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Laptop will not start

My 2 1/2 year old HP Pavilion DM4 running Windows 7 failed to start from sleep. The behavior was two audible clicks about 3/4 of a second apart, the power light on the cover would come on during the 3/4 second interval, and that sequence would repeat every 5 seconds. By putting my ear close to the exhaust vents I could hear the faint sound of a motor starting up during the 3/4 second period, but stopping at the end of that brief period. The power button had no effect whatsoever.

Googling for a solution for a non-starting laptop I found a recommendation to discharge electrostatic electricity from the laptop. Unfortunately that procedure required removing the battery which I was unable to do because the button on the cover securing the battery was broken.

Since the laptop was powering-up momentarily every few seconds using-up battery power, I decided to unplug the power cord and let the battery discharge. After about 48 hours I found the laptop completely dead, and pressing the power button had no effect.

I plugged-in the power cord, waited a few seconds, pressed the power button, and Voila!, working laptop. I restarted the machine, put it to sleep, put it in hibernation. Operation resumed normally afterwards in every case.

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I see this quite frequently, in a lot of cases, removing the battery and unplugging, then plugging back in will fix the issue. Since you could not remove the battery, running it completely dead seems to have a similar effect. Most of the time I saw this with batteries that were getting "older" and were not holding a full charge anymore. If it continues to happen frequently, I would recommend buying a new battery, make sure if you do buy a new battery to get a genuine HP, sometimes there are problems with generics.

If I am helping you with a problem and I have not responded within 48 hours please send me a PM.

This is a common issue on HP laptops. You may be good for another 2 1/2 years or it may happen again sooner. I'd investigate a way to release the battery in case it happens again. Since this is a consumer machine is is probably out of warranty, but if it is still within warranty I'd recommend having the battery release repaired.