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HP Compaq nx6110

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by indijudge

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Hi I have a nx6110 laptop and when i turn it on it freezes a hp invent screen. Will not let me do F10 rom based setup.

Can some please advise what the problem could be.

Thanks
Indi

25 replies

by nepenthe0

From your brief post, this is what I undersand:

1) You have an HP NX6110 laptop

http://tinyurl.com/3ebwnh

2) Upon powerup, you see the HP logo on the monitor

3) You cannot access the BIOS menu

From these brief facts, I infer that the monitor works, that there is some power to the motherboard/BIOS because you see the HP logo, but that booting stops at this point.

My first thought is a failed battery. If so, the voltage across the battery terminals should be [b]much[/b] less than the operating voltage printed on the battery label.

It is also possible that the CMOS battery is virtually dead. However, I would test the operating battery before opening the laptop to check the CMOS battery.

Measure the battery voltage, compare with operating voltage, and post back in this thread with the results of your testing.

Rick/Portland, OR

by older mycroft

That would explain why 'F10' doesn't work and perhaps why the boot is stalling.

Try using a USB keyboard ?

by oh smeg

Blown Keyboard Interfaces in Compaq's lately.

Keys just stop working without reason on both the built in Keyboard and on a Known Good one that I plug in. I had 3 of these last week alone and they where not the first ones that I've seen recently.

Col

by nepenthe0

Why will booting halt with a failed keyboard? Must the BIOS [i]see[/i] a responding piece of input hardware to proceed?

Rick/Portland, OR

by older mycroft

Take an old desktop / tower PC with 2 sockets of the PS/2 variety, one for keyboard - one for mouse.

Unplug either of them and boot up.

System will halt when missing item is encountered. Usually accompanied by horrendous squealing from the inboard PC speaker.

[i]The mouse problem won't occur with a laptop due to the onboard touchpad replacing its function[/i].

I posted last year with one of these HP laptops and drove Smeg and True Blue almost to the brink of madness attempting to procure keyboard/touchpad drivers that would work.

I never did get to the bottom of the problem and fobbed the User off with a USB keyboard which worked.

I later heard that the USB keyboard gave up the ghost a couple of weeks down the line, but thankfully the User didn't bring it back to me for repair. ;)

<[i]Afterthought[/i]>

by nepenthe0

My prior Sony desktop with PS-2 keyboard/mouse ports would not recognize a USB keyboard during booting. To access the BIOS, I had to connect a PS-2 keyboard and tap F2 after power-on.

But with no PS-2 keyboard attached, it always booted fine. That's why I'm perplexed about the situation presented here. When my BIOS energized the PS-2 port and saw nothing attached, booting proceeded anyway.

Rick/Portland, OR

by oh smeg

If it's set to stop on all Errors it halts and displays a error message with an audible alert. You then need to press a Key generally F1 to continue which is a pain if the keyboard has died. :D

This can be circumvented if the BIOS is set to Not Stop on all Errors but by default all the ones that I've ever seen are set to Stop on all Errors.

I don't think that the nasty OM who drove me to despair with looking for some HP drivers a long time ago made any mention of that. :D

Col

by older mycroft

Therefore the keyboard wasn't needed.

I doubt you would have had much success plugging in any PS/2 gear AFTER powering up either.

I've always thought the safe route was to attach PS/2 equipment [b]before[/b] booting.

Chances are your old SONY desktop had 'USB legacy support' disabled in the BIOS. Or didn't have ANY legacy support until the OS had loaded.

by thumbsup2

.... there was a setting in the BIOS to (1) halt on all errors, (2) halt on all errors except keyboard, or (3) don't halt on any errors. The first option, of course, would halt the system if no keyboard was found and was usually the default setting.

by nepenthe0

It's so frustrating when trying to give advice and the person posting imparts so little information.

Sometimes I have wondered whether a troubleshooting algorithm could be constructed for various pathological symptoms, but there are so many variations, such as the 3 BIOS settings [i]Thumbs Up[/i] just described, that the algorithm would quickly become so complex as to be unreadable and functionally worthless.

Curiously, computer algorithms for medical diagnosis have never prospered. They require such extensive input, that by the time you have supplied all the requisite information (symptoms, physical findings, results of lab tests) you already know the diagnosis.

So there is no substitute for plain old [b]experience[/b]. That's why you, Old Mycroft, OH Smeg, True Blue will always be better positioned to give advice, and why y'all must continue to participate in TR, so that your arduously acquired knowledge trickles down to those of us still scrambling in confusion...

Rick/Portland, OR

by oh smeg

A lot of the Medical Diagnostic Software was never intended for Trained Medical Practitioners but for students or other less qualified people who would then find a possible Diagnosis and with backup support provide a treatment.

I'm not aware of any Medical Software specifically written for Qualified Medical Practitioners in that field as such. I've seen a lot used by Qualified Surgeons in the field who are unable to pass a patient on to the correct specialist. Military Doctors and Doctors in places like Rwanda used this type of thing a lot they where highly qualified in their own fields but not a Over All Specialist so they needed advice on how to proceed when they got hit with a nasty one.

I was supporting a Dr in Rwanda a long time ago and he got hit with a kid who was shoved into a fire and had his scalp burnt away. When he hit the hospital the wound was infected and the Bone in the Skull was dead on the top few layers so a simple Skin Graft wasn't going to help. The solution there was to grab a Bone Scrapper and chisel away the bone till it started bleeding and then do a Skin Graft. The kid survived for the 18 months that the Surgeon that I know was there but he never grew any hair on his head again. :D

But back then we where going crazy looking for something that would help the Doctors on Site there rather than needing to call home for advice. We got some Diagnostic Software part way written but it was never going to be good enough for their requirements. I'm not sure if this was even developed any further latter but it if finished was going to be a very specialized piece of software that would only benefit Surgeons. Still I suppose there isn't much use for things like that and now days with Satellite Phones it's not really necessary as Help is now just a phone call away when required.

But in places like was it Borneo where the Cyclone hit or China after the earthquake things like that would be useful to the people on site who need to treat or stabilize the injured before they can be moved onto better care. Or need to hold injured till transport can be organized to better/less damaged facilities.

Col

by nepenthe0

There was no security assigned. I thoroughly scrutinized that BIOS menu, because I was curious about how it was configured. No USB option was listed. The 3 boot devices were:

Floppy Disk
CD/DVD
Hard Drive

Later it occurred to me that I might be able to fool the BIOS by using a USB/PS-2 adapter and connecting my USB keyboard to the PS-2 port that way, but I never got a chance to test this theory. After 6 years of hard use, the poor old Sony desktop was simply becoming obsolete, so it got replaced.

Of all the problems I've eventually resolved with computers, the most frustrating for me was the inability to boot into the BIOS using a USB keyboard on that computer which didn't recognize USB input device in the BIOS. Aaaarrrrgghhhhh!

I felt so stupid when I finally figured out what was happening. Now I don't feel so stupid, because lots of other folks have encountered the same frustration...

Rick/Portland, OR

by oh smeg

That dark hole you are crawling into is that the same one you are digging to avoid Tigger 2? B-)

Well I've got news for you, you will not reach AU you'll end up in the middle of the ocean unless you don't dig straight. :D

Laser Sighting equipment here will make you very wet eventually. :^0

Col

[i]Now who's deleted that Angelic Emotion when I need it. :0

by older mycroft

People here in Blighty have believed for, oh Donkey's Years, that Austral-Asia is directly below them. A long, long way below them admittedly, but nevertheless simply straight down.

You understand that the majority of these believers were all utter crap at Geography while in school, and don't have sufficient butternut-squash to become proficient in the use of Google Earth, so they have lived their blissful lives in equally blissful ignorance.

But now that you have laid the path for all the Search Engine crawl-bots and Google-spiders, the SECRET'S OUT!

I'm off to get the phone number of International Rescue coz I want to borrow that machine of their's - The Mole.

Next you'll be telling me that 'Thunderbirds' is just a TV show and that they're all puppets!!!! :^0

by rob miners

Reseating the RAM may resolve this issue. On most notebook PCs, removing and reinserting the memory is a simple step and does not require advanced technical knowledge of the computer.

Remove the battery
Slide and hold the battery release latch to the unlock position.
Use your finger to lift the battery up and out.
Remove the memory module
Locate the memory module cover on the bottom of the notebook.
Remove the screw that covers the memory module.
Use your finger or a flat head screw driver to lift the inside edge of the memory module and remove it.
Push both tabs outward simultaneously to release the memory module.
Grasp the memory module by the edges and pull gently to remove it.
After removing one module, reseat the other module and replace the memory expansion cover and then replace the screw.
Replace the battery.
Insert the battery into the notebook.
Push the battery into the base enclosure until you hear a click.
Connect the AC adapter and turn on the notebook.
You may have to repeat these steps if there are two memory modules. Swap them around.

by oh smeg

Of course the Thunderbirds are real how dare you call them Puppets. X-(

Not only are they real but so is all their equipment and Gerry Anderson just made that TV Show with Puppets to hide their true identity. I know this because in the Gulf War I saw a piece of International Rescue equipment used by the Russians on loan from International Rescue to put out the burning oil wells. They cunningly discussed the Oil Well Extinguisher by making it look like an old tank with the turret removed and then claimed that they had 2 MIG motors mounted on it which they injected Water into the Jet Wash to put out the fires and cool the place down. This Piece of IR equipment was so effective in putting out the burning oil wells that they finished way ahead of the projected time and then it was never seen again because IR took it back and haven't loaned it out again.

The Americans could have had a loan of it but they knew better and tried to blow up everything which didn't work but the Firecrackers sounded so good. :D

Col

by oh smeg

So download the service Manual for this model from here

http://tinyurl.com/6mpboc

and start off by removing the battery and plugging into the Mains and then try to start after it has been plugged in for about 45 minutes and see what if anything happens.

You can work your way through the service manual to try to fault find this computer.

Col

by piratenmartin

Hey Everyone,

I am trying to fix a friends notebook which has the same issue.
When turned on it shows only a screen saying HP invent, F10=ROM Based Setup and showing the centrino logo. One time the centrino logo was replaced with a pentium m logo ... Don't ask me why. The next time it was turned on the centrino logo was showing again.

Here's what I tried:
- Pressed F10 - no reaction
- Pressed F1 - no reaction
- Replaced RAM - no difference
- Removed optical drive - no difference
- Removed harddrive - no difference
- Battery voltage is roughly 11V (10V nominal and no load)
- USB Keyboard was (of course) not activated

As of now I don't know what to try next ... any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Martin

by charliespencer

My problem turned out to be bad hard drive and / or controller. I know it sounds unlikely but here's how I troubleshot (troubleshooted?) it.

Take the hard drive out and see if get into the F10 BIOS screen. If you can, the HD may be bad.

Leave the HD out and insert a boot CD in the optical drive. If the system won't boot from the CD, the drive controller may have gone out on you. If it will boot from the CD, the controller is probably good.

If you have another laptop available, try the nx6110's hard drive in the other system. If the other system boots, the problem is definitely in the controller and not the drive.

I had to return the unit for repairs under warranty.

by piratenmartin

Dear Palmetto,

thank you for your reply. I tried what you suggested and at first everything seemed to work out:
I took out the HD and could then go on to the Bios through pressing F10.
Next thing I did was inserting a LiveCD and exiting the Bios settings. The CD was accelerated but the computer didn't boot from it.
I shut down the computer and tried to boot from the CD again: Same problem, CD spun up but computer didn't boot from it.
I tried to get back the Bios settings by removing the CD and rebooting but couldn't get there again, even after numerous tries.

Is there anybody who can explain this behaviour? It seems odd to me that the computer seems to behave differently each time I turn it on (centrino/pentium mobile logo in my previous post and now the F10 working and not).

Greetings from Berlin,

Martin

by piratenmartin

Dear Peconet,

thank you for your answer. The link you posted leads to an audio driver for WinXP, and I don't see how the driver could be of any help getting the notebook to boot again?
I think I must have misunderstood you, maybe you can clarify your thoughts?

Thank you in advance,

Martin

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