Pavilion dv6 3122sa Failure to start

[#1]

Hi folks,
My 2 year old laptop by HP has gone into a sulk! It was shut down in the evening as usual but next morning it refused to start. The evidence visible was the Shift Caps indicator lamp was blinking once every 2-3 seconds and the HD lamp was amber. It appears that HP expect to see an error code of 1-8 blinks in a train which is repeated. If that is what I see as a single flash there might be a system failure but the amber HDlamp says that the drive is "parked". The latter suggests that the computer has been dropped which it certainly has not been. Any clues out there?
The HP forum has all sorts of ideas but none exactly what I have, especially the HD lamp, although I have been directed to an HP document giving a re-setting method of fiddling with battery and switch operations which, in my case do not work.
I did raise this problem as a side issue to another problem within Windows but now feel that it was too off-topic there. The laptop is my main machine and its defect is a bit like losing my right hand!!

[#2]

I presume this is the document you you were directed to http://h10010.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=uk&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c02502605
I would suggest you try again.  The procedure seems designed to give the computer amnesia.  To make absolutely sure, hold down the power button for a few seconds at the stage when the battery is removed to drain any residual stored charge.
If that fails you will probably have to send it back to HP to get it fixed. 

[#3]

Thanks R R
You are quite right, I did not quote the reference fully because it was truncated in the post and I did not know all of it. My mind is reluctantly going along the lines that you recommend if no flash of inspiration occurs to someone. I do not hold out much confidence really, I had a paper jam on one of their small photoprinters and their repair qiotation, over and above the cost of sending, was twice the replacment cost of a new one!

[#4]

this "anti shock" system seems to be a good idea, in principle.... just wondering if.....
if you removed the HDD and put it in a caddy on another machine, would it still be "locked" ....
is the system "part of the HDD"  or is it in the BIOS on the machine? 

[#5]

@ R R
Your advice has WORKED! I left the machine for best part of the day (doing chores!!) with the battery removed to make sure that there were no odd volts about and then performed the plugging-in procedure as specified and it has booted up into Windows, just as the HP ref said! I am scribing this on it right now. Congratulations.
@ Shutter
I agree that the idea is good,but my machine had sat here overnight on my desk after being closed down and refused to boot-up the following morning! Unless I have an energetic poltergeist I cannot think why it behaved like it did. I did wonder if the HD actually locked mechanically or, as you suggest, the BIOS was involved. I did have thoughts about a suitable caddy for the HD to see if my old Dell could see the contents but this is merely speculation for the moment. Let us hope not to have to put that in action to satisfy our curiousity!!
Thanks to you both!!!

[#6]

Glad you got it working again... 

[#7]

I've just caught up with this and I'm very pleased to learn that my advice was helpful. 

[#8]

My euphoria was too quick!! Powered up this morning and back to square one! Phone call to HP tomorrow!

[#9]

Possibly a faulty accelerometer thinking the laptop is falling when it isn't, so a chat with HP is probably your best bet.

[#10]

Gremlins?

[#11]

If it's the 'HP Protect Smart hard drive protection' that's causing the trouble. I was offered it as an update for my HP DM1 ages ago, but didn't install it since the PC hardly ever leaves my desk, and there is more than enough bloatware already!
So perhaps if you can get it to start again, uninstalling it might solve the problem?

[#12]

Quote from: ReedRichards

Gremlins?

and the best way to fix those, ... is.......  ? 

[#13]

Don't feed your Mogwai after midnight.
To be serious, I think Scribe has the right idea.  Repeat the 'fix' that worked last time (temporarily) then disable or uninstall the hard drive protection software that is causing the problem to recur.  

[#14]

Sorry for the period of silence.....my old Dell decided to not boot up for some odd reason so I have not had any computer connection to the outside world for a bit.  Contact with techies at HP confirms that the basic problem is that the main processor was in trouble not the HD. They did not recommend trying to repair (at a cost of about £300 plus bits ie a new processor etc.,), in fact it appears that all they would have done is to supply a replacement but they no longer have any!!! So with gritted teeth I have forked out for a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 535 locally (at a significant discount) with Win 7 Professional and a fair amount of software including Norton AV. This seems to have set up quite well but I will set about trying to get my original set-up going. Trying to get rid of all the M$ stuff which is very annoying to me. No doubt more chat in the future.