HP Pavilion ZE 4900 Will Not Boot

jhenndog · 08-12-2008, 03:28 PM

I have had a ZE4900 for several years with few problems and like the machine.

I decided to buy a second ZE4900 as a backup on EBay. Found one with no hard drive and a problem with the indicator lights which I got for less than $90.

Out of the box it looked great stickers still on it next to touch pad. Plugged in the PSU and the power switch board lights came on when I had not yet touched the ON/OFF switch. None of the other indicator lights came on. Audio panel light would not go on with activation of audio switch, no touch pad indicator light, no light indicating AC power, no light on wireless card.

When I touched the ON/OFF switch to turn it off it stayed on. I then held it down for about 5 sec. and it shutdown. Sort of strange, but decided to do the obvious things, unplugged PSU, removed battery replaced the memory stick with one I knew was good, mounted the HD from my other ZE4900, put in XP OS disk in drive.

Plugged in the PSU and again without touching switch the board lit up. All the device lights indicated above did not light. HD light flickered twice and then CD drive started ran for 15-20 seconds and quit.

No beeps or video. I repeated this several times using the PSU from my other unit. All with the same result, but noticed the fan didn't move during the power up cycle attempts. Looked closely at the power jack but found no change with any slight movement of power cord during start up tries. Connected CRT but still no video

Downloaded HP Service Manual and began to tear down the unit expecting to find evidence of a liquid spill or a broken electrical connection or a short. Found nothing but kept going. Fan connection to mobo was tight, powered up the mobo for a bit of time, but fan never activated. Removed heat sink and was surprised by the fan blades being so clean on a 2-3 year old computer. NO dust at all. Could it be the fan failed soon after the computer was bought and the repeated high temps cooked the mobo or the CPU? Found nothing to suggest that happened. Remounted CPU, fresh thermal paste and put everything back together.

Nothing has changed except that I have joined you group and have read a number of posts that were dealing boot up /power problems. I did one test that was in a TSF post. I removed the switch board connections and plugged in the power supply. HD flickered twice, then disk drive came up and ran 15-20 seconds and quit.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated?

**TriggerFinger** · 08-12-2008, 04:09 PM

Hi,

It looks like corrupt BIOS or worse a dead motherboard. Try resetting the CMOS. Remove the CMOS battery or do a system reset:

Remove battery and AC adapter then press and hold power ON button for 30 secs. atleast.
Put back the battery and plug back the AC adapter then power ON as normal.

If that does not help replace the power board (where the power switch is located). If problem persists consider motherboard replacement.

jhenndog · 08-13-2008, 07:01 PM

TriggerFinger:

I have tried the reset function a couple of times and no change in the outcome. I swapped the switch board with my other 4900 which works fine, but no change in outcome. I also swapped the keyboard and again no change. Since it is easy to do another taredown to get to the CMOS battery, do you think that will provide any more clues having done the reset function with no change? When I had the mobo out, I did a quick reheat of the DC jack connections as well but again no change in the outcome.

I think your conclusion in your post is right. There is a BIOS problem which is aborting the POST start up run. I am unsure if the BIOS chip is socketed or soldered. The HDs, I have inserted are both NFTS one which has XP SP3, which runs fine in my other 4900. Should I reformat the blank HD to FAT32, since I don't get any video as an indication of error messages? Could a blank HD in FAT32 format cause the recovery disk to reload XP? Yes, I also did the 30 second "no power" electrical drain procedure.

Could it be the BIOS is looking for a FAT32 format? Yet it doesn't boot from the recovery disk.

In the end for the little money I have invested in this second 4900, buying a pulled mobo isn't out of the question since I can install it myself.

I want to thank you for your insights and response. This is a great site!

jhenndog

**TriggerFinger** · 08-13-2008, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhenndog

TriggerFinger:

I have tried the reset function a couple of times and no change in the outcome. I swapped the switch board with my other 4900 which works fine, but no change in outcome. I also swapped the keyboard and again no change. Since it is easy to do another taredown to get to the CMOS battery, do you think that will provide any more clues having done the reset function with no change? When I had the mobo out, I did a quick reheat of the DC jack connections as well but again no change in the outcome.

I think your conclusion in your post is right. There is a BIOS problem which is aborting the POST start up run. I am unsure if the BIOS chip is socketed or soldered. -- my guess is it is soldered and I think it is located near the WiFi card. Open one of the doors on the bottom side. One of the doors is for the RAM, the other one is for the WiFi card... try that one.

The HDs, I have inserted are both NFTS one which has XP SP3, which runs fine in my other 4900. Should I reformat the blank HD to FAT32, since I don't get any video as an indication of error messages? -- I do not think that would help. A corrupt BIOS or a dead motherboard would still give out the same symptoms with or without a hard drive (yes, symptoms including a blank screen). Could a blank HD in FAT32 format cause the recovery disk to reload XP? -- same as my reply above. But if you want to pursue just for curiosity's sake try booting with an XP install CD (with or without an HDD installed).. if you get anything on screen then may be it is not a corrupt BIOS or motherboard problem after all.

Could it be the BIOS is looking for a FAT32 format? Yet it doesn't boot from the recovery disk. -- same as my reply above.

In the end for the little money I have invested in this second 4900, buying a pulled mobo isn't out of the question.

I want to thank you for your insights and response. This is a great site!

jhenndog

08-12-2008, 03:28 PM	#1 (permalink)
jhenndog Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: NJ, USA Posts: 2 OS: XP SP3	HP Pavilion ZE 4900 Will Not Boot I have had a ZE4900 for several years with few problems and like the machine. I decided to buy a second ZE4900 as a backup on EBay. Found one with no hard drive and a problem with the indicator lights which I got for less than $90. Out of the box it looked great stickers still on it next to touch pad. Plugged in the PSU and the power switch board lights came on when I had not yet touched the ON/OFF switch. None of the other indicator lights came on. Audio panel light would not go on with activation of audio switch, no touch pad indicator light, no light indicating AC power, no light on wireless card. When I touched the ON/OFF switch to turn it off it stayed on. I then held it down for about 5 sec. and it shutdown. Sort of strange, but decided to do the obvious things, unplugged PSU, removed battery replaced the memory stick with one I knew was good, mounted the HD from my other ZE4900, put in XP OS disk in drive. Plugged in the PSU and again without touching switch the board lit up. All the device lights indicated above did not light. HD light flickered twice and then CD drive started ran for 15-20 seconds and quit. No beeps or video. I repeated this several times using the PSU from my other unit. All with the same result, but noticed the fan didn't move during the power up cycle attempts. Looked closely at the power jack but found no change with any slight movement of power cord during start up tries. Connected CRT but still no video Downloaded HP Service Manual and began to tear down the unit expecting to find evidence of a liquid spill or a broken electrical connection or a short. Found nothing but kept going. Fan connection to mobo was tight, powered up the mobo for a bit of time, but fan never activated. Removed heat sink and was surprised by the fan blades being so clean on a 2-3 year old computer. NO dust at all. Could it be the fan failed soon after the computer was bought and the repeated high temps cooked the mobo or the CPU? Found nothing to suggest that happened. Remounted CPU, fresh thermal paste and put everything back together. Nothing has changed except that I have joined you group and have read a number of posts that were dealing boot up /power problems. I did one test that was in a TSF post. I removed the switch board connections and plugged in the power supply. HD flickered twice, then disk drive came up and ran 15-20 seconds and quit. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated?

08-12-2008, 04:09 PM	#2 (permalink)
TriggerFinger Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: USA Posts: 11,851 OS: Vista SP1, XP SP3, PCLinuxOS2007	Re: HP Pavilion ZE 4900 Will Not Boot Hi, It looks like corrupt BIOS or worse a dead motherboard. Try resetting the CMOS. Remove the CMOS battery or do a system reset: Remove battery and AC adapter then press and hold power ON button for 30 secs. atleast. Put back the battery and plug back the AC adapter then power ON as normal. If that does not help replace the power board (where the power switch is located). If problem persists consider motherboard replacement. __________________ DBAN - Memtest86+ - BartPE - Linux LiveCD - ImgBurn - HDD Diags - Disk Copy HOW TO BURN AN ISO FILE

08-13-2008, 07:01 PM	#3 (permalink)
jhenndog Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: NJ, USA Posts: 2 OS: XP SP3	Re: HP Pavilion ZE 4900 Will Not Boot TriggerFinger: I have tried the reset function a couple of times and no change in the outcome. I swapped the switch board with my other 4900 which works fine, but no change in outcome. I also swapped the keyboard and again no change. Since it is easy to do another taredown to get to the CMOS battery, do you think that will provide any more clues having done the reset function with no change? When I had the mobo out, I did a quick reheat of the DC jack connections as well but again no change in the outcome. I think your conclusion in your post is right. There is a BIOS problem which is aborting the POST start up run. I am unsure if the BIOS chip is socketed or soldered. The HDs, I have inserted are both NFTS one which has XP SP3, which runs fine in my other 4900. Should I reformat the blank HD to FAT32, since I don't get any video as an indication of error messages? Could a blank HD in FAT32 format cause the recovery disk to reload XP? Yes, I also did the 30 second "no power" electrical drain procedure. Could it be the BIOS is looking for a FAT32 format? Yet it doesn't boot from the recovery disk. In the end for the little money I have invested in this second 4900, buying a pulled mobo isn't out of the question since I can install it myself. I want to thank you for your insights and response. This is a great site! jhenndog Last edited by jhenndog; 08-13-2008 at 07:11 PM.