PCA Forums

my husband has been using a refurbished HP 6910P Business Notebook /XP for about a month, no probs.

this is his situation now, and i quote:

"yesterday, upon turning machine on, i saw that the screen remained blank longer than normal to show that XP was booting up, and it never did.
after a minute or 2, i did a hard shutdown.
i waited a minute, powered up again, and the HP startup flag started coming up and then Windows booted up and i was able to log in.

however, i noticed the volume (which had been muted) would not respond to un-muting until i rebooted. then everything appeared to work normally.

today, i turned on the machine and once again the screen remained black. after a minute, i again did a hard shutdown.

upon turning it on again, a blue screen came up w/the following message:

HARDWARE MALFUNCTION
CALL YOUR HARDWARE VENDOR FOR SUPPORT
NMI: PARITY CHECK/MEMORY PARITY ERROR
- THE SYSTEM HAS HALTED -

~~~

is there anything he could try before sending it in for repair? { it is under warranty }, or is he pretty much dead in the water,,

seems to me like it could be a memory or motherboard issue. If it is under warranty than I wouldn't mess with trying to swap ram. Maybe FP will chime in with more suggestions.

thank u, CA : )
i will wait to see if FP pops in, but i am reckoning it will have to be shipped back,, { we have no xtra ram hanging around,, }

{ and his was the lappie i was going to install the free Acronis SW on. }

*sigh*

if you can get into the BIOS, run the memory test. if it gives that error before allowing you to do anything else, you're mostly stuck with an RMA. if you're ambitious, pull one of the sticks, retry, etc. try each stick in each slot on it's own to narrow down the issue.

.02

thank u, b-man

since the time i last posted, it hasn't powered up either on external power, or after removing and replacing the battery and giving it another go. nothing.

the only thing that turns on when he powers up now, is the laptop's fan. no error, just a black screen. he can't get into anything to run diagnostic. i will mention about opening up the back to try and find where the sticks are.

edit: // he's asks if, when he begins testing the ram as suggested, [ and he's running it on AC power ], should the battery remain in the laptop between shutdown and startup?

Unless the mobo's defective, it could very easily just be a loose ram stick or some crud on a ram stick's edge connectors.

If there's a chance it's under warranty you don't want to go too crazy. DO NOT spray the RAM contacts with anything.


I'd recommend pulling the memory sticks and re-seating them. 9 time out of 10 that will clean the contacts. Then try again. If it still fails to boot, try 1 stick at a time.

Doesn't matter whether the battery's in or not. For safety I would leave the battery out for now. You do not want to play around with the memory while the battery is inserted.

Darcy I have some DDR2 laptop memory I can send you for testing if you need them. Just let me know.

DaMaN wrote:Darcy I have some DDR2 laptop memory I can send you for testing if you need them. Just let me know.

PM being sent, thank u : )

FlyingPenguin wrote:Unless the mobo's defective, it could very easily just be a loose ram stick or some crud on a ram stick's edge connectors.

If there's a chance it's under warranty you don't want to go too crazy. DO NOT spray the RAM contacts with anything.


I'd recommend pulling the memory sticks and re-seating them. 9 time out of 10 that will clean the contacts. Then try again. If it still fails to boot, try 1 stick at a time.

Doesn't matter whether the battery's in or not. For safety I would leave the battery out for now. You do not want to play around with the memory while the battery is inserted.

ok, he will do that tomorrow eve and i will post the result/s tuesday.

{ just got back home from taking him out for belated b-day dinner and now he's watching our home team in the playoffs,, }

thank you, FP, and everyone else for your replies : ). i am crossing my fingers that this will solve the problem.

I'm too late, but I'm agreeing with FP. If one stick at a time doesn't do it (try not only swapping sticks, but slots as well) then there's a good chance it's the motherboard.

will do, normalicy, thank u : )

well,, we were both left speechless when he opened the compartment to find it empty.

no ram at all inside; wt_!, ~

There's 2 slots. On some laptops they're side by side in the compartment on the both, but on some they are on opposite sides of the mobo to save space.

The second one is usually accessed by removing the keyboard.
------------------------
EDIT
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Yup, here's the service manual: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... _6ZsKE2ekg

The SECONDARY memory module is on the bottom of the lappy.

The PRIMARY memory module is accessible once you remove (or just lift out of the way - not need to disconnect the cable) the keyboard (procedure described in detail on page 59).

Unfortunately with only one stick you can't swap it out and test it.

All you can do is reseat it to clean the contacts. You could also take a BRAND NEW pencil eraser, and lightly rub both sides of the gold contacts on the memory stick with it, then blow off the memory stick with some canned air to get rid of any rubber debris from the eraser. That's as far as I'd go.

If it still doesn't work you could try moving it to the SECONDARY slot but if it doesn't work there it doesn't mean anything because some laptops won't boot unless there's a stick in the primary slot.

Swapping out with some other memory might not tell you anything either unless you KNOW the replacement memory is supposed to work in that laptop. Laptops are pretty fussy about memory. Just because it's the same speed and CL numbers, doesn't mean it will work.

hi, FP, and thank u. my husband dictated his reply to me for you; here goes:, ~


Dear Flying Penguin,

Thank you for your invaluable help. I am a total noob at this and would never have known to look any further than the designated memory slot compartment as shown in the User Manual, which is the only manual I felt I needed to download.
I saw the Service Manual, which was twice the size of the User Manual, and felt there would never be a need for me to service the machine.

Your experience has provided the necessary insight for me to go further. I will attempt keyboard surgery tomorrow and follow your instructions regarding the diddling of the memory stick as necessary.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to help me navigate the IT morass that I am presently besieged by. Like my car, I just drive them, I don't fix them.

Best regards,
Will

Try that ram I shipped you when you open it up, if the ram that is currently in it does not work. I hope this works out in the end. Where did you buy this refurbished laptop, any chance in getting it warrantied?