Well crap.

[overpowered]

HP Envy laptop gets some sort of corruption in the boot sequence. Won't boot. Get the color logos and then black.

Some Googling suggests use Testdisk to fix it. Ultimate Boot CD has it. Yay!

Not yay.

Laptop won't even try to boot UBCD. Boot crappy old Linux box that barely runs with UBCD? Sure. Works fine.

Maybe the BIOS is set wrong. Nope. Looks good. Laptop even boots with HP recovery disk which only wants to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the OS.

Try putting UBCD on DVD-R. Nope.

Try putting UBCD on a flash drive. Nope.

The laptop clearly does not like UBCD.

I got so desperate, I tried to make a boot floppy (I've got a USB floppy drive and the laptop will boot from it) but the only one I've been able to make that booted is FreeDOS and it the DOS/Win95 version of TestDisk does not like FreeDOS.

I want to punch something.

[Yw-slayer]

Send it back to HP?

[thesameguy]

Is secure boot on? Is legacy boot enabled? Is it set to UEFI boot? What OS are you running? I can't speak for HP, but Dell has a pretty kickass "fix boot problems" bootable environment - maybe HP does too?

[Yw-slayer]

Also maybe next time use a more descriptive thread title rather than doing it fud-style. Lol

[overpowered]

Is secure boot on? Is legacy boot enabled? Is it set to UEFI boot? What OS are you running? I can't speak for HP, but Dell has a pretty kickass "fix boot problems" bootable environment - maybe HP does too?I don't see any option called "secure boot".

The BIOS security page only has admin password and power-on password which are both set to <Clear>

The System Configuration page has a Boot Options menu but that only has the POST Hotkey delay and the boot devices allowed and the boot order.

I was running Windows 7.

[thesameguy]

What happens when you remove all the entries from the Boot order except, say, the CD drive?

[overpowered]

It won't allow me to remove the hard drive from the order.

I can disable boot from CD, floppy and network.

I cannot disable USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk or Notebook Hard Drive which are in the boot order. I have Notebook Hard Drive last among permitted boot devices. CD is first.

Again, it boots from CD/DVD if the CD/DVD is the HP recovery disc.

[thesameguy]

Did this laptop originally have 8 or 10 on it? It really sounds like UEFI and/or SecureBoot is enabled. Everything you've described is consistent with that. I don't know what the key is on an Envy, but usually there is an F-key you can hit on POST to select an alternative boot device. On many computers it's F8 or F12. Once there, you should have an option to switch from UEFI boot to legacy boot, then it'll reboot, hit Fx again, and choose the USB drive. I have not worked on any HP in the last 3-4 years (since UEFI etc.) so I can't comment on BIOS layout, but I really think that's what you're facing.

[thesameguy]

Also, WRT to the original problem, can you get into Windows in safe mode?

[thesameguy]

Also this:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03653226

http://support.hp.com/doc-images/803/c03980379.jpg

or

http://support.hp.com/doc-images/482/c04682587.jpg

[overpowered]

It's 4 years old. It has way less stuff than those screens.

If I hit escape at POST, it lets me hit F9 to choose a boot device. It shows the CD. Selecting it does not work.

A couple of years or so ago I bought an mSATA drive for it. The BIOS would not boot the hard drive with the mSATA installed. I had to install a boot manager (https://sourceforge.net/projects/air-boot/) on the mSATA drive to have it redirect to the hard drive.

I removed the mSATA drive and tried to boot again. It still won't boot the CD but now the start up repair seems to be working. Before it basically told me that I was fucked and didn't even try to do shit to fix start up. As I type this, it's trying roll back to the last "checkpoint" so I may lose a software install. Fingers crossed.

[overpowered]

It finally rebooted but I'm back to the color logo followed by black screen. Fuck.

BTW, it came with 7 and I bought it before 8 was even fully released (may have been available as a preview).

[thesameguy]

Have you ever checked to see if there is a BIOS update?

I have never heard of a laptop that won't boot from other devices. I don't fully understand the relationship between your hard and mSATA drive, either, though, so I may be missing something here.

[overpowered]

I was getting too frustrated so I dropped it for a couple of days. Back on it today.

I got a message that it had shut down due to being overheated on one of the boot attempts. I cleaned all the vents and fans with compressed air.

I was looking through HP forums and found some stuff I posted back when I was trying to figure out how to make the mSATA work. I actually used UBCD back then so it used to boot. That's makes it even more perplexing. Maybe I should track down an older version of UBCD. Maybe the laptop doesn't like the recent version of UBCD?

I also removed AiR-Boot with bootrec /fixmbr to remove another variable. No effect on the CD or the flash copy of UBCD.

I tried doing the command line thing from windows recovery. I don't seem to be able to schedule a chkdsk/f on next boot because the volume is locked. That's annoying.

[overpowered]

Found an option in the graphical part of the recovery stuff to run chkdsk but it's running in read only mode.

It appeared to say something went wrong at the end but as soon as chkdsk finishes the window goes away so I didn't have time to read it.

I feel like a rat in a maze.

[overpowered]

Totally forgot about F8 on boot to start safe mode with a command prompt. Running a proper chkdsk/f/r/x now.

[overpowered]

Since I turned on the slow options, chkdisk is taking a long time.

I've downloaded the last four versions of the BIOS. I'm currently at the latest. If the chkdsk doesn't fix it (which I doubt it will), I will try downgrading the BIOS and see what happens with the CD boot situation.

[overpowered]

I got a message on power-up that the thing had overheated so I tried to clean the inside. I can't really get to anything but the exhaust heat sinks and intake window for the fans themselves. I suspect that there's more dust in there but as near as I can tell, getting to it will involve taking the laptop almost completely apart, which scares me (saw a video of another HP Envy laptop where the guy had to do that).

Of course, my air compressor broke within 30 seconds of me trying to clean it out (bangs head against the wall).

It appears that the boot problem is somehow related to Sony CD-R blanks. I used a Phillips CD-R blank and it boots fine. That doesn't explain why it wouldn't boot from a USB flash. Maybe it's a response time issue or something. Of course it didn't like the DVD-R either. I don't know. Sigh.

[mk]

Get bottled air and blow to the fan blades from where ever you can.
Possible dust goes somewhere else, no matter where.

Boot a Linux, put on drive and screen test and check sensors.
If nothing is heating but maching hangs my prediction is a toasted BGA or two.

[overpowered]

I did blow it out. I think something might be toasted.

Low res video (text, safe mode) seems to work but whenever it tries to go into a higher resolution such as when it boots, the screen goes black.

I've been wanting to replace the hard drive with an SSD so I got one and installed a fresh OS on it and it works fine until it tries to reboot after the installation. I get the Windows 7 startup logo and then black.

Want to punch something again.

[mk]

I'd say that you're stuck now and to get forward you propably need to remove the motherboard.

After that the route is something like fan, heatpipe, mechanical connections, electrical connections.

I have one of those original dv6 machines, it has a design fault, hot air goes back in.
Should be remodelled away now.

Generally I think we are doomed as long as BGA and lead free soldering is combined.
(they say that Xbox360 mobo is bent from the factory)

Other thing is tin whisker, a conductive hair like thing growing from solder.
If that's your case then heating them off is the only solution.
(hot air gun, oven, infra red etc.)

[overpowered]

In safe mode, I disabled the Radeon video driver in the device manager so that it would use the Intel graphics on the motherboard. After I restarted, this time it gave me a login prompt, which it wasn't doing before. However, once I logged in, it was back to black screen. I hear sounds from things starting up (skype, etc). Can't see a damned thing.

I also tried enabling "base video" in msconfig-boot. Resolution on the login screen went down but it still went black after login.

I'm trying to work up the courage to try to figure out how to remove the Radeon card.

[overpowered]

I looked through the manual for how to take the thing apart and replace stuff and I decided it's too far beyond my comfort zone.

I'm looking through laptop repair places on Yelp. I've found some reviews where people had similar problems and the fixes involved soldering. Time to give up and go to a specialist.

[mk]

Seems to be something else.

What happens if you leave it to that login state, can you get the screen back on after dimming?

Since you hear stuff the machine in not stuck, only screen is off, or something like that.

[overpowered]

Yeah, it's just the video that seems to be the problem, and only when it tries to do something more than safe mode video does.

[overpowered]

Send it back to HP?My extended warranty (to 4 years) ran out in January.

I took it to a local place that specializes in laptops that got mostly 5 star reviews on Yelp. We have an HP service center in San Diego. Yelp users have extreme hatred for it.

[mk]

How's the future?

[overpowered]

So the first place pretty much scammed me and didn't fix the thing. They just rigged the drivers to use the intel graphics. When I tried to reinstall the OS I was completely fucked again.

I took it to a different place. They are slow (they've had it since Wednesday morning) but I got off the phone with them about an hour ago and they did a BGA reflow on the GPU and the graphics are working again.

Unfortunately, the first place also fuxxored the sound and the second place is still trying to figure out how to solve that.

[Kchrpm]

:(

[thesameguy]

Laptop repair places are a joke. Paying someone $60 to $120/hr plus parts to fix a machine that's worth $200-$300 just never works out. Far better off just buying a secondhand machine off ebay and make one from two. Unless it's a brand new machine or has an obvious, easy repair (like an HDD or TFT), just get another one.

(This, says the guy that put $1000 in tires onto a $1700 Fiero :smh:)

[Kchrpm]

I'm lucky in that I do no PC gaming, so I just went with a Chromebook and an 128 GB SD card. Everything gets backed up, the stuff I want fast/consistent access to remains on the SD card as well. If anything goes wrong, I'll just get another $200-$300 laptop and be right back where I was.

I also have a 128 GB flash drive and 3 TB external hard drive, but they've ended up almost never getting used.

It's not a perfect solution (oh how I miss you, Irfanview), especially when it comes to ZIP files and rare use programs (I have no way to reprogram my Logitech Harmony remote anymore). With Android apps coming, though, I can see it getting closer to one.

[overpowered]

Laptop repair places are a joke. Paying someone $60 to $120/hr plus parts to fix a machine that's worth $200-$300 just never works out. Far better off just buying a secondhand machine off ebay and make one from two. Unless it's a brand new machine or has an obvious, easy repair (like an HDD or TFT), just get another one.

(This, says the guy that put $1000 in tires onto a $1700 Fiero :smh:)While it is 4 years old, it's a 17.5" 1080p with an i7 quad core 2.5GHz base clock rate and 16GB of RAM. It was originally $2K. The equivalent today would still be over $1K.

[overpowered]

:(The graphics work again. A BGA reflow is not guaranteed to work. I got lucky there. At least something finally went my way.

[thesameguy]

Sure, an equivalently positioned model would be over $1k - and probably closer to $1500 - but an equivalently performing machine would be much cheaper. The i7-2670QM based Envy is, performance-wise, going to be on par with an $800 or maybe $900 machine. A modern $1k or $1500 machine would destructify a four year old laptop. I buy lots of computers. All the time. It's my job.

But, I didn't say anything about new machines. I said better off buying an identical machine secondhand, probably about three bills with a little careful shopping. Again, I do this all the time. :)

Edit: If the reflow works now it will probably work for a while. However, since a reflow doesn't add material or change the type of solder it will be subject to the same type of failure. If you can keep the machine cool and avoid heat cycles, it'll work that much longer. I have done a bunch of those crappy Nvidia reflows and gotten years out of most of them... when it works in the first place. Hopefully the shop replaced the thermal paste with quality stuff and added the correct copper shim. That helps them last longer.

[overpowered]

I'm buying a cooling pad for it. I hope they did the other stuff you mentioned. I'll ask.

[thesameguy]

It's annoying that Nvidia did this. Twice.

If the shop didn't, it's typically not horrific to take the bottom cover off and do it yourself. The reflow is the risky part, thermal paste & shims are easy. Lots of youtube videos to walk you through it.

[overpowered]

HP designs their laptops so that it's impossible to get to the motherboard without completely disassembling the laptop.

I've looked at some of those Youtube videos. I saw one where someone put the board in a toaster oven. That just seems reckless.

I've also seen them do it without a rework station but with a heat gun. I don't own a heat gun and don't particularly want one. I'm not a hardware guy. I can do simple stuff but when it gets complicated I get worried.

I don't think there's any Nvidia on mine. It's got Intel and Radeon graphics. I think HP's current laptops use Nvidia.

Apparently it's ready, but I didn't have time to get over there to pick it up before closing a few minutes ago.

I probably should have sent it to you.

[thesameguy]

I've only ever used a heat gun. $15, harbor freight. Invaluable!

[overpowered]

It works again.

I think I'm going to keep it in the "power-saving GPU" mode instead of the "high-performance GPU" mode from now on. Maybe if I want to do some gaming I'll go high performance but for most stuff, the power saving mode is still plenty fast. Hopefully less power means less heat.

They did put fresh thermal grease on it.

They have a proper reflow station.

[mk]

I've not bought a new machine since I can't remember.

Around here you can buy stuff that is 2nd hand, off the corporation lease and reasonably cheap.

I think my next is new ~$150 mini.

[overpowered]

Speedfan was showing my CPU temp at 72-78C. I disabled Intel Turbo Boost. Running 52C now. I'll lose some speed but I'd rather not have to go through this again.

[overpowered]

As near as I can tell, the fans in the laptop no longer function. That might explain the overheating.

[thesameguy]

They probably only spin up at high temps. I think the t junction on that processor is at or close to 100 C, so you might not see fans until 90 C.

OTOH, there was a generation of Dell laptops that completely lost their ability to run the fans after a while, so maybe you're affected by that. Is speedfan able to start the fans manually, or no?

[overpowered]

Speedfan can't see the fans.

Also, there's a BIOS option called something like "fans always on". I turned it on. No fans as near as I can tell.

At clamped 2.5 GHz, eclipse runs fine. Browsers run fine. Some of my junit tests take a little longer to run. I'm OK with that.

[mk]

Speedfan can't see the fans.

Is it a new thing?

Check hwinfo
http://www.hwinfo.com/download.php

Are they original fans, connected?
There are at least 2, 3 and 4 pin connectors and mixing is possible.

[overpowered]

I don't know. I didn't run Speedfan before.

I don't see any fan info in hwinfo either.

[mk]

I don't see any fan info in hwinfo either.
Not even somewhere under motherboard section?

[overpowered]

When I go to the charts tab and select fan speeds, I see nothing.

On the readings tab, when I click "configure" and select the fans tab in that, there is nothing.

I don't see a motherboard section.

[mk]

Try HWMonitor

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

[overpowered]

No fans in that either or HWInfo.

[mk]

In hwinfo,
do you have a treeview of things somewhere?

Expand motherboard.
Is there a management BIOS of some sort?

Expand that.
In there should be cooling device and temperature probe nodes.
What they say?

[overpowered]

HWInfo->MotherBoard->SMBIOS DMI->Cooling Device

It says it's OK. Hmmm.

It's only the one fan. When I had the back open, there were two (CPU and GPU I assume).

[mk]

What is its type?

What are descriptions and location of temperature probes?

[overpowered]

It doesn't say much:

Type: Fan
Description: Cooling Device Description.
Status: OK
Nominal Speed: 2000 RPM

I assume that the temperature probes are on the CPU, since that's where it's showing temps. I also see temp for the hard drive (30C).

[thesameguy]

That doesn't necessarily mean anything, but suggests that the fan subsystem is fux0red.

[mk]

I assume that the temperature probes are on the CPU, since that's where it's showing temps. I also see temp for the hard drive (30C).
Don't you have similar nodes for temperature probes?

Sensors page has values for Distance to TjMAX.
That's how far the CPU is from really hot.

[overpowered]

On the sensors page, the only temps I see that are not labelled CPU:

ACPI: Hewlett-Packard HP Envy 17 Notebook PC
DTMP 50C

S.M.A.R.T. ....
Drive Temperature 30C

[overpowered]

That doesn't necessarily mean anything, but suggests that the fan subsystem is fux0red.That's my guess.

I don't feel like taking it in again. I think it will be OK at 50C. Leaving Turbo-boost disabled and using the lower powered graphics seems to be keeping it at that temp.

It's still pretty usable for what I do with it. I haven't done any real gaming on it in a long time anyway.

[thesameguy]

50C is totally fine, no worries whatsoever.

There should be a number of probes sitting around, but two physical fans doesn't necessarily mean two fan controls. A lot of laptops with discrete graphics have a single heatsink/heatpipe assembly so there is no need to control the fans discretely.

[mk]

On the sensors page, the only temps I see that are not labelled CPU:
Sensors page and treeview are very different things.

What it says about temperature probes in treeview?

Treeview SMBIOS main node has a version, what is it?

Nominal speed indicates your fan speed is not unknown.
Can you see their blades?

[overpowered]

I have no idea where to look in the tree view. There's a sensors button at the top but it doesn't seem to really do anything.

[mk]

Under Motherboard -> SMBIOS DMI you should have
Cooling Device
Temperature Probe
+Port Connectors

Under Motherboard -> SMBIOS DMI -> Port Connectors
you may have some unknowns at the end.
Check if they give more info.

I can't control my fans with Speedfan eighter.
(can see PWM's)
Noticed also that the machine has no driver for Intel SMBus.
No idea of its relevance.

Sensors button opens another window for same stuff but may have completely different info cathering methods.

[mk]

Did a driver update and got Intel MEI and AMT SOL.

I'm rather without them so the update was reverted.

[mk]

Found discrete SMBus driver but still got AMT SOL.
Kept the driver and disabled SOL.
Now Speedfan found one fan more.

Still can't control any of them.
No idea of their actual connections eighter.
Possibly under skilled for Speedfan also.

[mk]

Are we done?

There's always rweverything.
Dodgy?