86DAM23GG-AMD-Turion-X2-ZM-86-CPU-Processor-2-4-GHz-1800-M...

Assessment:
BIOS flashing light error codes for computers released between 2011 and January 2015 from R1 indicated with 2 blinks BIOS corruption failure
Solution of Windows + B on power up did not boot into EFI partition, but error code changed from 2 blinks to 1 indicating CPU not functional
Replaced CPU with one from R4, 2 blinks, Win+B failed to enter EFI, changed error code to 5 blinks indicating General system board failure
Replaced motherboard with R5, 2 blinks, Win+B will not load EFI or present any change to the system.
R2 suggests BIOS Update Utility from R3. Installed as per their proceedure for USB recovery media. On trying these options, no change.
Workstation still fails to go into EFI with Win+B and HP recovery solutions have failed to move past 2 Blinks for BIOS Corruption Failure.

Additional Diagnotic Steps:

Confirmed serviceability of HDD by swapping into new laptop and booting into windows. WinRE functions, diskchk no errors, file structure intact on all partitions.
Known good HDD does not provide any change.
Swapped Power Supplies to determine if intermittent power from AC adaptor may be causing issues. Board may not be getting full V beyond AC adaptor, however it does not appear to be an issue.
Cannot determine servicability of board or CPU without EFI.
Cannot confirm serviceability of monitor without EFI, though nothing is coming through on external monitor plugged in by DB15 or HDMI either.
Cannot determine serviceability of RAM as even going to down to one module or the other provides no change.
Problem appears to be pre-bios.

Suggestions?

Regards,

Ben

[Dvortex]

Hello, @bentover – Hope you are well 🙂
 

Allow me to welcome to HP Support Forums! It is a great platform to get help from the community, get suggestions and find what has worked for others!

I understand that you are facing blinking lights error pointing towards BIOS corruption. I see that you have done a great deal of troubleshooting before reaching out to us. Greatly appreciate your efforts 🙂

I would further recommend you try restoring the BIOS using an external storage device. Go to http://hp.care/2oexnTz and follow the steps under “Recovering the notebook BIOS using an external storage device”.

Let me know if that helps!

Good luck 🙂

Please click "Accepted Solution" on the post that solves your issue to help others find the solution. To show appreciation for my help, please click the "Thumbs Up Icon" below!

[bentover]

Good day, 

I attempted the solution you wrote about (https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c02693833), however the solution details a "hp system bios update utility" which is not available for the type of laptop I am writing about.

The only available download for the BIOS section of the HP Drivers downloads page is Winflash... which if I am not mistaken is a windows OS driven program unable to run pre-bios to fix my issue.

I tried it regardless, with no change. I ensured the USB drive was freshly formatted to FAT32, installed the sp47531 package to load winflash, put all the files on the drive as a backup and followed the instructions in the guide. 

There is no change affected by the USB drive. 

Is it possible to have more details on the update utility functions? Is it able to be reconfigured for this issue?

Any ideas?

[MKazi]

@bentover

Hi,

as @Dvortex is out of the office today, I'm replying to you. 

If the BIOS rollback did not work as suggested in the earlier post than we need to flash the BIOS on the motherboard. I suggested you to reach out to our HP phone support to explore the hardware service options for this HP laptop. 

I hope this information helps. Please feel free to let me know if you have any more questions. Cheers! 🙂

[bentover]

Thanks MKazi for the reply, however I can't flash the bios as the commands to do so won't work as stated earlier, and the BIOS rollback tool can't work in this situation as stated previously.

HP Phone support is not available either as per link attached below:

https://support.hp.com/ca-en/contact-hp/product/HP-Pavilion-dv7-3100-Entertainment-Notebook-PC-serie...

HP contact options

This product is no longer serviced by HP. You may search for possible solutions on this support website.

Any other suggestions?

Cheers, 

Ben

[MKazi]

@bentover

Please let me know your country of residence.

Cheers!

[bentover]

Canada

[MKazi]

@bentover

Please view my private message.

Cheers!

[bentover]

Thanks MKazi, 

I contacted HP Phone Support, spoke to to 8 people over 1 hr 28 mins. Customer support (x2 pers) said they can't assist me as the laptop was manufactured in 2010 and is outside the service parameters of HP unless I buy a 59.99 care package for tech support. I asked to speak to their tech support section. 

Tech support elevated me to lvl2 tech who told me that they couldn't help me with the issue and they passed me on to the next section. Person in next section passed me on to someone else once he found out I didn't have extended warranty coverage. 

Next person tried to sell me a $99.99 package for remote technician support which would allow their techs to remote into my laptop and provide tech support that way (kind of hard to do since he didnt hear me when I repeated twice that the laptop won't even boot to BIOS haha). Then he tried to sell me on a $35+14.99/month tech service for software/hardware troubleshooting over the phone.... *facepalm*

I reiterated that it was required that I speak to someone on the ground that would help me troubleshoot the issues physically and he passed me on to another service who eventually transferred me to Premium Care Support. 

Premium care support was very helpful and tried to reach out to the tech shop in the states to get ahold of someone there to dig out an old tech manual or something for the workstation, however the response from the tech shop was to call Best Buy or a local computer shop to get them to fix the issue. 

Anyone on the forums local to Ontario to provide assistance?

I don't know where else to turn to as a local tech shop guy is just going to charge me hourly to find out everything I already know, and then tell me to send it back to HP for service, even though HP won't service this variant of laptop anymore. 

Several of the pers I spoke with this morning mentioned that HP no longer has parts available to service the laptop (http://partsurfer.hp.com/Search.aspx?searchText=wa793ua), yet if I could even get a tech to look at it, I can buy almost any part for this laptop online....

Any ideas?

[Riddle_Decipher]

@bentover

Thank you for posting on the HP Support Forums, 

I understand your concern and I have escalated your concern to HP's Support Team in your region to have it reviewed for available options (if any).

You should be contacted within 4 business days (Excluding holidays & Weekends). 

Response times may vary by region. 

Please send a Private Message, if you aren't contacted within 4-5 business days.  

Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (such as serial numbers and case details).

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts to help you out, mark my post as Accepted Solution. 

And click on the Purple Thumbs up icon at the bottom of my comment. Regards,