Compaq Presario CQ61-410SB does not start up

[s3ym0ur]

Hi,

My Compaq Presario CQ61-410SB does not boot up anymore, the screen just stays black.

I have tried all the steps at the website to try to figure out what's wrong but it seems I cannot find it.

• LED at power is constantly on, so I guess no problem at power supply
• LED at at shift/num lock keys is constantly on
• fans are turning
• from the front 3 LEDS
   - the left one; with the 'powerbutton' symbol is constantly on
   - the middle one, with the 'lightning' symbol is blinking contiuously between a 'faint glow' and 'on'
   - the right one, with the 'discs' symbol is blinking continuously between 'off' and 'on' 

I tried an external monitor -> nothing.

I tried the hard reset and reseating the memory modules -> nothing

I tried getting in the UEFI or BIOS by pressing ESC or F10 immediately after starting up -> nothing

Note: in the weeks before the notebook completely stopped booting-up, there was some time that it just took a very long time to start up (sometimes up to a few hours). And it seemed that, the longer the computer had been off; the longer it would take to boot up. So if for example I used the notebook a few hours ago, it would start up in a few minutes; but if I did not use the notebook for a few days and then I would try to start it up; it could take a very long time (up to 5-6 hours even), up to where I am now and even after leaving it 'on' for a full day; it will not boot...

Any help at trying to figure out what is wrong here would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[erico]

Hi,

Try removing the hard disk and then powering up the notebook.

Do you get a message from the BIOS that says it can find no bootable disk? If you do, then your hard disk has failed.

Post your results here please.

[s3ym0ur]

Hi Erico,

Thanks for your reply.

I removed the hard disk and powered up the notebook but the result is the same as described in my original problem description: screen stays black and the LEDs burning as described, with one exception: the middle LED of the 3 LEDs in the front (the one with the 'lightning' symbol), is not blinking any longer.

No idea if this is meaningful however...

[erico]

OK. Remove the battery and try powering up.

Do you have access to another power adapter? 

[s3ym0ur]

Hi Erico,

Running without the battery is one of the first things I tried. As well as running with only the battery and without the power chord. The result is the same; computer powered up, fans blowing, LEDs burning but screen stays black.

I do not have access to another power adapter bus as the power adapter LED is on as soon as I plug the power chord in I would think that the problem is not the power supply.

I basically tried everything already described in the standard troubleshooting procedure:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01443371

Any other suggestions?

I hoped that the note I made in my first post about the notebook being slower and slower in starting-up after not having run for a while might give a clue to what component is failing; but it seems to be a rare scenario as I cannot find it anywhere on the internet as well.

Thanks.

[erico]

Ok.

You said you have done everything, basically in the troubleshooting list. I suggest explicitly trying every single step in the effort to avoid spending money unnecessarily.

Have you tried powering up the notebook in a darkened room and shining a flashlight on the notebook's display?

If you see a normal, but very dim Windows desktop then you are in luck. That dim display means that the backlight inverter or CCFL tube has failed. That is not an expensive repair, but not one that I  would suggest that the average notebook owner attempt on their own.   If the owner happens to be an electronics technician, Engineer or electronics hobbyist it should be a piece of cake. At least it is for me. 🙂

You stated you tried an external display. Did you try holding the Fn key  and tapping the F4 key to extend the video output to the external display? 

I will have to look back at earlier posts you made to see if you stated your notebook is in warranty or not. 

Your mention of your notebook taking longer and longer to start up is a separate issue and involves some operating system tweaks. That will have to be for a seperate thread once you get your notebook up and running again.

[s3ym0ur]

Hi Erico,

The failure of the backlight inverter was also one of the first things that popped to my mind as I had that issue on a previous laptop. So I already tried the flashlight trick, as well as the external display (with Fn+F4), but well; no succes thus.

I believe I didn't explain the longer and longer starting-up time correctly:

Basically; if I had not powered up the laptop for some time (couple of days); at the moment I would turn it on all the LEDs of the notebook would start burning and the fans would start going but the screen would stay black. For up to several hours. Then, all of a sudden, the BIOS screens would appear and then the operating system (windows 7) would start loading; all at a normal speed.

So it would take a very long time before it would start with starting-up, after which the starting-up itself would proceed as normal (I keep my system pretty clean anyway).

Now; I left the laptop unpowered for ~2 weeks and it seems that this time before the notebook starts with starting-up is taken to the extreme (I tried up to 12 hours).

I think it is a rather unique failure as I read a whole bunch of troubleshooting guides already but did not found the scenario I am having. However; I was hoping that the unicity of the problem might ring a bell with some of the experts of hp themselves and pinpoint it to a very specific component of the notebook.

I bought the notebook 2 years ago (warranty was 1 year).

Anyway, thanks for your effort and hopefully my better description could ring a bell with you or another expert?

[SSDdrive]

Hello,

You may find the following links to the Compaq CQ61 Owners Club interesting.

   http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1354273

   http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1354273 

They talk a lot about CPUs and such issues. I think yours might have failed.

If it were a rattler. . . .

[s3ym0ur]

Interesting links indeed.

Sadly nothing that helped me with my problem.

Is there any way to confirm that it is the CPU that failed?

[SSDdrive]

Hello,

The lightning power symbol on the laptop only indicates as to whether or not the laptop's components, battery, etc, hard drive is present, receiving power. As for the what I believe is your laptop's failed cpu, here is a guide to the Hp blink codes that you can better refine upon and thus better define than I am able: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docnam​e=c01443366&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=uk&lang=en&rule=26781...  , , , , , , , , ,

as I am happily on vacation, and most definitely will not answer anymore upcoming requests. . .

If it were a rattler. . . .