Black Screen or Vertical Lines on Startup

[Rob86]

My laptop is getting pretty old at about over five years now as I purchased it in August of 2010. However it has been pretty dependable aside from replacing the CPU cooling fan and the battery. I was hoping to keep it for longer but lately I have encountered two similar and connected problems when turning the computer on.

The first symptom is that sometimes I will turn on my computer or bring it out of sleep mode and the display remains black. Two LEDs are flashing on the sides of my keyboard; the one beside the "caps lock" key and the one above the "end" key on the upper right hand corner are flashing in unison. I will often have to manually reboot the computer by pressing the power button several times in order for the laptop to boot up properly. Sometimes I have even had to remove the battery and the power cord and that helps the computer to boot up.

A second symptom related to the first is when I open the lid of the laptop and it comes back on OR when I manage to boot up the computer I am met with intermittent, horizontal black lines on the display. I can use the laptop normally and everything boots up fine but the horizontal lines will often appear and then sometimes after a moment of inactivity disappear. When I start using the interface the lines appear again. Often this occurs after I recover from the first problem mentioned above.

Is there any way my fellow forum users can help me solve this problem? Or is my trusty laptop finally ready to be retired?

[Sparkles1]

Hi @Rob86,

Thank  you for your query.

I understand that your notebook i s over five years old and has been a dependable machine aside from replacing the fan and battery.  You would like to keep it for awhile longer but have encountered a couple of issues.

Now  when you power on your notebook or bring it out of sleep the display remains  black and two LEDs are flashing the Caps Lock and the one beside the end key.   You then must reboot the notebook by manually pressing the power button several times for it to boot normally. Sometimes removing the power cord or battery helps it to boot.

A second symptom is  when  you open the lid of the laptop it comes back on, or  when you manage to boot up the computer you are met with intermittent, horizontal black lines on the display. You can use the laptop normally and everything boots up fine but the horizontal lines will often appear and then sometimes after a moment of inactivity disappear. When you start using the interface the lines appear again.

Here  is a  link to HP Notebook PCs - Troubleshooting LED Blink Codes or Beep Codes During Startup or Boot to help with the startup issue.

If you connect and external display do you get the same black lines? 

Heres are two links to assist with  the horizontal lines in your display.

HP Notebook PCs - Troubleshooting a Notebook LCD Panel Issue (Windows 8/8.1, 7)

HP Notebook PCs - Computer Starts but Screen Remains Blank (Windows 10, 😎

Please let me know the outcome.

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[Rob86]

Apologies about the length of time it has taken me to respond but I tried one method to fix the problem. When my screen would not turn on at home I connected the laptop to my desktop monitor but nothing showed up on that end. I also tried reseating the memory and while I successfully did this problem came back.

I looked up the LED beep code being displayed and I think it has something to do with my BIOS. I upgraded to Windows 10 a while ago but this problem only cropped up in the last couple of updates from Microsoft. I have been unable to manually find a BIOS update for my computer and fear I may have to do a system restore or even go back to Windows 7. Not sure what to do at the moment.

[Sparkles1]

Hi @Rob86,

Thank you for your update.

As  you stated the flashing LEDs are indicating a bios issue, I would try to restore it.   Here is a link to  HP Notebook PCs - Restoring the BIOS.

Please let me known if this has helped.

To say thanks for responding please click the thumbs up icon below.

Good Luck!

[Rob86]

I already tried restoring the BIOS using the key command but nothing happened. I then checked on the HP website to see if they had the driver but they did not instead suggesting fixing it via Windows Update. I am not sure how to proceed. I opened the BIOS on startup using the F10 key and set everything back to the default settings but I doubt that did anything to correct the problem; so far no blank screen but I have only turned on the laptop a couple of times since.

[Sparkles1]

Hi @Rob86,

Thank you for your update.

As you were unable to restore the bios from the key combination and it is not available to download  to restore from an USB key I suggest contacting HP support for your options.

Please contact HP support at Contact HP Support.

Please let me know the outcome.

Good Luck!