My laptop seems to have turned into a basket case.

[SaberLilly]

So, Here's the jist of what's been going on. I was using my laptop (HP touchsmart TXZ2) like you normally would when it hard froze, and i needed to turn it off by holding the power button. It turned back on, started to post and then froze again while loading windows, I turned it off and back on again and the error lights started blinking.
Looking up the blink codes showed it had suffered from "BIOS corruption" somehow. Turning it off, completely unplugging everything and waiting a bit yielded a complete post and windows loaded, then froze again a few hours later. Restarting it again gave a different blink code "BIOS Authentication Failure". I try to clear the CMOS by pulling the battery and holding the power button.
Restarting it yet again gave me a Memory Module not functional code, swapped that out and tried again. This time it gave a CPU not functional code.
Now i'm at my wits end because if i just let the computer sit while turned off, it'll randomly work normally. It could work for an entire day, or freeze and give me inconsistent blink codes. A friend of mine in the tech industry said that the motherboard may have gone bad, which is a possibility, but so far the only error code it HASN'T given me is one saying the motherboard has gone bad.

TL;DR: Laptop can't decide if it wants to work, or freeze and give random error codes.

 

[SAIYAN48]

Sounds like either a bad board or some sort of BIOS corruption.

 

[tech3475]

Might be worth trying memtest on it.

If you can’t get it to run/run a complete test, see if it’s user serviceable and run typical RAM diagnostic processes e.g. Try 1 stick is there’s 2.

Also may be worth cleaning it out in case it’s heat related.

 

[FAST6191]

Internal diagnostics on anything are dubious at the best of times - cars, computers, machines, household goods... it matters little. A bit old at this point but good https://research.google/pubs/pub32774/

Random different error codes would speak to something a bit more fundamental. Bad RAM is rare as anything* but has been known, and if the internal tests need functioning RAM to work then that might be an idea. Unseated RAM or some bit of fluff gets in the RAM socket is a different matter entirely.

*ignoring lightning and PSUs going pop then number of dead RAM sticks in decades I have been messing with computers is probably countable on one hand. In that same time I don't even want to think how many hard drives, CPUs, motherboards, graphics cards...

After that you can try making a minimum bootable device (no hard drive, one RAM stick having been reseated, no battery, no CD drive if that is a thing, possibly no wifi, no keyboard maybe... don't go too crazy but if it is reasonable to remove then go for it). Outside chance it is the battery (can't be bothered to look that one up but hopefully it is not internal) as those going and gobbling all the power has caused all manner of issues in some in the past, and random failures from insufficient power is a thing electronics notes in general, even an HP from around that timeframe once actually.

 

[SaberLilly]

I have tried 6 different sticks of RAM, and the results have been different, especially with the sticks being in different slots, but one of the 5 following things happen, but what happens will be completely random.
Most frequent thing to least frequent goes like this:
1: I get error code 2 which is bios corruption
2: I get error code 6 which is bios authentication failure
3: I get a cursor in the upper right corner which then hangs and goes no further
4: I get a full post but then a "Checksum Error" screen because i reset the CMOS which then freezes
5: I get error code 1 which is CPU failure.

On very very VERY rare occasions the error lights will just turn solid and not blink at all and i to completely remove the power as the power switch doesn't work at this point. Then the lights will give CPU failure, then restarting it from that gives error code 2 again. So this tells me the CPU might be the culprit.

 

[Deleted member 417169]

You can assume the fault doesn't lie with the RAM or drive(s). If it's not POSTing half the time the drive(s) aren't a likely culprit. I'd wager that your friend is right about it being a problem with the board.

 

[SaberLilly]

well i figured out the problem was the processor, i put another one in and the machine booted like normal, but me being a stupid moron forgot to plug the CPU fan back in and completely cooked it. So now i have to put a new processor in it.

 

[SAIYAN48]

Ouch

 

[SaberLilly]

fortunately it uses old ZM series amd processors, so its like 20 bucks tops for a replacement, i'm just p***ed at myself for breaking it even worse.