HP Laptop (Seemingly) Random Behavior

[donaldctu]

HP Envy Sleekbook Laptop W10
1.6GHz 4th generation Intel Core i5-4200U Processor with Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz
8GB DDR3 SDRAM (2 DIMM)
SSD drive

- Battery will, seemingly at random, go undetected. Computer will still continue to run and perform normally, but battery icon in corner will show an X. Rebooting the computer will solve this issue.

Seems simple enough to reboot. Except:

- When you reboot this machine, 1 out of every 5 or 6 times, it will not boot. No HP logo, nothing. The screen will light up, but remain black. Power on/off a few times and it will boot up just fine. Load OS and act like nothing has happened.

Things we've tried so far:
- Updated Bios
- Swapped HDD's, SSD's
- Updated any/all drivers
- Ran HP's check (did not find anything)
- Reinstalled original OS (W8) thinking maybe it was W10 problem. Made no difference.

I'm probably forgetting a few items, we've had this machine for a little bit now.

Any other suggestions for ways to curb either of these items?

 

[MichaelBits]

Have you run a battery check to check its charge condition?
Have another battery you can test in the laptop?

 

[donaldctu]

Have you run a battery check to check its charge condition?
Have another battery you can test in the laptop?

Yes, we've done a couple different tests/checks on the battery. No results indicated anything was wrong with the battery.

I should also mention the battery holds charge normally.

I do not currently have another battery I could test on this machine.

 

[katz]

When you reboot this machine, 1 out of every 5 or 6 times, it will not boot. No HP logo, nothing. The screen will light up, but remain black.

Even w/ a new HD installed? Almost sounds like motherboard issues at this point. You could try booting w/ a boot disk/Linux, etc. several times to see if you can reproduce the black screen, that would rule out software, although I have my doubts that this is software related judging from your comments in your initial post.

 

[Porthos]

Try Turning off fast start.

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-10-a.html

 

[MichaelBits]

If you pull the battery out and reboot several times with no battery, does it still do the no boot after 5 or 6 times?

 

[donaldctu]

Even w/ a new HD installed? Almost sounds like motherboard issues at this point. You could try booting w/ a boot disk/Linux, etc. several times to see if you can reproduce the black screen, that would rule out software, although I have my doubts that this is software related judging from your comments in your initial post.

Yep, original HD was bad, so we replaced it. Thought that would sort out these anomalies, but it did not.

Try Turning off fast start.

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-10-a.html

Trying this out. Thank you.

If you pull the battery out and reboot several times with no battery, does it still do the no boot after 5 or 6 times?

Yes, still happens.

 

[mr m]

I do not currently have another battery I could test on this machine.

All you can do now is swap in a replacement battery before you try a mobo. If it cures the symptom you get paid. If not, you just wasted money on something you will probably never use thanks to an industry that refuses to adopt a universal battery/AC adapter standard. It's a tough call and unfair to the customer but I've told clients in the past that buying a battery for troubleshooting is on them.

Like all batteries, the lithium-ion battery is a consumable. It starts to die as soon as its put into use. Laptop batteries are very complex. They are more than just a + and - terminal. They have a built in thermistor to watch the internal temp. They have an 8 bit bus (SMBus) so the OS can monitor the battery internals. Some manufacturers lock out cheap replacement batteries so even a fully charged battery will not work.

If I were you I'd tell your customer to live with the symptoms.

Here is a command that your browser will display to monitor the batteries health. Run it from a CMD prompt.

>powercfg /batteryreport /output c:\test.html

 

[donaldctu]

If I were you I'd tell your customer to live with the symptoms.

That's the plan.

 

[glennd]

I would have said battery but you say it displays the same set of symptoms without the battery in place so that pretty much leaves the motherboard.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Long shot: replace the CMOS battery. May be a defective BIOS, but it flashed okay so I doubt it. Probably other ICs that talk to/manage/power the BIOS.

 

[AnthonyK]

HP had battery/charger recalls on some models between 2012-2014 that can cause similar issues. Have you checked if this model is affected?
Sounds like the damage is already done though..