I have an issue I have been fighting for several months. I have an HP Pavilion dv5 1008ca, AMD AthalonX2 processor ATI Graphics running Vista. One day just didn't boot up and displayed a black screen and the CAPS LOCK and NUM LOCK lights flash 3 times pause and repeat which according to HP is a corrupt BIOS. One would think if they tell you what the problem is they might give a solution to the problem however no. I purchased a replacement motherboard for the laptop, it is a Foxconn, fits perfectly and is compatible with the unit. Reinstalled all the components and started it up, the message CMOS error and two options to repair or continue; neither appeared to work. Powered off and restarted again and the Press ESC message in the lower left-hand side; pressed that and got to a system test screen. Tried going through the various options and one provided details of the system, OS, BIOS version, etc. Did a hard drive test etc and all checked out fine. Tried to F10 and nothing. Restarted again and got the message that there was something wrong with the BootMGR. To make a long story short; I was unable to gain access to the BIOS via F10. When I started it again we were back to the black screen and flashing lights. I tried booting straight from CD drive and that did not work however one time I tried a Ubuntu disc and it loaded up and ran off the CD for perhaps 4 hours going to sleep and waking again and stayed running until I shut it down. Tried again and got the black screen and flashing lights so it doesn't always bot from CD. I have been researching how to access BIOS using a USB stick however I'm missing something to get it to work. Any suggestions, workarounds would be appreciated. Sorry for the lengthy story.
I will say it bluntly. Sometimes,when one tries to repair,fix something,one needs to learn where to stop. What i am saying is that some things are better left to people who know a whole lot more and can give real solutions. Now,a corrupts BIOS in HP notebooks is nothing new,but i can tell you that the flashing CAPS key also can happen when you have some electrical issues on the KBC and also when chipset needs to be reflowed. To simply repair a corrupt BIOS ,the cheapest tool that works is Nano Bios Programmer,sold on Ebay for $25-30,you need to desolder the BIOS chip ,solder onto the programmer,erase and flash the latest BIOS from HP for the model you have.If you don't want to dabble with soldering,there is special extension cord with crocodile cramps which connects to the BIOS chip directly onto motherboard and you can flash it like that. Sorry if i sound like a db,but i worked in laptop repair for many years,and i am still working in tech repair.I hate when people spend money on something without knowing if they can solve the problem.And replacement laptop motherboards,well, a lot of them are faulty or prone to fail. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NANO-BIOS-Programmer-for-PC-M-B-BIOS-repairing-/280388472031
Thanks for your comments Anticupidon. I come to this site as do many others for help, assistance, ideas and suggestions from like-minded computer people. Just about every title in these forums is for help of some fashion. If I wanted a lecture I would have asked my wife. The fact that I replaced the motherboard and it did boot up and I ran Ubuntu for quite awhile would suggest the second motherboard worked. If anyone else has ideas I welcome them. If you would like to provide a lecture just drop a quick line saying you have a lecture for me and I'll go ask my wife if she wouldn't mind letting me have it and save you the trouble of typing one out. Just saying.
About the lecture part you are right,you came here for help, not to listen to a tech detailed lecture. I realized that i made a mistake ,so once again i apologize. Now,if the second motherboard worked with live Ubuntu,it still works?I would try using it with only 1 ram stick ,do some test then add another. I suggest to use a simple USB keyboard with it,and not connecting the laptop's keyboard.See if you can acces the boot menu,for HP is F9 or press Escape ,then choose F9. This second motherboard,what BIOS Version has? I use Yumi Usb for creating live Linux Usb ,and you can easily create a multiboot usb thumbdrive.
@Tom56 If you think its a corrupt bios then you can try whats outset below, however its sounding more like a Cable to the LVDS or a Over heating card. ----CORRUPT BIOS FIX----- OK I have found the recovery names for your BIOS. To extract the bios on another computer open the .exe with 7zip and you'll see two files with extension .FD after double clicking a folder in 7zip with no name. Now the Recovery name for both these files is F2.BI now the problem is that it has two bios files which one will be correct for you in what is known as a MUTI-FD. Code: [MULTI_FD] Flag=1 FD#01=PCI,1,0,0,0,FFFFFFFF,95911002,3622F38.fd FD#02=PCI,1,0,0,0,FFFFFFFF,95C41002,3622F38.fd FD#03=PCI,1,5,0,0,FFFFFFFF,96121002,30F2F38.fd SO without knowing what PCI yours is we do not know which file to rename to F2.BI and stick on a USB pendrive. If however you do know the its a simple rename the correct file and follow the steps below 1) Remove AC Power and Battery 2) Insert USB Pendrive (With Correct file) 3) Press and Hold the Windows Keys and B 4) Re-insert Battery then AC (Whilst Still holding WinKey+B) 5) Power Laptop backup and once It illuminates release Winkey+B combo 6) Check for USB activity ( Constant Reading from USB) 7) If it finds the file and starts to flash bios back it might or might not beep every 2 seconds. Once it Finished it will shutdown the laptop on its own. 8) Boot laptop backup and pray it worked.
To Anticupidon, no need to apologize. I just thought these forums were for people to come for help and assistance with issues and in the past I have found them most helpful and got me out of a jam or confirmed my suspicions. I will try your thoughts as well. To Hacktrix2006 I will take your suggestion and see what I can come up with and report back. Perhaps I will recheck the video connections again. It is odd that everything starts up, hard drive, CD drive, fans etc just nothing on the screen. I was thinking of even trying to flash an older BIOS and if that worked update later if and when it works. I just hate to throw something out that might be able to be fixed if you know what I mean. You pay good money for something and one day it just doesn't work. Flames me! My truck wouldn't start one day out of the blue and everyone said it was the starter that was shot. Crawled underneath and it was a broken wire to the starter. Seventeen dollars later it starts like a charm. Thanks for your suggestions.
Hacktrix2006, where did you locate that information so that I can obtain the file? I would require the download in order to open the .exe. Thanks.
@Tom56 Download the bios .exe and you'll get the same info as what i did. All you do is use 7Zip to extract the files in the .exe file then you take a pot luck shot as from what i can gather they have the same files size bios wise and only the flashing location is different. The recovery name is the same for both files and that is a simple rename of the .fd files to that of the recovery for example 3622F38.fd becomes F2.BI Its i insyde bios and i have always hated them when they go bad firmware wise. So go to the Website Support page for your firmware and download the correct one for you model number which is best using the service tag or serial number on the laptops backside. Sorry for the late delay. I didn't get any notification to my e-mail for some odd reason. Just remember i will not be held responsible for any damage to your hardware etc or causing a fire in your house, its at your own risk. 7Zip download page: http://www.7-zip.org/
