Black screen on boot, caps lock blinking - Compaq Presario CQ57-311SO

[ecthilien]

I got this computer from a friend who's son is the owner.

We dont know how or when it first occured but it has been in this state for a few months now.

It is a Compaq Presario CQ57-311SO and its just over 1 year old so the store warranty has expired.

What happens is that when the power button is pressed there is nothing showing on the screen and you dont hear the typical boot sounds, the beep and the hdd spinning up.

Instead the led on the Caps Lock button is blinking in the following pattern, 2 blinks pause 2 blinks.

The computer is totally unresponsive to any key, usb and cd inputs.

I have tried hard reset and swapping the memory to different slots.

But it seems like the bios itself is corrupt and failing.

So my question is, can I somehow flash the bios and get it working again?

I have tried one instruction on how to do this from flash memory in FAT-16 but with no noticable effect.

Although the guide might have been wrong or I might have done something wrong so I would really like to try it again if I could get some help with instructions from you nice people 🙂

Thanks in advance.

[Daniel_Potyrala]

Hi,

Yes, it's a BIOS corruption failure.

Resource:

LEDs near Caps Lock and Number Lock keys blink

Check this post/thread on the Notebookreview forum.

You may try to use intruction which is presented there or if you want ask any question.

Here and here you will find all BIOS versions for this specific notebook.

[ecthilien · Accepted solution]

I solved the problem by dismembering the whole laptop and resetting the CMOS battery.

Thank you.

[qumars]

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@ecthilien wrote:

I got this computer from a friend who's son is the owner.

We dont know how or when it first occured but it has been in this state for a few months now.

It is a Compaq Presario CQ57-311SO and its just over 1 year old so the store warranty has expired.

What happens is that when the power button is pressed there is nothing showing on the screen and you dont hear the typical boot sounds, the beep and the hdd spinning up.

Instead the led on the Caps Lock button is blinking in the following pattern, 2 blinks pause 2 blinks.

The computer is totally unresponsive to any key, usb and cd inputs.

I have tried hard reset and swapping the memory to different slots.

But it seems like the bios itself is corrupt and failing.

So my question is, can I somehow flash the bios and get it working again?

I have tried one instruction on how to do this from flash memory in FAT-16 but with no noticable effect.

Although the guide might have been wrong or I might have done something wrong so I would really like to try it again if I could get some help with instructions from you nice people 🙂

Thanks in advance.

---

[Radiator]

I tried taking it apart, taking out the CMOS battery for a while then screwing it back together again and same symptoms. Then whilst the screen was blank and caps lock was flashing I pressed the power button for 4 seconds to turn it off then quickly again to turn it back on and it works.

[Radiator4]

Update: Taking out the CMOS battery for a few mins then putting it back together then using the "sweater trick" to get it to boot http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/Laptop-not-booting-and-CAPS-lock... has fixed the problem, I can even shut down and start again now as it reset the CMOS when it started this time.

[Radiator5]

Scratch that, it was a build quality fail nothing to do with the bios. It only starts up when it's hot already. Moral of the story is throw your hp crap in the trash and buy a Lenovo. Im sure HP knew it would fail when past warranty.

[Quru]

Thanks man! This fixed mine. Happy it worked