# Need Help about Windows 10 BSOD in HP Elitebook.



## Gdn8Melbourne (Oct 28, 2011)

It's a Hp Elitebook Folio 9470m. With 250Gb SSD and 8Gb RAM (upgraded), i7, Windows 10 (Upgraded from 8).
It was sent to service at HP for heating and broken ethernet port. As it came back, we found the ethernet is still not working and the problem was that the only account on it was a guest account. So we had to reset the Windows 10 from sign screen *(Sign in Screen>Shift+Power>Restart>troubleshoot>Reset this pc)*. After that it gave the administrative account and the ethernet also worked finally but in 5 minutes, a BSOD happened *(Critical process died)*. And since then the laptop is giving the infamous HP error -

*Boot Device not found
Hard disk error (3F0)
Please install an OS on your harddisk.
Press F2 for System Diagnosis.

*A quick check showed the RAMs are good. But the hdd check showed not smart tool installed. (Well obviously it can't find the hdd at the first place).

Tried changing the UEFI mode to *Legacy* as advised in numerous sources online, and also tried *UEFI Hybrid* and *UEFI Native* but no progress. Can't open and replug the ssd as we don't have the necessary equipments to do that right now. Also can't reset the BIOS to defaults because Hp's instruction is not matching with their own BIOS. Their instructions are according to the old BIOS *(Blue/White screen, arrows, Function keys and Enter)*, Now we are seeing what seems like an updated BIOS version *(Clickable!)* So can't find restore BIOS option. There is a "Restore to Default" option, but I'm afraid to use it because I don't want the laptop to go back to Windows 8 as it came primarily.

What to do?


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

Hi Melbourne


I expect that you'll eventually need to find a Phillips screwdriver & check the SSD connection (very nice that your ultrabook is one of the few you can access the hard drive with just removing six screws, and not take the whole crazy thing apart to get to it) ... 

But in the meantime, it can't hurt to see what happens with a few BIOS tweaks.
1) Try turning off Fast Boot. (and use Hybrid UEFI with CSM enabled)
2) Try Restore Defaults (it shouldn't hurt ... it's just BIOS/UEFI settings, not an operating system restore)

Not a high probability for either of those, but can't hurt to try.

Once you have a screwdriver handy, you can check the connections, and if those look good ... you might want to connect the drive to another system and see if the SSD has died or not. It sounds like you have the 3-year extended warranty ... so replacing that is something HP should do at no cost (nice).

Good luck ....


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## Gdn8Melbourne (Oct 28, 2011)

OldGrayGary said:


> Hi Melbourne
> 
> 
> I expect that you'll eventually need to find a Phillips screwdriver & check the SSD connection (very nice that your ultrabook is one of the few you can access the hard drive with just removing six screws, and not take the whole crazy thing apart to get to it) ...
> ...


Hey Gary.
Thank you for your kind input.

Both of your tricks worked.... just one time each.

We enabled UEFI Hybrid and disabled fastboot, and the Windows started. Didn't freeze, but quickly had another BSOD.

Reset the BIOS, and the Windows started normally, and in 5 minutes again the BSOD.
Now it is showing the same error and we are out of options; other than opening up the back.

Also note this - before all these, when we were struggling with the ethernet in guest account (as I said in my first post), the laptop ran for like two hours. Then we had to reset the Windows to get back the admin account and since then these are happening.

The Hp service said that they changed the motherboard as the ethernet port was broken in the previous one... I highly doubt that it is a refurbished board whose SATA port is broken. Can it be? I ran a SSD in my desktop and it withstood pretty rough environment.... Can SSDs die so quickly?


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

Hi again


When SSD's fail, they tend to become completely unresponsive ... at least the for the few that I've heard about (I haven't had any fail on me yet .... but perhaps I've just been lucky). Since there are no moving parts, I would expect that the usual culprit would be an overvoltage situation or overheating.

Since the computer is failing since coming back from HP, it will likely have to go back to them (although first you might want to try opening up the hard drive bay & taking a look .... make sure to unplug, and remove the battery first).

My guess at the moment -- just based on the amount of time that it runs (five minutes) and on the fact that the motherboard has just been replaced -- is that perhaps the cooling system (fan/heatsink/exhaust vents) for the replacement board is faulty, and your system is overheating. My second guess is that communication with the hard drive is producing a cascade of errors that eventually crashes the system. 
[Now all we have to do is wait for Alex Trebek to say "And the answer is ...." (Jeopardy)]

Thank goodness you have the extended warranty!


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## Gdn8Melbourne (Oct 28, 2011)

Well things progressed in a wierd way. We didn't have the necessary T7 screwdriver from Philips, so we just took the laptop to a computer repairing shop, and the guy booted it, and it booted. Then he found nothing but 4 bad sectors on the ssd... and tried to update drivers but all were latest. So we took it back home and guess what?! Another BSOD and same error. Took back next morning to the repairing shop and... it booted! :facepalm:
The repairguy even knocked the back of the laptop to see if anything happens for movement, because The BSOD was happening mostly after travelling. But nothing. and we took it back to home, and it ahs been three days, it's running and doing pretty extensive CPU occupying jobs too like running 3D softwares and all.

God knows what happened. But if it gives another BSOD, I am sending it to HP again.

Thanks a lot for your help and suggestions by the way.


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

Hi again

Like most computers, yours is probably shy about crashing in front of repair techs with their big, dangerous-looking tools!

You might have two different things going on: 1) whatever is causing the non-boot issues, and 2) whatever is causing the BSOD. They could both be related, or it's possibly two different things [for example: a loose or finicky connection, and an unrelated driver/program issue]. 

One thing you could do (just to be thorough, and put your mind more at ease) is to have a look at the Blue Screen errors. On most systems, the computer will generate a "memory dump" containing info about what was running when things crashed. The easiest error dumps to analyse are called "Minidumps", and there are several reasonably capable third-party utilities that attempt to figure the culprit for Blue Screen errors. Computers can be set to save either full memory dumps, or the smaller "mini" dumps. The smaller dumps are easier for the free utilities to scan and analyse (and take up very little room, too!).

Probably the most popular and easiest-to-use Blue Screen utilities are NirSoft's "BlueScreenView" and Resplendence's "WhoCrashed". For advanced analysis, we have a BSOD forum here that has links and tutorials and such. On an otherwise healthy system, we'd generally send you over to that forum to get in-depth analysis of the errors. 

If you take a look at any minidumps, or capture a few .... let us know if you want us to look at them at all. I tend to use the quick & easy tools -- the techs in the BSOD forum use the heavy duty tools. Needless to say, they have a higher probability of fingering the right culprit!

We'll hope for the best


PS ..... Ah ... here are instructions for the getting your computer to save "minidumps" for the Blue Screen errors:

*How to save "Minidumps" after Blue Screen Errors*

1) *Right-click* the Windows 10 *Start Menu icon*
2) Select *System*
3) Select *Advanced system settings*
4) In the* Advanced tab*, in the *Startup and Recovery* section, select *Settings*
5) In the *System Failure* section, make sure there is a *checkmark* in the option box "*Write an event to the system log*"
6) In the *System Failure* section, *remove the checkmark* from the option box "*Automatically restart*" (this will allow you to see the actual error screen - and be able to immediately see the error message without having to look through the logs)
7) In the *System Failure* section, in the *drop-down menu* for "*Write debugging information*", select the item "*Small memory dump (256 KB)*" ... you should see the "Small Dump Directory" location automatically display the default %SystemRoot%\Minidump [%SystemRoot% stands for the directory containing the Windows folder.... on many systems, that is C:\Windows]. 
8) *Click OK* to save and exit the settings window.


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