asked on

HP Pavilion Laptop Not Displaying Anything on the Screen

I have an HP Pavilion dv6 laptop that will not boot up. Or at least nothing is displaying on the screen. Pushing the power button seems to start the boot-up process but there is absolutely nothing displaying on the screen.

I tried plugging it into an external monitor via VGA cable but nothing displays on the external monitor either.

Tried pulling the battery and holding down the power button to clear out the CMOS. Didn't help.

Tried pulling and resetting the RAM chips. Didn't help.

If I pull both RAM chips and then power it on, I do get the CMOS beep error codes indicating that no RAM is present.

The cooling fans are powering on and there are two lights around the keyboard (one to the left of the Caps Lock key and one right above the End & Pag Up keys on the number pad) that blink in unison. Other than that, not getting any useful response from this laptop.

Sounds to me like either the video card or perhaps the entire motherboard is malfunctioning.

Would appreciate some ideas on troubleshooting this further. Thanks in advance.

Gregory Miller

More than likely it is the circuit that drives the light source bulbs. In that unit it may still have the FL Inverter and a florescent bulb. The issue could also be the bulb itself being simply burned out. Either way, you can probably get it fixed fairly cheap locally.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

dshin10

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

Gregory Miller

Take a flashlight and shine it on the laptop screen. You should be able to make out various items onscreen if the backlight is the issue.

SOLUTION

Robert Retzer

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

SOLUTION

Robert Retzer

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

anuneznyc

ASKER

Thanks Guys! I'm out now but will try your suggestions when I get home later today.

anuneznyc

ASKER

Yes, I pressed the fn key and the F4 keys to switch the video over to the external monitor.

The blinking is happening twice in a row and then pausing before repeating the double-blink process. Does that mean it's a corrupt BIOS as per the table that Dong Shin posted above?

Robert Retzer

Have you ever tried updating the bios on this laptop? Hmm that is the chart definitely indicating that the bios is corrupt. But that usually happens when the system loses power when updating the bios. You have tried booting with hardware items removed, including the battery right? I find it odd that something would corrupt the bios memory, unless the bios was been updated and while updating the bios some how the computer was turned off. I am wondering if you know how to get at the cmos battery, if you can, remove the battery brick and the ac adapter then remove the CMOS battery. Most model of computers you will have to disassemble the laptop quite a bit in order to get at CMOS battery. It is a coin shaped battery, and is usually located under the keyboard, but in other cases you have to remove the touchpad assembly to get at it. Once you remove the cmos battery leave the laptop like this for a couple hours, then plug the cmos batter back in noting the correct polarity. Then Plug in the ac adapter then test.

SOLUTION

nobus

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

jairajnaidu

please try to reinstall the OS.maty be OS got corrupted

anuneznyc

ASKER

web_tracker. Tried your suggestion. Removed the CMOS battery and left it out overnight. Just re-inserted and powered up the laptop. Still the same problem and same blinking error code.

jairajnaidu. This is definitely not an OS corruption issue. I am getting ZERO output on the display.

nobus. Interesting suggestion. I don't have a heat gun, but could probably get access to one later today or tomorrow.

SOLUTION

Robert Retzer

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

SOLUTION

dshin10

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

anuneznyc

ASKER

Thanks Guys. I just found a place that will lend me their heat gun.

Will try this later today.

anuneznyc

ASKER

Heat gun reflowing didn't work. Client is going to buy a new laptop.

nobus

how long and how did you use the heatgun?

don't forget to close this

anuneznyc

ASKER

Sorry for the delay.

Nobus, I did about 10 min with the heatgun.

nobus

that should be about right.
i also have a pirece of solder on alu-paper to check when it's melting

Robert Retzer

if reflowing did not solve the problem it could be a bad video card or you heated the video card too long or got too close to the heat source and made the card unusable. I guess since your customer decided to go with a new laptop they probably can just sell this one for parts.

nobus

i agree if this did not help, there's not much you can do - except replace the motherboard, or sell the parts

LeeTutor

I've requested that this question be deleted for the following reason:

Not enough information to confirm an answer.

anuneznyc

ASKER

Thanks Guys!