Solve : Thinking its Toast, but figured I'd mention here in case any s

1.	Solve : Thinking its Toast, but figured I'd mention here in case any suggestions?
Answer» Customer came up to me with a HP G62-435DX Notebook PC. Laptop doesnt POST and Caps Lock key blinks on and off in about 1 second interval of ON .... OFF.... Checked and Reseated RAM and that didnt help as well as powering it without RAM installed shows same fault. Removed laptop battery and tested it. Tried to power it without battery installed powered just from wall and still same fault. I cant change error condition so it has to be very low level such as bad bios flash etc. If I got a memory beep code etc, at least I'd be able to know how far its GETTING in the POST. Only thing that comes to mind since NO POST is that the BIOS may have been flashed by malware or hacker to kill it ( brick it ). I told the customer that it doesnt look good. Looks like the main board has to be replaced and the cost of doing so is beyond what the laptop is worth. I then suggested that we can place the hard drive into an external enclosure to get access to their data on another computer if they wanted to get their data back. "This is NOT a critical issue since they said its time they upgrade anyways, but figured I'd throw this one on here to see if others have seen this before and found a cause." HP has fault blink/beep code reference and that wasnt much help. Laptop wasnt abused from the looks of it. PRETTY well kept, and the fan spun so it wasnt a tach fault from a seized fan. Google search suggested cooked CPU, and one person claimed to switch the CPU in laptop and that didnt help! A cooked CPU is rare these days with how well thermally protected they are to shut themselves down before critical temp is reached, and some thermal throttle to remain running and not roast.Looks like a few things can cause this:: See Here... Most common one ...RAM or BIOS.Thanks Patio... that's the same page I looked at yesterday. Quote HP has fault blink/beep code reference and that wasnt much help I dont have this laptop to troubleshoot further and checked Ram. Only thing I didn't do was a BIOS RESET. But BIOS reset would show up as a double blink pattern and its a single blink that points at CPU, or something else related to CPU's initialization according to HP reference. I dont have this laptop anymore to troubleshoot further. Just figured I'd throw this on here in case anyone suggests something I didn't try, in case they seen this before. I have the contact info for the customer so I could call them to bring it back for a 2nd try if something is mentioned that suggests potential for success. I searched google for about 15 minutes and came up with a rash of issues for this model that is rated 2.5 of 5 stars. Never seen a laptop rated so low, lowest I seen was 3 stars of 5 prior and that was an ACER netbook. The customer sounds like they are going to buy a new laptop. Probably a good move on her part... PERHAPS let her know she can part it out and sell the bits on craigslist....or (uggghhh) eBay.LOL... yeah she asked me if I wanted it. I said I can take it off your hands if its FREE, but how much do you want for it. She said how about $100. I said its only worth $20 to me as it sits if you take your hard drive. If you sell it with hard drive intact, I can go $40. Could always use a spare 320GB 2.5" SATA drive. She decided to keep it for now and wasn't thrilled that its a not very valuable paperweight. I explained to her that the Laptop was around $450-$500 when new, and if it was running healthy would be worth about $150-$200, but a laptop that wont even post is pretty much a paperweight right now and RAM and Hard Drive are easy to find uses and/or customers for to resell, but the display is less UNIVERSAL and is only worth money to someone who needs that exact replacement which could take a while to sell. She then understood and left with it. Sometimes I feel like I am on Pawn Shop negotiating with people, but I AM NOT the type that if a person says I need change for a dollar, I say the best I can do is 75 cents! LOL ... Saw that one on a facebook post the one day that cracked me up with a picture of the main Pawn Shop TV Show guy on it. I think she was thinking that $100 would take the edge off of the cost of a new laptop, but I would lose on that deal at $100 when at most I can see selling parts and making maybe $20-40 on my initial investment which puts its value at $60-$80 to someone who wants a brick to gut or has a clone with a good main board and busted display etc. And trying to sell something to make $20 to $40 is just about a waste of time to me. In the past I have refurbished servers that I acquired cheap and doubled my money on, but its in the hundreds of dollars not gas money unless you drive a Yukon SUV... LOL I have a fuel sipper Honda Civic EX Thank God with todays fuel prices No complaining: _________________________ ¦Country¦ $ per Gallon¦ ¦United Kingdom ¦ 8.63 ¦ ¦United States ¦ 3.88 ¦ ¦European Union¦ 7.76 ¦ (EU was an average and these are not the most expensive examples) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_and_diesel_usage_and_pricing#Typical_gasoline_prices_around_the_world

Solve : Thinking its Toast, but figured I'd mention here in case any suggestions?

Answer»

Customer came up to me with a HP G62-435DX Notebook PC.
Laptop doesnt POST and Caps Lock key blinks on and off in about 1 second interval of ON .... OFF....
Checked and Reseated RAM and that didnt help as well as powering it without RAM installed shows same fault. Removed laptop battery and tested it. Tried to power it without battery installed powered just from wall and still same fault. I cant change error condition so it has to be very low level such as bad bios flash etc. If I got a memory beep code etc, at least I'd be able to know how far its GETTING in the POST.

Only thing that comes to mind since NO POST is that the BIOS may have been flashed by malware or hacker to kill it ( brick it ). I told the customer that it doesnt look good. Looks like the main board has to be replaced and the cost of doing so is beyond what the laptop is worth.

I then suggested that we can place the hard drive into an external enclosure to get access to their data on another computer if they wanted to get their data back.

"This is NOT a critical issue since they said its time they upgrade anyways, but figured I'd throw this one on here to see if others have seen this before and found a cause." HP has fault blink/beep code reference and that wasnt much help. Laptop wasnt abused from the looks of it. PRETTY well kept, and the fan spun so it wasnt a tach fault from a seized fan. Google search suggested cooked CPU, and one person claimed to switch the CPU in laptop and that didnt help! A cooked CPU is rare these days with how well thermally protected they are to shut themselves down before critical temp is reached, and some thermal throttle to remain running and not roast.Looks like a few things can cause this::

See Here...

Most common one ...RAM or BIOS.Thanks Patio... that's the same page I looked at yesterday.

Quote

HP has fault blink/beep code reference and that wasnt much help

I dont have this laptop to troubleshoot further and checked Ram. Only thing I didn't do was a BIOS RESET. But BIOS reset would show up as a double blink pattern and its a single blink that points at CPU, or something else related to CPU's initialization according to HP reference.

I dont have this laptop anymore to troubleshoot further. Just figured I'd throw this on here in case anyone suggests something I didn't try, in case they seen this before. I have the contact info for the customer so I could call them to bring it back for a 2nd try if something is mentioned that suggests potential for success. I searched google for about 15 minutes and came up with a rash of issues for this model that is rated 2.5 of 5 stars. Never seen a laptop rated so low, lowest I seen was 3 stars of 5 prior and that was an ACER netbook. The customer sounds like they are going to buy a new laptop.

Probably a good move on her part...
PERHAPS let her know she can part it out and sell the bits on craigslist....or (uggghhh) eBay.LOL... yeah she asked me if I wanted it. I said I can take it off your hands if its FREE, but how much do you want for it. She said how about $100. I said its only worth $20 to me as it sits if you take your hard drive. If you sell it with hard drive intact, I can go $40. Could always use a spare 320GB 2.5" SATA drive. She decided to keep it for now and wasn't thrilled that its a not very valuable paperweight. I explained to her that the Laptop was around $450-$500 when new, and if it was running healthy would be worth about $150-$200, but a laptop that wont even post is pretty much a paperweight right now and RAM and Hard Drive are easy to find uses and/or customers for to resell, but the display is less UNIVERSAL and is only worth money to someone who needs that exact replacement which could take a while to sell. She then understood and left with it.

Sometimes I feel like I am on Pawn Shop negotiating with people, but I AM NOT the type that if a person says I need change for a dollar, I say the best I can do is 75 cents! LOL ... Saw that one on a facebook post the one day that cracked me up with a picture of the main Pawn Shop TV Show guy on it.

I think she was thinking that $100 would take the edge off of the cost of a new laptop, but I would lose on that deal at $100 when at most I can see selling parts and making maybe $20-40 on my initial investment which puts its value at $60-$80 to someone who wants a brick to gut or has a clone with a good main board and busted display etc. And trying to sell something to make $20 to $40 is just about a waste of time to me. In the past I have refurbished servers that I acquired cheap and doubled my money on, but its in the hundreds of dollars not gas money unless you drive a Yukon SUV... LOL I have a fuel sipper Honda Civic EX Thank God with todays fuel prices No complaining:
_________________________
¦Country¦ $ per Gallon¦
¦United Kingdom ¦ 8.63 ¦
¦United States ¦ 3.88 ¦
¦European Union¦ 7.76 ¦

(EU was an average and these are not the most expensive examples) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_and_diesel_usage_and_pricing#Typical_gasoline_prices_around_the_world

Solve : Thinking its Toast, but figured I'd mention here in case any suggestions?

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