Laptop hangs for half a minute at every boot after replacing HDD with SSD

Jul 31, 2018
3
0
10
Hello, i have an HP 15-bc201nl that i bought a few weeks ago which had a 1TB HDD. I then replaced the built in HDD with a kingston SSD to improve performances. I didn't clone the first HDD, i did a fresh install of windows and just copied my important files over to the new installation.
Here is the problem though:
Whenever i turn it on, the system hangs on a black screen for about 30-40 seconds, then the HP logo appears and then the computer loads normally into windows. Once it is in windows there is no problem, windows is faster than before and everything seems to work.

During the 30 seconds of black screen i can always press ESC or one of the F keys to access bios settings. Also the caps lock is sending me some error codes with the white led: 5 long blinks and 4 shorts (sometimes it also does a 5 long and 3 short blinks before).

What is causing this?

Things i've tried:
- Reinstalling windows altogether
- Updating all the drivers
- Updating BIOS (and also used the recovery option)
- Disabled fastboot in windows (even though there isn't such an option in my BIOS)
- Run the HP system diagnostic which returned no issues on every component tested
- Disconnected all the devices (i only have a mouse and the occasional headset plugged in)
 

shmoochie

Prominent
May 10, 2018
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410
The 5/3 error and HP's troubleshooting tips for it: The embedded controller has timed out waiting for the BIOS.
Component is not reachable by BIOS in certain time limit.
2. Reseat component.
3. Test known good component.
4. Replace component or system board as needed.

The 5/4 error: The embedded controller has timed out waiting for BIOS to return from system board initialization.
System board isn’t initializing quickly enough for component.
1. Verify the correct power supply being used.
2. Reset CMOS.
3. Reseat components,
4. Test known good components.
5. Replace defective parts found.
 
Jul 31, 2018
3
0
10
I'll need to get in touch again with the technician who replaced the HDD. I tried opening my computer today but i couldn't remove the battery's cable so i didn't risk trying to reseat any component. Everything seemed connected and fine though. The problem is he's in vacation now.

I'm using the AC adapter included with the laptop, and the laptop itself is only a month old and before the change it worked like a charm.

I also tried to reset the CMOS by pressing and holding the power button for 15 seconds. It didn't have any effect.
Could it be that my graphic card is not set in UEFI mode? I've found a post about a similar issues where one guy asked this question, but that GPU was correctly set in that mode...
Anything else i can try until my local shop reopen?
 

shmoochie

Prominent
May 10, 2018
157
0
410
It's really odd to me that your computer boots up normally after giving you those errors. It should definitely boot faster on a new ssd. Maybe something in the boot record is corrupted?

Maybe go into command prompt and try these (remember to hit enter after each one and don't forget the spaces before the / ):
1. bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd
2. bootrec.exe /fixmbr
3. bootrec.exe /fixboot
 
Jul 31, 2018
3
0
10


So i've booted the USB with the windows recovery drive and runned the command prompt from there, since in normal windows bootrec.exe wasn't found. I've tried all three commands but encountered some issues:

bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd: After the analysis on the windows installation i returned a total of 0 windows installation. It said process completed but i don't think it's a good thing it doesn't find any installation of windows.

bootrec /fixmbr: actually said the operation was successfull immediatly, nothing else

and then bootrex /fixboot: access denied. I tried disabling the secure boot option in the bios but it made no change.

I also tried the procedure i found in a windows article
bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
c:
cd boot
attrib bcd -s -h -r
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /RebuildBcd
but to no avail. At "cd boot" it tells me that it can't find the specified directory.