HP g42 screen not turing on caps lock blinking 5 times

[shayned1997]

My dads laptop is acting funny. Sometimes it wont turn on and just blinks the caps lock 5 times stops then starts again anyone able to help?

[1hitwonder]

Forgive me but I haven't read the rules to the forum so I will air on the side of caution and not post an external link.  If someone can let me know if its ok to post a link to an official HP site I will but to answer your question 5 blinking lights near caps lock or num lock signify a system board failure.   I woiuld suggest to check on warranty information on the laptop and go from there.

 

It is odd that it only happends some of the time, but I believe your problem is a loose connection somewhere on the system board.  

[TDP_Equinox]

Forgive me but I haven't read the rules to the forum so I will air on the side of caution and not post an external link.  If someone can let me know if its ok to post a link to an official HP site I will but to answer your question 5 blinking lights near caps lock or num lock signify a system board failure.   I woiuld suggest to check on warranty information on the laptop and go from there.

 

It is odd that it only happends some of the time, but I believe your problem is a loose connection somewhere on the system board.  

it is totally fine to post any link that isnt to something illegal.

If you post a pornhub link, or a link to a website about killing babies or something, you might get into trouble. But for the most part, it is fine to post links.

 

[SlayerOfHellWyrm]

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c01732674&product=1132551#N213

 

One thing that prevents me from loathing HP, is they have well documented "beep" codes for laptops. Says it's a mainboard failure, general. Could be a lose connection, or a short, or a lose GPU (common with older HP machines).

[1hitwonder]

it is totally fine to post any link that isnt to something illegal.

If you post a pornhub link, or a link to a website about killing babies or something, you might get into trouble. But for the most part, it is fine to post links.

 

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c01732674&product=1132551#N213

 

One thing that prevents me from loathing HP, is they have well documented "beep" codes for laptops. Says it's a mainboard failure, general. Could be a lose connection, or a short, or a lose GPU (common with older HP machines).

That is the site i was looking at, HP does document beep/blink codes very well.   I would be willing to bet that it is a lose connection on the motherboard somewhere, if it were a component failure it would do this repeatidly and not off and on. How old is the laptop?  Is it covered yet under a warranty?

[shayned1997]

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

That is the site i was looking at, HP does document beep/blink codes very well.   I would be willing to bet that it is a lose connection on the motherboard somewhere, if it were a component failure it would do this repeatidly and not off and on. How old is the laptop?  Is it covered yet under a warranty?

no it has some years on it its older but not old lol if that makes sense. Its very much out of warranty. I can crack open the laptop where should i check for connections

[1hitwonder]

no it has some years on it its older but not old lol if that makes sense. Its very much out of warranty. I can crack open the laptop where should i check for connections

The loose connection could be anywhere, it also may look connected but not very well.  I'm afraid it would be nearly impossible to figure out the faulty connection without volt meter's and being able to test each connection...  If the laptop doesn't boot at all as a last effort you could try wrapping it in a towel and letting it run for awhile. 

 

Here is a link to a forum post of someone with the 5 blink code...  Many people report it worked for them, but I can't stress enough that this can quite possibly break EVERYTHING.  This technique basically overheats the laptop to the point that it melts soder points which will hopefully cool and reconnect whatever is giving you problems..

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-Systems-and-Software/Laptop-not-booting-and-CAPS-lock-blinking/td-p/1539973  

[TDP_Equinox]

The loose connection could be anywhere, it also may look connected but not very well.  I'm afraid it would be nearly impossible to figure out the faulty connection without volt meter's and being able to test each connection...  If the laptop doesn't boot at all as a last effort you could try wrapping it in a towel and letting it run for awhile. 

 

Here is a link to a forum post of someone with the 5 blink code...  Many people report it worked for them, but I can't stress enough that this can quite possibly break EVERYTHING.  This technique basically overheats the laptop to the point that it melts soder points which will hopefully cool and reconnect whatever is giving you problems..

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-Systems-and-Software/Laptop-not-booting-and-CAPS-lock-blinking/td-p/1539973  

while in theory that is an okay idea, i highly recommend you stay away from it.

Even if the laptop could get hot enough to melt the solder ((183 °C or 361.4 °F) it would get hot enough to destroy pretty much everything else.

That includes the hard drive, yes the hard drive, plastic connectors, the entire plastic frame, keyboard, keyboard rubber dome tops, ect.

it can also do serious damage to your CPU, more so if you have a copper heatsink (holds on to more heat for a longer amount of time.) and you are basically going to destroy your laptop.

That is, if it can even reach the melting point of plastic. With the many types of plastic on a laptop, that could be anywhere from 90C to 260C. 

Seriously a bad idea to put your laptop in a towel.

[SlayerOfHellWyrm]

while in theory that is an okay idea, i highly recommend you stay away from it.

Even if the laptop could get hot enough to melt the solder ((183 °C or 361.4 °F) it would get hot enough to destroy pretty much everything else.

That includes the hard drive, yes the hard drive, plastic connectors, the entire plastic frame, keyboard, keyboard rubber dome tops, ect.

it can also do serious damage to your CPU, more so if you have a copper heatsink (holds on to more heat for a longer amount of time.) and you are basically going to destroy your laptop.

That is, if it can even reach the melting point of plastic. With the many types of plastic on a laptop, that could be anywhere from 90C to 260C. 

Seriously a bad idea to put your laptop in a towel.

Yeah, it won't reach the required temps to melt solder before auto-shutting down. Once the CPU hit's TJMax, and can't continue throttling down due to chassis sensors reading high temps, it'll shut off to protect itself. If you could attain the heat required, you're risking igniting the sweater, or, if you do get the solder to melt, shorting out every single contact since you're not targeting any specific area. Wrapping a working computer up to heat it up, or baking a motherboard, or any component, is always a stupid idea, and if people do it, they deserve the consequences.