HP Stream no boot device

[JoeTech]

I had a customer fall for a tech support scam and after they refuse to pay, the scammer did something and then the laptop shutdown and now their laptop won't boot. It gives a message that no boot device available. I booted into windows pe from my usb and also in linux and it doesn't show a hard drive. Even in the bios there is no hard drive listed.

It is an hp stream 11-y020wm that uses a 32gb eMMC flash memory drive as storage. I can't do a factory restore or reload windows 10 because it can't find a hard drive. It seems like whatever the scammer did he wiped out the flash drive. Is the customer out of luck or is there anything that can be done to fix this?

 

[GTP]

Can you reflash the BIOS? Is there an option in BIOS to restore or set BIOS to defaults? Can you unplug power adapter, remove the unit battery and the CMOS battery for an hour or so. This should clear any BIOS settings they may have altered.
They may have written a firmware to the eMMC chip, in which case you would need to replace it? (and if it's soldered onto the Mainboard your probably screwed.)

How to restore BIOS with keypress on HP Computers

BIOS Info

 

[glennd]

But first you should pull the HDD and put it in your dock or another known working computer to see if it's ok.

 

[GTP]

But first you should pull the HDD and put it in your dock or another known working computer to see if it's ok.

Has a 32GB eMMC Flash drive that I think is actually soldered onto the Mainboard?

 

[glennd]

Has a 32GB eMMC Flash drive that I think is actually soldered onto the Mainboard?

oh, I missed that. I just googled that model and I wouldn't spend too much time on it.

 

[JoeTech]

I tried resetting the bios to default settings. I can try and flash the bios and see if that works.Otherwise they have a nice paperweight and reminder to hang up the phone next time.

 

[Porthos]

Basically with those models the price you should be charging to fix it would be almost as much as replacing it.

 

[JoeTech]

Basically with those models the price you should be charging to fix it would be almost as much as replacing it.

They got it on a black friday deal for $100 so it would be more to fix then replace but they don't seem to care about that.

 

[FremontPC]

I didn't see anything in the bios that called out the SSD in particular, just an entry for boot order that mentioned "Notebook Hard Drive" or the like. Gparted didn't see the drive at all?

 

[JoeTech]

When I boot into parted magic from my usb drive. Gparted only shows my 16 gb flash drive partitions and nothing else.

 

[Porthos]

but they don't seem to care about that.

If a client does not trust you or your recommendations then either order them a replacement one on Amazon and charge them accordingly or tell them you cant fix it and give it back.

Have you tried to boot it from a win 10 PE disk?

 

[JoeTech]

It's not that they don't trust me, it's just they are older and still have the mindset that you repair things not replace them. A windows 10 PE disk was the first thing I tried. It looks like if they still want this type of laptop, I will have to go the amazon route you mentioned and charge them accordingly.

I didn't think it was possible for a scammer to do this, but I guess they must have been pretty mean to him. I'm more interested in how the scammer did this, then trying to fix it at this point.

 

[FremontPC]

I can't imagine how a scammer could do that. You can't remote into bios afaik. Maybe they forced a bios update with the wrong version?

I guess these things might accept a mSATA in the wifi card slot and you could get them a usb wifi dongle, if they insist on fixing the old one.

 

[HCHTech]

Agree - I can't imagine how a remote user could somehow render the boot drive unavailable. Sounds like an unlucky coincidence.

 

[Porthos]

Sounds like an unlucky coincidence.

This.

 

[JoeTech]

Agree - I can't imagine how a remote user could somehow render the boot drive unavailable. Sounds like an unlucky coincidence.

Never thought of that but considering how cheaply made they are it seems like the most likely scenario now.

 

[FremontPC]

I suppose Secure Boot might have something to do with this? I know non-efi drives won't show up in EFI boot schemes (in Boot Options), so maybe the EFI partition got blown away somehow? I wouldn't expect that to extend to Linux though.

 

[FremontPC]

I'm seeing similar issues on the web where there's a problem with the eMMC controller. Perhaps one of the DR guys would have a clue about this.

 

[JoeTech]

Found out it was still under warranty and talked to HP support. It sounds like they are probably going to cover it under warranty if it is indeed a coincidence and a hardware failure.

 

[jft135]

Found out it was still under warranty and talked to HP support. It sounds like they are probably going to cover it under warranty if it is indeed a coincidence and a hardware failure.

This is most likely your problem. They're pieces of junk. I have a stack of them in the "boneyard" in back.