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Question

HP G60 black screen that won't leave.

Jun 9, 2019 2:47PM PDT

Hey all, I have a HP G60-635DX Win 7 and it has the typical HP black screen won't boot issue. Here's how it goes, power it up and the screen stays black ( nothing at all ) the CPU fan comes on and the hard drive spins up with the drive activity light on, caps lock light on as well as the wi-fi light, the hard drive light is for no more than 3 seconds at the max. I have tried all the tricks ( the ones I knew of and read about more) I have done : 1: Unplug/batt out and hold the power button down for 15s, 20s, 30s, 1 min and all for nothing. 2: Moved the RAM around, tried 1 stick at a time, replaced the RAM and all for nothing. 3: Pulled out everything ie- hard drive out and ram out and CMOS batt out and hold power button down to drain and all for nothing. 4: Tried a new hard drive all for nothing. 5: Left the batt out and ran on only power cable all for nothing. Now on to the ridiculous stuff. 6: Ran it for 1.5 hrs wrapped up in a blanket ( secretly hoping it would melt down but don't tell the wife lol) all for nothing. I think that's all but I could be missing something. Now, this thing has the text book HP black screen/no boot symptoms and I am really thinking something happened with the BIOS but of course at this point I'm grasping at straws and I really don't know where to go from here. I just seems like I'm missing something because it is simply the typical HP thing but the typical fixes don't work. I forgot to mention I tried hooking up a different monitor all for nothing. If anyone has any ideas could you help a poor guy out so his wife is happy coulda woulda. Thanks for reading if you got thjs far.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
When there is no display, just black
Jun 9, 2019 3:23PM PDT

That's usually a dead motherboard.

I take this is the 2010 model so did you try a new CMOS battery since some models hold the CPU in reset if that is dead, too low, etc.

You don't need a HDD or ODD or even RAM to get a good unit to complain either on screen or beeps. I'd try it with the following.

1. NO ODD, HDD and just one stick of RAM.
2. A new CMOS battery.

I'm going to break here for a moment that some new techs balk at popping in a dollar battery without trying more things. They are just new and the newness will wear off. You may get clients that balk at paying for the dollar battery and if you do, it's best you thank them for considering your shop and find a way to return the unit and move on to other work.

3. Now that we have the new battery in we do the usual power removed, big battery out and hold the reset for 60 seconds then release tech thing.
4. Reinstall the big battery.

Another break here. If the client tells you this battery is dead or it's missing that's a bad sign on old laptops. A bad old battery can wipe out the power section of the motherboard. The lessons over the years are used here. You stop here and call it a bad motherboard unless you get lucky and it comes back to life at the next step.

5. Apply the charger and mains power. Wait a minute for the battery to take a sip and test.

If this fails you pack it up and call it a bad motherboard. Be sure to tell them that many Core2Duo or better refurb laptops are on Groupon near the 100 dollar mark. No shop I know will do more to this old a laptop.

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Hey
Jun 9, 2019 5:39PM PDT

Thanks for tbe reply. I check the battery with a volt meter but I think, as you say the super cheap cost, I'm gonna replace it anyways. Ya I know about the board issue and that could very well be where I end up......but...... I'm sure you've been here but I just don't have the feeling it's the mobo. Like I said I could very well end up there. I know I don't need a hard drive or anything else of the sort, that was just trying to lock things down. The idea behind removing everything and trying it was to see if it would even give me a damn beep, which it did not. That kind of struck me as odd that I can't get it to beep. I'm also leaning a bit towards the bios got screwed up some how like maybe a virus or malware or whatever. I only went there because there were young kids playing on this thing without any supervision at all. My mind kind of says that could be an issue. I still gotta try the bios recover thing yet but let's just say I'm not holding my breath. I'm wondering if it sitting for close to a year has created a bad connection to the mobo some place. I know 100% that this kind of things happen in cars but I'm fairly certain this is in fact NOT a car.

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We have laptops in storage for at most 5 years.
Jun 9, 2019 5:59PM PDT

And the only thing that seems to happen is the CMOS battery runs down. These are prepped for storage by unplugging the big battery if the model allows it and put into the big ziplock bag with some desiccant to help avoid corrosion issues.

I know clients want to think or press the tech to be "not the motherboard" but as the makers do not supply schematics and I've seen one bios failure in decades we do not replace the BIOS for that plus the owner's bill would be more than what a replacement laptop from groupon would be.

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oIo
Jun 9, 2019 6:22PM PDT

I " know " how to store anything electrical but the granny did not. Battery was in it and so was the cmos batt. Just sitting on a shelf that way. I've got a used mobo here but that was going to be the absolute last thing I wanted to do. As I said, this is me swinging at straws with a blindfold on. I know this mobo I have WAS good but it is another factory mobo with probably the same issue just waiting to fail and after all I mean what's this frisbee worth. I'm gonna toss a cmis batt in it tomorrow and go from there I guess. Ya I'm a stubborn S.O.B. and that's why I'm holding out on the mobo. Thanks for tossin ideas around for me, I appritiate your time.a