Dead laptop?

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I have a laptop that I fear may have shuffled off this mortal coil…

It’s about 6 yrs old, running Vista. It was working fine, and I ran Windows Update to install some recommended updates. At some point during the update process, the screen changed to vertical bars (like the same pattern repeated all the way down the screen) and the system hung.

I cycled power to reboot it, but it won’t boot. It wakes up, the lights flash and the CD drive seeks, then it powers off. After a few seconds it wakes up and repeats the cycle, until I kill the power. It never lights up the screen.

I tried inserting a Memtest86 CD to see if it would boot into that, but it’s not booting at all. It never gets that far in the wake-up process.

Any suggestions for what I might try to resurrect it? Fortunately this laptop isn’t critical, but I do use it fairly often as a secondary or travel laptop, so I’d like to rescue it if I could.

Thanks!

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I’m working on a Win7 Notebook where it won’t boot at all with the HDD plugged in. Remove the drive and it will boot to a diagnostic CD. Put in a blank/unpartitioned HDD and it will boot to the CD. It also will boot to a Linux LiveDVD in the second and third scenario. Results indicate the HDD has died.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Try removing the battery and the power cord and hold down the power button for 5 seconds or so. Then reattach the power cord and see if the laptop will boot. If so, reattach the battery and try again.

Jerry

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If the cold boot as suggested by Jerry doesn’t work, will it boot up into the Advanced Boot options by tapping F8 (usually) as you switch on and select Last Known Good Config.

If you can also boot it using Safe Mode with Networking, that would point to your graphics drivers.

If you have the option of Repair your Computer in the Advanced Boot options, you can navigate to the Recovery Environment to select either Startup Repair or the System Restore option.

This article describes how to create a Vista Repair disk but you would need another Vista machine with the same architecture to create it on. https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-repair-windows-vista-without-a-vista-dvd-disc/

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…it won’t boot. It wakes up, the lights flash and the CD drive seeks, then it powers off. After a few seconds it wakes up and repeats the cycle, until I kill the power. It never lights up the screen.
I tried inserting a Memtest86 CD to see if it would boot into that, but it’s not booting at all. It never gets that far in the wake-up process…

Sounds to me like you need to clean the RAM contacts. The gold-plated contacts become tarnished over time w/ repeated power-on / power-off heating and cooling cycles.

You can clean the RAM contacts by gently rubbing them with a soft white pencil rubber. Brush off any residues/particles using a clean dry brush (soft toothbrush or small paintbrush). Refit the RAM chips and try again.

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The gold-plated contacts become tarnished over time w/ repeated power-on / power-off heating and cooling cycles.

As they’re gold that shouldn’t happen, but it still seems to fix problems more often than not for me.

cheers, Paul

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As they’re gold that shouldn’t happen, but it still seems to fix problems more often than not for me…

Even gold tarnishes; it just takes longer than other metals. When the contacts are tarnished they look dull and often have whitish powdery-looking spots on them. Freshly cleaned contacts should look shiny with no discoloured spots.

I have long lost count of the number of “dead” computers I have had come back to life after just cleaning the RAM contacts.

For example: just yesterday a customer’s old XP PC (hardware 2009) would power on but halt with no POST display. I tested the PSU (all readings OK) then cleaned the contacts on the single 1GB DDR-400 RAM module. The PC then booted normally to XP.

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@ garyfritz

You say the laptop reboots apparently before the BIOS has finished loading. You could try resetting the BIOS.

Most modern motherboards have a backup copy of the BIOS stored in the CMOS chip.

Use the following steps to load the backup copy of the BIOS:

1. Remove the laptop’s main battery and disconnect the laptop’s battery charger (leave battery and the charger disconnected during steps 2. through 4.).

2. Remove the CMOS battery from the motherboard.

3. Use a suitable screwdriver (or some other suitable metal object) to short out the +/- contacts in the CMOS battery holder.

4. While the +/- contacts are shorted, press and release the laptop’s power-on switch 8 to 10 times (uses residual power stored in the motherboard’s capacitors to force the motherboard to load the backup copy of the BIOS and resets the CMOS settings to defaults).

5. Refit the CMOS battery, fit the laptop’s main battery, and connect the laptop’s battery charger.

6. Power on.

If you now have video, you will need to adjust the BIOS (CMOS) settings (date, etc.). If you do not have video, then the motherboard is probably dead.

Note: this procedure relies on residual power stored in the motherboard’s capacitors, so it is important to perform each step as quickly as possible especially after removing the main battery and the CMOS battery.

See also: How To Perform a BIOS or CMOS Reset, and update/flash the BIOS at https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN284985/EN

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Nope. I tried that, and I tried removing power / main battery / CMOS battery for 10 minutes. No change.

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Even gold tarnishes;….

Yes, maybe an atom oxidizes in about 100,000 years. Unless it is in a chlorine environment.

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While checking power cycling, test with just the battery connected as well (assuming the battery still works).

In addition to the power cycling you can check to make sure the point where the AC/DC converter plugs into the laptop is not loose.

And if you have a VOM you can test the output voltage without load.

You can see whether you can enter the BIOS Menu on boot and whether the vertical bars appear or not under those conditions. The BIOS Menu uses the low rez graphic driver built into the BIOS. But it is outputted though the systems graphics.

My prime suspect would be the graphics going bad. More believable if discrete graphics or onboard graphics on a chipset as opposed to the CPU. Six years is already past EOL for a laptop. I am currently composing on a 6 year old lappy, and have a custom on order I hope will last 6 years as I can already see the signs of impending doom for this one.

You should be able to recover the drive contents by putting on another PC or using a external connection.

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Thanks for the excellent suggestions, folks!

No joy from removing the battery or the HD.

I removed the RAM and it successfully got far enough through POST to beep a complaint, AND it didn’t shut down as it had been. Hmm.

I gently cleaned the contacts (BTW we Yanks call those things “erasers,” Coochin :lol:) and put the RAM back in — dead again. Tried each stick individually — still dead.

I’ll try a bit more aggressive cleaning, but it looks like both sticks got fried somehow? I can get 2x2GB PC2-5300 SODIMMs for about $40. Now I have to decide if the old horse is worth that. 🙂

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OK, I’m thinking new RAM wouldn’t help anything.

* I cleaned the RAM contacts with De-Oxit, and blasted out the RAM sockets with compressed air. No change.

* The RAM sockets are “stacked,” one over the other. I discovered that either RAM stick works, kinda, in the TOP socket. Neither one works in the bottom socket. EDIT: No wait, that seems to have been because I didn’t have the stick seated fully in the top socket. If I seat it all the way, it does the same failure behavior.

* Even when partially seated, “works” is being generous. With RAM partially seated in only the top socket, it doesn’t do the “shutdown-and-restart every 5 seconds” behavior or the “no RAM and beeping” behavior. But it never really boots either. Every second or so the HD light flashes and then it hits the CD. It apparently never finds the HD. I assume it’s in the BIOS, since it seems to be trying to boot from somewhere, but I can’t tell what it’s doing because it never lights the screen backlight.

It seems odd that it crashed during Windows Update, with scrozzled graphics on the screen. But now it doesn’t light the screen at all. Maybe the crash happened while the screen was active, and now it can’t boot up enough to activate the screen?

Lookin’ grim…

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The following items have been requested: have you tried them?
— Can you boot into the BIOS?
—— Also does the BIOS have the correct time?
— Have you tried booting into Safe Mode, even Safe Mode w/Networking?

On the RAM, just ensure they stay properly snapped in

On the beeping behavior, what is it?

“It seems odd that it crashed during Windows Update, with scrozzled graphics on the screen”
— Maybe Windows Updates and a graphics update was included that caused the problem?
— For verification, were there any graphics issues before?
— What is your graphics?
— Do you have a graphics card you added in?

“It apparently never finds the HD”
— I don’t know how to address this yet but please address the above items

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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The following items have been requested: have you tried them?
— Can you boot into the BIOS?
—— Also does the BIOS have the correct time?
— Have you tried booting into Safe Mode, even Safe Mode w/Networking?[/quote]
No. The screen doesn’t light at all. I think it’s in the BIOS, since it beeps in POST if there’s no RAM, and it tries hitting the disk / CD in some conditions. But I can’t see anything so I can’t tell what’s going on. I can’t tell what time the BIOS has, and I can’t see the boot menu to select Safe Mode.

On the beeping behavior, what is it?

4 beeps after powering on with no RAM inserted. I assume it’s a POST error message, and I assumed it was a “no RAM” error. But according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-on_self-test#POST_AMI_BIOS_beep_codes, 4 beeps is “Motherboard timer not operational.” I wondered if maybe the mobo battery was dead? But why would I get that error only with no RAM inserted? And I wouldn’t expect a dead battery to kill the boot-up process.

“It seems odd that it crashed during Windows Update, with scrozzled graphics on the screen”
— Maybe Windows Updates and a graphics update was included that caused the problem?
— For verification, were there any graphics issues before?
— What is your graphics?
— Do you have a graphics card you added in?

It’s certainly possible a Windows Update messed up the graphics. (But if so, why would it foul up the boot process before Windows even loads? Without a Windows HD even in the box?) Unfortunately I can’t boot it, so I can’t recover to a restore point.

There were no graphics issues before this.

This is a laptop, with the on-board graphics chip, no add-on graphics card. It’s an HP Pavilion dv6700, p/n KC304UA. http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01296327 says the graphics chip is an NVIDIA GEForce Go 7150M.

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It’s possible that the Inverter has gone which coincided with the WUs but if you have a strong flashlight (we call them torches :)), shine that onto the screen to see if anything shows up.

If it’s still black then it could be the Inverter http://www.laptop-repair.info/laptop_screen_repair.html

A more specific Google search for your laptop should produce detailed disassembly/repair instructions if you want to check this out for yourself.

It’s been known for some laptops where the cable has become damaged or the connector dislodged through the opening and closing of the lid over time.

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How many beeps do you get with on a normal bootup with the memory sticks in place?

On the mobo battery, we can’t tell whether or not it should be changed but it would be a good idea to do so. About 4 years ago a friend gave me her daughters laptop with bootup problems: black screen and shutting down; I don’t recall it restarting. It had been diagnosed as needing a new motherboard by the manufacturers technician over the phone. I replaced the mobo battery out of “curiosity”; upon bootup I went directly into the BIOS, corrected the time and set the BIOS to default; there was maintenance to conduct on the computer afterward but I was able to return the computer back to my friend within a couple of days. As you mentioned you wouldn’t expect the issues you are seeing due to a dead battery; but I’m just a simple cmptrgy and I have seen some fixes completed by unexpected procedures.

Sudo15 you reminded me about my son’s laptop. He was getting black screened also. When I checked out his computer a couple of things I did was move the display back and forth a few times and he would get an intermittent display; then I tapped in the area where the inverter is and it runs almost flawlessly now. Since he wants to continue running it this way I leave it alone
— garyfritz, it’s worth trying

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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It’s possible that the Inverter has gone which coincided with the WUs [/quote]
That seems very unlikely that the inverter would die JUST as the WU fails AND the boot gets hosed…

I can’t see anything (with flashlight) either without RAM (when it just beeps and probably doesn’t display anything) or with RAM (when it goes into the power-cycle-every-few-seconds mode and probably doesn’t get a chance to display anything).

How many beeps do you get with on a normal bootup with the memory sticks in place?[/quote]
None. That only happens with the RAM removed.

On the mobo battery, we can’t tell whether or not it should be changed but it would be a good idea to do so. About 4 years ago a friend gave me her daughters laptop with bootup problems: black screen and shutting down; I don’t recall it restarting.

The battery is years old, and who knows? It might explain why so many things went kaflooey at once. It’s a cheap and easy experiment. I’ll let you know if it helps.

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Checking the BIOS battery etc. makes sense: I hope it gets you going

I don’t see yet whether or not both of your memory chips are ok and if there are issues with them buy at least 1 new memory chip to eliminate the possibility of failing memory

Also someone else can chime in on this as I’m interested in knowing whether or not it’s true
It was probably about 5 years ago, I read an article that stated that when a laptop has only one memory chip in it must be in the bottom slot.

I suspect Sudo15’s comment about the inverter coincidental failure can make sense: it has nothing to do with WU, it’s just a coincidence not a cause and effect

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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A CMOS battery is reckoned to last about 5 years and an Inverter or Backlight can go at any time and when age comes into it and usage, it can also be the cable or contacts on the plug as they can get a film on them and cleaning is sometimes all that is needed.

To move forward on this you will have to at least eliminate one or the other.

You will need to find out how to change the CMOS battery on your model as it isn’t always just a case of slipping out a CR2032 coin shaped battery.

On my Toshibas they are soldered to the motherboard, but it’s usually a disassembly job to get to it and as you would be going so far in to check the Inverter cable, you could carry on to the CMOS battery if you feel confident in stripping down.

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Sudo15, the battery is easy. It’s in a battery holder right next to the RAM. 🙂

If the battery doesn’t help, then RAM is a sensible next thing to try. It could also cause everything (WU, boot, etc) to blow up at once. Not sure about the screen backlight but possibly with bad RAM the BIOS never successfully wakes up enough to turn on the lights.

I will also check the inverter a bit more.

If battery or RAM don’t do it, I may blow taps and send it to the recycler…

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Looking at Component replacement procedures in http://www.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01295877.pdf shows that it isn’t just a coin shaped battery to slip out and you’d have to Google for a replacement.

While I haven’t checked the specs for your model, it’s possible that it’s using the older DDR2 which is a lot more expensive than DDR3 in the UK, but depending on whether you are using Vista 32 or 64 bit, then either a single 1 or 2GB stick should suffice for testing purposes.

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Have you tried moving the screen backwards and forwards to see if you get a flicker or more ?

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A computer won’t boot if the video adapter fails POST.

Just sayin’…

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Sudo15, that is indeed what the manual says. But it’s wrong. 🙂 Here’s the battery in its holder:

40301-Battery

It does use DDR2 PC2-5300. Max of 2 x 2GB SODIMMs. 2GB sticks are $25 or so, only about $8 more than DDR3. I’d rather not put $25 or $50 into this old beastie, especially if I’m not sure that’s the problem, but I might buy one stick just to see if it’s still alive.

I’ve cranked the screen about a fair bit and haven’t noticed any improvements.

tonyl, good observation. That would explain some of the behavior. But I suspect if the video adapter failed POST, it would give a beep code — and it’s not doing that unless I pull the RAM.

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That just shows how much we are being ripped off in the UK.

It cost me £29.99 for 2x4GB DDR3 sticks but almost £100 for 2x4GB DDR2.

Anyway, that should make life much easier if you swap out the CMOS battery first.

If it was just the Nvidia card it should still have booted up into Safe Mode as it would have then used the on board VGA in lower resolution.

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If it ‘sorta works’ in the TOP RAM slot, but not fully seated using either stick that sounds like something physically broke to me and presumably in that area. I would not spend much money to try and fix. Maybe plastic or solder. They can fail after this long.

If you have a VOM test the battery first. 3V or more = no point in replacing. One nice thing about pulling the battery for testing is it will do a hard CMOS reset. That is a great place for the battery and a great battery to use for testing and replacement issues.

If you replaced the RAM then it has a lifetime warranty. If it came with the laptop then you are screwed unless you know someone who will test it for free.

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Well it was certainly worth a try, but… new battery == no change. 🙁

Out of curiosity I tried pulling the battery entirely, but that didn’t change the behavior either. Same brief video gibberish, same 5-second-reboot cycle.

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?? My last post seems to have disappeared. I’m *sure* I posted it… Will try to reconstruct.

With a stronger light and a darker room, I determined the screen IS doing something. But it looks mostly like gibberish. It flashes by too fast to see on the darkened screen, but it looks like toasted video to me.

So we have:
* Won’t boot for some reason.
* Graphics seems fried.
* Inverter/backlight is gone.

I don’t know what would cause all of those to go kaflooey at once, but this seems like a losing battle to me. I think it’s time to pull this patient off life support.

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…With a stronger light and a darker room, I determined the screen IS doing something. But it looks mostly like gibberish…

You should be able to connect an external monitor to the analog VGA port on your laptop. Doing so should at least allow you to see what is, or isn’t, going on.

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“With a stronger light and a darker room, I determined the screen IS doing something. But it looks mostly like gibberish. It flashes by too fast to see on the darkened screen, but it looks like toasted video to me.”
— That’s exactly what I determined was going on in my example. Replacing the BIOS battery brought that computer back to life. I also had gone to the manufacturers website to burn the BIOS driver to disc in case I would have need it. Fortunately I didn’t. But please try replacing the BIOS battery. I suspect we’d like to know the results

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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Isn’t, I’m afraid.

In the reboot-every-5-seconds mode (RAM inserted), the laptop doesn’t turn on the monitor until it’s almost ready to shut down. Nothing gets displayed.

In the kinda-works-with-one-stick-in-top-slot mode (which seems to be a fluke requiring improper insertion of the stick), the monitor never turns on.

Same with no RAM — no monitor.

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hello. i believe your problem is due to a very common fault with the hp dv laptop series. the problem stems from inadequate cooling of the nvidia gpu chip. the cooling system in this laptops uses a single heatpipe to cool the cpu as well as the gpu. the gpu is soldered into the motherboard using a ball solder socket. over time, due to the inadequate cooling, the nvidia gpu overheats and separates from the solder in the socket. this causes a variety of problems including distorted or loss of video.

if you would perform a search with the terms “hp dv laptop” and “nvidia gpu” you will find this to be a very common complaint. there are repair options ranging from do-it-yourself (temporary and somewhat time consuming), to repair shops that will attempt a reflow of the ball solder or resolder the gpu. another option would be to replace the motherboard.

some of these options may not be economically feasible in your situation.

good luck

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I agree with neutrino. There was a big to-do about HP laptops with nVidia graphics chips failing. At first HP and nVidia totally denied it, but later they owned up to the problem and replaced motherboards for some users who were only slightly out of warranty. But many others failed later rather than sooner. It’s too expensive to repair. Retrieve the hard drive from inside the HP. You can copy all your important dat onto a new computer. Modestly priced laptops now have very good performance compared to 6 years ago so it’s not all bad …..

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Yes, I know about the HP/Nvidia issues… Between my ex and I we had several HP laptops (we both worked at HP) and at least one of them had this problem. I “fixed” my ex’s laptop by wrapping it in a towel and letting it run until it overheated and shut itself off!! Apparently that gets things hot enough inside that it reflows the solder on the Nvidia, at least if you’re lucky. Her laptop worked for several more years.

I don’t think that’s the problem here. It certainly wouldn’t be causing the boot problems, or the dead inverter. But possibly the graphics issue is caused by the solder issue, and what the heck, it can’t hurt to try wrapping it in a towel. 😀

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Yes, but that was quite a few years ago and occurred with bad silica from a supplier that had impurities in it: mobile G86, G88, G90 and G92 graphics. And assumes his laptop has nVidia graphics. Long shot.

edit: Finally found his posting of the model. G71 nVidia graphics therefor not the issue.

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Post 4 by Sudo15: “This article describes how to create a Vista Repair disk but you would need another Vista machine with the same architecture to create it on.
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-r…ista-dvd-disc/”
— Have you tried it?

Post 11 by garyfritz
I went to the link you provided for your computer and tried to find what drivers are available but there aren’t any: Is this an original Vista computer?
“No software or drivers are available for this product with the selected operating system”
http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-dv6700-entertainment-notebook-pc-series/3632100/model/3646945

“This is a laptop, with the on-board graphics chip, no add-on graphics card”
— Can you install an add-on graphics card if you wish to do so?
— Although not for the same reason, I installed a spare add-on graphics card about 2 years ago into my friends Win7 computer and it proved it was the on-board graphics on his computer
— Needless to say he then purchased one that suited his needs very well
— The new add-on graphics card was purchased through TigerDirect for about $30.00 and his computer still runs like new
— Now buying anything for this computer just to test it out might not make sense for you and I understand that
— Do you know anyone who might have a graphics card you good borrow?
— I know, I know, it’s a longer shot than a long shot

Post 15 by tonyl ” A computer won’t boot if the video adapter fails POST.”
OK here’s the long shot: I never tried it but what do you have to lose?
Go to the manufacturers website and burn the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M driver to a blank CD on another computer
— Maybe you could burn it to bootable CD or flash drive but someone else would have provide that information if its possible
Start your computer and insert the CD into your computer before it shuts down
Start the computer back up and see what happens
I know, I know, it’s a longer shot than a long shot

Post 24 by garyfritz
”So we have:”
* Won’t boot for some reason:” True
* Graphics seems fried.” Possible
* Inverter/backlight is gone.” Even though it could be a factor I’m not sure whether or not it could be the cause of the shutdown, restart issues.

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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“…Can you install an add-on graphics card…”
How do you do that? I’m curious, I have two Acer laptops.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Post 4 by Sudo15: “This article describes how to create a Vista Repair disk but you would need another Vista machine with the same architecture to create it on.
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-r…ista-dvd-disc/”
— Have you tried it?[/quote]
No, I don’t have another Vista system. And unless I am mistaken, you would need the ability to boot into the repair disk. A rescue disk like that is good if your Windows install is borked, but not if you can’t boot at ALL.

I went to the link you provided for your computer and tried to find what drivers are available but there aren’t any: Is this an original Vista computer?

Yes, it is. Not sure why you had trouble — I specified Vista and it listed the drivers.
http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-dv6700-entertainment-notebook-pc-series/3632100/model/3646945

— Can you install an add-on graphics card if you wish to do so?

Not as far as I know. There are no expansion slots. Was your friend’s computer a laptop??

Go to the manufacturers website and burn the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M driver to a blank CD on another computer
— Maybe you could burn it to bootable CD or flash drive but someone else would have provide that information if its possible
Start your computer and insert the CD into your computer before it shuts down
Start the computer back up and see what happens

I’m sure it would be the same as when I tried to boot into a Memtest86 CD. The laptop never sees it, never boots to it.

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Apologies for post 33. I had my mind on 2 other computers at the same time and mixed up to many issues
Anyway Coochins point abot the gold contacts is very imprtant and I know garyfritz has cobvered that very well
However I’d like to mention when I was in the working world and gold contacts needed to tbe cleaned, alcohol was used (no not the drinking kind) but then there was a time peiod maybe 30 seconds or so to allow the “film” to evaporate before even touching the component.

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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No worries, cmptrgy. And yes, I cleaned the RAM contacts with De-Oxit and let it dry.

Thanks for the offer of the Vista repair CD (I can’t respond to your email) but I don’t see how that could work. I would have to boot from the repair CD, and this laptop can’t seem to boot from anything.

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I screwed my system up once when I power shut it down during a restore point operation because it had froze and it wouldn’t boot up with an ISO or Repair disk, but I did get it to boot up with a Kaspersky Rescue Disk, although my problem was software and not a possible hardware fault.

It took about 9 hrs to scan C: and when it had completed I used the shutdown option – went to make another cup of coffee and when I came back, found it running at least a chkdsk /f which fixed it.

I’m not saying this would work for you but it’s worth a try. http://support.kaspersky.co.uk/4162

BTW – I have a Vista x32bit SP2 ISO saved which I could burn you a couple of disks – don’t know if it works as I don’t have a Vista machine to try it out on.

It was an ISO I managed to download before MS got to the site.

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Sodu15, won’t I run into the same problem I mentioned with the Vista repair CD? You have to boot into the Kaspersky rescue disk, and the laptop won’t boot from anything. If you have suggestions how I can address that, that would be awesome — but unless I figure out a way to fix the boot problem, none of these repair options will work.

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…. If you have suggestions how I can address that,….

Have you tried booting into a USB drive? Though with no ability to see either into the BIOS Menu or Boot Manager (F12 on boot?) I guess not.

I think you had this right half the thread ago…time to recycle.

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Mine wouldn’t boot up either with a Win 7 Repair disk or a bootable Win 7 ISO but for some reason it did with the Kaspersky, but I knew for certain that mine was a software problem.

A Kaspersky Rescue Disk is always handy to have and at this stage, what do you have to lose by trying it ?

You could be right and that the machine is ready for the bin, but as it still beeps, that shows there’s still life in it ?

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I agree, the Kaspersky Rescue disc is worth trying

I did a search for boot up rescue disc and came up with
http://lifehacker.com/5984707/five-best-system-rescue-discs
Try at least one of them if Kaspersky doesn’t help
I know it appears all is lost but maybe one of those system rescue discs will come through

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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I was in electroplating in an electronic firm and “tarnishing gold” is usually caused by a defective finish either in the electroplating process, prior processes that affect the base metal and/or quality of the gold material (btw, the same principle applies to other finishes). Anyway issues such as pitting, flaking, scratches, bleeding, an incorrect amount of coverage and some other factors I cannot recall right now but those issues are not usually seen by the naked eye. In electroplating the balance between throwing power and covering power is very important along with areas in which the components are placed on the holding rack. With todays technology I believe there is a vast improvement in such issues but my point is usually the cause of “tarnishing gold” has a foundational problem

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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One thing to try…
1. Power off the system.
2. Hold down the key to enter the BIOS Menu or Boot Manager.
3. Power on the system and continue to hold down the key.

That actually worked better than I expected. I didn’t remember the magic key so I tried DEL, F12, F11, F10 … and hey! With F10 held down it didn’t do the 5-second-reboot thing. The screen (as illuminated by flashlight) is flashing scrozzled line gibberish on the screen, flashing about once per second. I’m guessing it’s in the BIOS but I can’t do anything with it.

So as long as it was alive, I tried plugging in a monitor. No joy. It doesn’t turn on the monitor so I can’t see anything. (But most likely the on-board graphics chip is fried so it wouldn’t be able to drive a monitor anyway.)

Have you tried booting into a USB drive? Though with no ability to see either into the BIOS Menu or Boot Manager (F12 on boot?) I guess not. [/quote]
I wondered if maybe a USB drive would be easier for it to boot into, but as you said, unless I already had it set up to boot from USB (and I’m sure I didn’t), I can’t get into the BIOS to set it up. And even if I could, I can’t see what it’s doing.

I think you had this right half the thread ago…time to recycle.

I’m afraid so. Guys, I *REALLY* appreciate your perseverance and helpfulness, but unless somebody has a brainstorm based on the F10 insight above, I think the patient is in a coma and is unlikely to wake up. Time to pull the plug.

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Nothing is irreparable. It’s all just down to how much time you want to spend on it.

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And money. 🙂 In this case I suspect it would require a new graphics chip, more likely a new motherboard. And a new inverter for the screen backlight. And then it would still be questionable, because SOMEthing went kaflooey in a big way to knock out so much functionality at once.

You can get a tested replacement mobo for about $60. But hell, if I wanted it that bad, I could get a complete working replacement laptop for $120 or so.

It would make more sense to buy a newer small laptop and get an IDE dock to transfer any remaining data off the old laptop.

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