BIOS Recovery for bricked HP AMD-based Laptop

zapp22 · 13 Sep 2017

I am not sure where to post this so pls [mods] help me out.

This concerns a 'bricked' HP G4-1117dx, which had intermittent issues for months, then quit according to the user. The hard drive is fine. The system, when powered on, runs the fan, checks the optical drive, displays the LED'S at the power button and WIFI indicator, but no other evidence of life. not a hint of video, no beeps. Holding F11 or F12 produces nothing. Using the HP recommended key-sequence for recovering "last good copy" of bios fails [trying Windows-Key+V, or Windows-key+B]. Trying all this with external monitor as well as onboard produces no vid. So this is my last shot before pronouncing the MB dead.

The applicable page at HP for doing this sort of recovery is https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02693833 but Section 3, Steps 5 through "n" are simply wrong. Not all BIOS softpaq's have the implied utilities with them [the one I downloaded for this system does not].

I"m thinking that somewhere there is a force-write utility that can be put on a USB stick and auto-run, which is what HP has done for some of their systems. Although I'm puzzled as to how such can work if the system BIOS is corrupt, I'm hardly a BIOS code expert.

any clues/links/tips you can provide will help. thank you

ICIT2LOL · 16 Sep 2017

Hey Zapp mate you mention no beeps so have you tried a memtest ?? or even just flipping in a stick of RAM with the other stick/s out. I ask because you seem to have tried a lot of things and if you haven't played with the BIOS then how come it would die apart from the CMOS battery wrecking the chip somehow.
However with it being a laptop (I am assuming because that is the only reference I can find) I haven't coem across many laptops that do have beeps.

If you want to run a memtest
Now to make absolutely we are on the same page the memtest linked here is the only *one we recommend and it MUST be run for at least 8 passes or you may as well not bother. It is rather lengthy and best left for a downtime for that machine - overnight is good. Having said that you can stop the test if errors show up while you are around and then it is a matter of tracking down the bad stick of RAM.* RAM - Test with Memtest86+ - Windows 7 Help Forums
(This is pretyped to save time)

The only other thing I can suggest is that if this machine has data to e recovered you could do something like this.
BOOTABLE UBUNTU
Make a bootable Ubuntu disk Download Ubuntu Desktop | Download | Ubuntu
Set the BIOS to boot from the optical when the machine boots it will show you a screen with TRY or INSTALL > select TRY not INSTALL
When it is finished - it takes very little time you will get a screen like in the pic .
Open the drive you want > User and dig down until you get to the data / settings you may be able to copy / paste the material you want to an external source or other installed drive doing this.
I am not sure if it will but I have recovered tons of data etc using this method both on "dead" or just plain drives that you cannot get data from using Windows.
Or there is this Emergency Kit - save your files from a dead OS - Windows 7 Help Forums I prefer Ubuntu a tad easier to set up but this does the same thing
The screen in the pic is an old one but still is quite similar and you will obviously need a second machine if the BIOS is bricked.

torchwood · 17 Sep 2017

Have you pulled the CMOS battery out.

When replaced it should force a Bios set-up option.

Roy

zapp22 · 19 Sep 2017

Thank you both. no I have not done surgery yet. From reading of others in similar sad condition the CMOS batt pull didn't help but worth a shot. Rather, it would seem that heat stroke killed the system - I had noticed the fan would only come on iteratively at startup [attempted startup that is]. Most of time it came on, but a couple of times it did not. Talked to the user/owner about my suspicions and he admitted it would get hot, and he was using it propped up to give the underside some cooling. and it would randomly shut down. I assume then that at the least the thermal paste is cooked and possibly the processor killed. Because, as ICIT2 says, I can't imagine a simple BIOS corruption absent someone botching a BIOS upgrade and bricking the system. that is not the case here [asked the user and I checked the Downloads folder].

So - when a MB overheats, what's the likely things to get killed? The thermal thresholding built into the BIOS would have tried to save it multiple times until something broke down. I plan to lookup how to disassemble today - the model again is a HP Pavilion G4-1117DX [it has a sister the -1215dx that had the Trinity A6... the '1117dx has the A4 but can be upgraded easily drop-in]

Megahertz07 · 19 Sep 2017

BIOS normally get corrupted only on a failed update.
I also have a Samsung i3 laptop that has the same issue as yours. Talking to a laptop maintenance he said it can be a bad memory or a bad chipset.

ICIT2LOL · 19 Sep 2017

Now there are a lot of components the CPU being the usual "prime suspect" for heat damage but there are many other small chips that can also be damaged by heat and it can be caused by many things ie dust, bad compounds, poor venting , fans going south etc etc

Megahertz has a good point too re the memory and for the sake of doing a memtest at least it would rule out any issues with it or come up with problems so if you are going to do that see this. I did mention this before if you look back.

Just as a by the by in your system specs the memory set up there looks odd to me and I have never come across 2.5GB sticks before and the mixture of RAM you have personally I would be looking at fixing it with matching memory but that is just a by the by though and your choice to do something or nothing with.
I did notice too the mobo I snot listed and if you want to find details of that machine use this https://www.hwinfo.com/download.ph < make sure you get the right bit version.

But this is OT but I thought I would mention what I saw.