Clevo P650HP6 not turning on.

Does anyone know why sometimes when powered off battery when the computer's power button is pressed that the power LED comes on for exactly 4 seconds and turns off and how to cure this?

I have done some investigation, but it's not shown me the reason why. What seems to be happening is as soon as the laptop hibernates something seems to silently power-up the laptop and then it gets stuck. No display, no sound and no nothing else. Just when pressing the power button the above described symptom appears.

I've resorted to carrying around a screwdriver with me as it seems the only way to get it back to life is to take the back off, disconnect and reconnect the main battery, put the back on and press the power button.

The problem seems to be intermittent, but does not happen when the laptop's better is fully charged. It seems to get stuck when the battery's capacity is somewhere about 60% to 80%.

That's all I know. Anyone got any ideas why?

 

Does this only happen when you hibernate? If you shut down and cold boot does the same thing happen?

 

That one I've not tried, but it's going to be difficult to replicate. Last time this happened was just over a month ago.

It's the event log that revealed the computer waking 4 seconds after hibernate, but it's not a full wake-up as everything appears off. No LEDs, no screen. Nothing at all. The event log shows the hibernate event, 4 second later a wake-up. The next successful wake-up is after I disconnect and reconnect the battery.

This information may be useful for anyone who turns off their laptop to then encounter the same symptoms of the computer not starting with the power LED coming on for 4 seconds exactly.

Interesting thing here is if the power button is held down for longer than 4 seconds, that forces a power-down, but that the same for any PC and commonly known.

 

You are doing an EC reset, might be worth re-flashing the bios.

 

Ok. Thank-you for that bit of information. Whatever an EC reset is, I don't think I'm going that. I've not flashed the BIOS at all. It's as it is when it came out of Clevo and then if I-m to re-flash a BIOS, where do I get the files from?

 

Here's some info on resetting your Embedded Controller. I've heard that term before but hadn't taken the time to pull the string. From this link:

"The EC is responsible for sending very basic instructions to the rest of the system; things like "send power here", "turn the screen on". Sometimes these instructions are not sent correctly, or sometimes not sent at all. Without these basic instructions, your laptop is essentially trying to "run before learning to walk" and this can cause various issues with the system. These issues may include (but are not limited to) : no display, inoperable/distorted microphone or webcam, crashing, boot looping, inoperable/distorted speakers/sound, inoperable I/O ports."

Here is a link for resetting:

https://www.xoticpcforums.com/forum...resetting-your-laptops-ec-embedded-controller

 

Removing the main battery and power does an EC reset, I think that could be the cause of it returning.

 

Ah. Thank-you. Ya never stop learning. I didn't know the embedded controller could be reset. Will give this a try. Thing is, if removing the AC and DC power will also reset the EC, how could that be the cause of the issues I've discussed?

I have not yet tried to keep the power button pressed for over 30 seconds when the laptop goes into the non-start condition. Will try that first, but I have to wait for that condition to occur.

 

It's a reset meaning it could be the EC that's having trouble so reflashing it may get rid of some corruption that's going on.

 

Got more details of the symptoms and an additional

1. I press the main power button which is programmed to hibernate the system.

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 13/06/2018 13:49:13
Event ID: 42
Task Category: (64)
Level: Information
Keywords: (1024),(4)
User: N/A
Computer: PC
Description:
The system is entering sleep.

Sleep Reason: Button or Lid
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
<EventID>42</EventID>
<Version>3</Version>
<Level>4</Level>
<Task>64</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000404</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2018-06-13T12:49:13.239152900Z" />
<EventRecordID>27403</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="15736" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="TargetState">5</Data>
<Data Name="EffectiveState">5</Data>
<Data Name="Reason">0</Data>
<Data Name="Flags">1</Data>
<Data Name="TransitionsToOn">13</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

2. Exactly 4 seconds after the power button is pressed to hibernate the system . . . .
(When the below event is logged, no buttons on the laptop are depressed.)

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 13/06/2018 13:49:17
Event ID: 107
Task Category: (102)
Level: Information
Keywords: (1024),(64),(4)
User: N/A
Computer: PC
Description:
The system has resumed from sleep.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
<EventID>107</EventID>
<Version>1</Version>
<Level>4</Level>
<Task>102</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000444</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2018-06-13T12:49:17.108083500Z" />
<EventRecordID>27404</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="15736" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="TargetState">5</Data>
<Data Name="EffectiveState">5</Data>
<Data Name="WakeFromState">5</Data>
<Data Name="ProgrammedWakeTimeAc">30828-09-14T02:48:05.477580700Z</Data>
<Data Name="ProgrammedWakeTimeDc">30828-09-14T02:48:05.477580700Z</Data>
<Data Name="WakeRequesterTypeAc">1</Data>
<Data Name="WakeRequesterTypeDc">1</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

... yet the laptop appears to be fully powered down when the above wake-up from sleep is recorded. Even the CPU fan and hard drive are not spinning. The laptop is silent and still.

2. Each time I press the power button the white power LED stays off. The green power LED illuminates 1 second after the power button is pressed and remains on for exactly 4 seconds.
3. Each time I press the power button, same happens. Does not matter how many times I press the power button and the duration between presses, it takes 1 second for the LED to illuminate and the power LED remains green for exactly 4 seconds.
4. Disconnected and reconnected the main battery.
5. I then pressed the power button and the system came out of hibernation normally without recording any errors or warning or any informational messages of significance.

Does listing the symptoms help?

 

Have you tried a reflash yet?

 

Not yet. I, somehow, need to get the files from Clevo.

 

Your reseller should give you the latest.

 

Ok. I'll ask for that, but as this symptom can take a long time to appear, let's play the assumption game..

• Let's assume: I get the BIOS and KBC/EM files, which currently are at version 1.05.09 (ME Firmware is at version 11.8.50.3399) and perform the EM re-flash and the issue still persists? What would be the next thing to troubleshoot.
• Is it possible to take a back-up of the BIOS and KBC/EM firmwares and then compare what's there with what's obtained from the manufacturer to see if there are differences? If there is no corruption then a byte-by-byte comparison should verify that.

You would think that the BIOS would checksum itself on start-up to see if there is any corruption and refuse to load the code in the partition table/boot sector if there was a corruption? The BIOS is set-up for a standard/normal (not quick) start-up.

I'll ask the reseller to ask Clevo the correct way to perform an EM reset. I've seen on the web site that part of this is holding down the power button for over 30 seconds. Just wish to see if this really is the case.

 

All I get from the reseller, and I quote: "And we are unable to give the bios files out for laptops due to the nature of the process being quite advanced." This is from Scan International bases at Bolton. ( http://www.scan.co.uk )

So, re-flashing is a bit problematic when I gan't get the files and I'm only prepared to receive the files from a trusted source. This being Clevo or Scan. I've determined that Scan will not provide the necessary files. Their policy and they will not budge from that policy.

Anyone got any good ideas how to contact Clevo technical support and not get bounced back to the reseller?

 

For BIOS updates, you'll have to defer to the seller, unfortunately. Will they take the system in to flash it? That might be your only option.

 

I'll ask. I guess it can be done, but there is still the predictive question of of they re-flash the same version of the firmware and the issue persists, what's the next things to try?

It's possible that there is no need to re-flash the BIOS, so working on theory and assumption of the firmware has been re-flashed, what would the next step be?

I've been down this BIOS re-flash route before.

 

They should take a look at in general, see if you can find the easiest way to make it repeatable.

 

If only you knew what I've tried to do to repeat the issue. A substantial set of weeks later I'm convinced it's not Windows. I'm also not convinced it's he Embedded Controller.

I have an older Fujitsu Laptop and when all this Spectre and Meltdown kicked off at some point I applied an official Intel microcode update and the problems there is that a shut-down would restart the computer. A hibernate would do that and the computer would just immediately came out of hibernation and sleep would do nothing. Turning off fast shut-down allowed the laptop to actually turn off!

I think since the last two or so Intel microcode updates this issue does not seem as prominent. Now it's seems it may take three odd months before it won't turn on from a hibernated state.

(I do recall Intel released and pulled one microcode update as it caused quite some major problems.)

 

Re-flash has changed nothing.

The other issue is really strange. If the laptop is in hibernate and power and battery LEDs are off, if I disconnect external power, the front LEDs go out. If I have the laptop on, then disconnect the external power, hibernate the laptop the LEDs at the front go off for about a second, then the external power LED illuminates amber, the laptop's battery is fully charged so then, with the external power still disconnected the battery LED illuminated amber and about 3 seconds later the battery LED changes to green.

It really is like the laptop is charging its battery, but there is no external power connected.

Plus, other parts of my enquiries seems to be learning towards the P960HP6 NOT having an keyboard and embedded controller (KBC/EC) reset facility as written in places where you hold the power button down longer than 30 seconds. Must just be some laptops that can't have the EC reset. Looks like I'll need to keep the screwdriver handy.

The only reason this laptop has not gone back yet is because the issues preventing it from coming out of hibernation are rare. The power and battery LED showing that it's getting power from thin air is not actually causing a problem. Just an amusing quirk.

The Clevo service manual has not revealed much apart from seeming to indicate that on the mainboard there does seem to be a facility to perform a hardware reset. just that someone at Clevo forgot to solder on the all important button!

Sigh.....

 

Speak to your reseller directly, it may need an examination.

 

Did you ever resolve this problem? I have the same issue.