HP 625 - Black Screen / Not Starting

Hey all,

I was asked to take a look at a laptop that had fizzled out. A friend of a family member, and the information I got given was that the last things done to it were a RAM upgrade, which was followed by a BIOS update.

The BIOS update is apparently the last thing done before the system stopped working. I have no way of really confirming how true any of this is as sadly the owners are not the most computer literate. (I assumed such when they told me their HDD size when I asked about RAM.)

I hooked the machine up, attempted to boot and got absolutely no response. The fan does not start and the computer merely displays a black screen. The power LED does come on though.

I noticed Capslock was on permanently every time I tried booting. I tried resetting the power by disconnecting the battery and charger followed by holding the power in for awhile, and tried again. Since then capslock has started giving proper error code flashes. So this was at least something fixed..

At current Capslock flashes five times which according to HP's error codes is a "General hardware failure". I've tried leaving the CMOS battery out for 24 hours, and that changed nothing.

Any ideas? Suggestions?

Could it be the RAM? Something screwy because of the BIOS update? CPU? Motherboard?

Jeronkey

 

Time for them to get a new machine.