8510p where is the cmos battery?

My 8510p decided to power itself off whilst I was updating the bios, no idea why as the battery was fully charged and it was also plugged in. The result of this is that my laptop doesn't boot up anymore It'll turn on but nothing ever appears on the screen.

I was wondering if removing the CMOS battery for a bit might restore the bios to its former glory? Is it easy to get to?

Or am I better off just sending this back to HP in the hope that they repair it???

 

If the BIOS is half-flashed (as it sounds), there's not much you can do yourself I'm afraid. You'll have to send it to someone who can hook a JTAG programmer to the motherboard and flash it manually. If it's still under warranty then HP would be the obvious people to do it.

In the meantime, it's worth a try to do simple things like remove the RAM and battery (the big one) and see if you can get any beeps out of it at startup. There is a service manual which I found by googling '8510p service manual' which shows how to get at the CMOS battery. It looks pretty simple, just four screws, so that would also be worth a shot before sending it back if you feel up to it.

 

Thanks for the tip but I think that manual is a bit messed up, from following the description the battery should be underneath the RAM, but if you look at the picture it clearly shows the battery underneath the power button.

I checked under the RAM as that was the easiest to get to but no batteries there. I had a look at removing the switch cover but there is something covering one of the screws i need to remove....

I think i'll be giving HP a call tomorrow to arrange sending it in

 

Try the Phoenix crysis recovery disc. http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service...447627+1214787144185+28353475&threadId=974719

The attachment is located on the top left (paper clip icon)

 

Well that looks promising! Thank you.

Annoyingly though I don't have a USB floppy drive, I should be able to pick one up tomorrow and try it out!

 

I doubt the Phoenix recovery disc would work (but I could be wrong) because the 8510p's BIOS is not a Phoenix BIOS.

 

You can make a Crysis recovery CD. Youll have to research on how to do it on your own. I think it has hints somewhere on the link i posted.

I though all modern HP models used the phoenix BIOS. Check CPU-z first Mr.Ric

 

Afaik, only the Pavillion, Presario and the S series notebooks have the Phoenix BIOS. The 8510p has a "Compaq" BIOS. It's actually internally referred to as a Compaq surprisingly. Need to verify this with an HP engineer.

 

Actually chrixxx is right. 8510p uses a different BIOS probably to support TPM security chips

 

Ahh that's a shame. I can't run CPU-z to check since it's not booting.

On the plus side I called HP and they've just gotten back to me confirming that an engineer will be visiting tomorrow and that he'll have a spare system's board (I presume he just meant motherboard) encase it can't be repaired.

So assuming he turns up i'm very impressed with HP's warranty service!!!

 

Yes HP's on-site service is so good, he would have already broken into your house before you even know it. If you have missing appliances after, thats part of the HP service

 

Well the engineer actually turned up and nothing seems to be missing

He replaced the motherboard on my computer and all is working perfectly! I can't believe how great the service was.

After I called HP on Monday it seems they had a board sent UPS next day from Holland to Exeter where the repair guy picked it up and then installed it for me!!!

I think HP have a new customer for life!!!

Also rather then use his standard thermal paste he applied my AS5 so i'll be interested to see how the temperatures compare.