Presario CQ56 BIOS Error (90B)

[Altster]

All:

I made the following posting in the HP forums after reading all I could find there (HP Forums) regarding this problem. I thought I'd share this with all of you to see if anyone has any other ideas about the problem my customer is having.

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System Info:
Compaq Presario CQ56-219WM (Laptop)
s/n: {Personal Information Removed}
Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium
BIOS version F.15
BIOS vendor Insyde

Consistently getting Bios Error (90B) during warm / cold-startup of laptop computer (Black Screen Boot)

New fan/heatsink replaced 8/6/2013

Have tried Hard Reset - did not fix issue. I have not found a newer BIOS update available for this issue.

The computer is up-to-date (Windows updates). As mentioned above, the error only shows when the unit is either re-booted or first turned on. The fan is currently running quite fast.

I need to know from the experts here as to what could be causing this issue to continually "scare the customer / owner" of this computer AND if it could possibly be related to a main / system board of the laptop?

HP Support Assistant doesn't make any specific mention of this error other than on "1/24/2012" there was "Informational: Reducing Heat and Fan Noise by Clearing Air Vents." Next error was repeated today, 8/7/2013 AFTER heatsink / fan ass'y. was replaced.

Thanks for listening.

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[NYJimbo]

I had one a while back and the final diag was a sensor was probably bad on the mobo. HP said the sensor is detecting speed info from the fan that is below acceptable but even after replacing with a brand new fan we had the same error.

It can only be the fan or the sensor. If it's the sensor that would have to be replaced (I do not know what chip it would be in this case) or the mobo replaced.

HP stuck to their guns that it was the fan but common sense was it could not be BOTH fans, especially when the new one was running perfectly.

I explained all this to the customer and how it could fail at some point but the other options were fix or replace costly mobo. The customer just paid for diag and lived with the error.

 

[Altster]

I had one a while back and the final diag was a sensor was probably bad on the mobo. HP said the sensor is detecting speed info from the fan that is below acceptable but even after replacing with a brand new fan we had the same error.

It can only be the fan or the sensor. If it's the sensor that would have to be replaced (I do not know what chip it would be in this case) or the mobo replaced.

I agree with you on this and bet anything that it is the sensor on the mobo!

Since the customer brought this in for a checkup I also found that his AV had not been ran for over 500 days (duhhh!) and he had not paid for it (Norton) so I un-installed it using the Norton un-installer. I then installed MS Essentials and ran a full scan (all files which took forever!) and of course MS Essentials found issues and fixed 'em!

I've also explained to the client that the computer is still usable and that he or whomever is using it should pay attention to the fan and always use the laptop on a firm & hard surface so as to get good airflow across the heatsink.

 

[NYJimbo]

I just got a HP DV6-7135 (Beats audio) this morning with the same 90b. Fan is working fine.

I'm going to poke around a bit on the web, something weird is going on and there must be more info on why we see this if the fan is ok. I can't believe that HP/Compaq is making so many machines with this error yet nobody else seems to have it. Could it be a real chip error or something stupid in HP's BIOS's.

 

[mikeroq]

Had a G62 recently, or was it another model, can't recall. It would get hot and shutdown. Seems like there is something wrong with the fan controller. Sometimes 90B other times after it shuts off it has one saying the temp was too high. Fan is fine, except it doesn't run all the time, reflashed the BIOS and cleared CMOS. I hate HP laptops with a passion, I'll never buy one. I don't even know if I would buy an elitebook. The only laptop I want to buy is an Asus or Lenovo.