I have a serious problem with my HP Pavilion ze5155. Let me start from the beginning of the story to give you the "full detail". I was interested in an HP Pavilion laptop, so I was recommended for the HP Pavilion computers. I purchased an HP Pavilion ze5155 and everything ran fine for a while. It came to about 4 months ago and the power plug on my computer (which is connected to the motherboard) shorted out. I sent it in and they replaced the motherboard for $450. Now, I am having more motherboard problems. It ran fine when I got it back, and just a week ago the fan started making "odd" noises. On my desktop, the power supply fan made this noise because it was dirty in the tower. After vacuuming it was fine. I thought this was the problem but emailed HP support just in case. They said that I needed to install a BIOS update. I noticed that when I tried installing it that it said it wasn't compadible with my PC. I emailed them back about it and they said that it should work, since the download site matched with my product name, so I ran another file and then it restarted and now when I boot I get a blank screen. I've built a handshare of computers, and from what I recall there are a few different ways to reset the BIOS on this kind of laptop. I was wondering if anybody has ever pulled this kind of procedure, and if it is for sure the motherboard BIOS. I think there is a reset button or some battery? Anyhow, I'd appreciate the support....thanks!

yes there is a CMOS battery, which saves all the BIOS settings. If you open up your laptop and get to the motherboard, you should see a large round battery, it looks like a watch battery. If you pull that out for a while(30 min. should do it) then put it back, it should reset the BIOS. Now if the CMOS battery is soldered on(which, unless its really old it shouldnt be) instead of in a bay, I would suggest not trying to pull it out, but that should not be a problem and it should be in a bay type thing where you can easily remove it. well there ya have it.

Well, the only problem is that this laptop is about 2 years old, so I don't think the motherboard on it would be soldered.

yea, the CMOS battery shouldnt be soldered on, so you probably dont have a problem there.

Now, two questions, if it soldered on, how do I remove it without damaging the surface of the motherboard (knowing how sensative it is), and if it is not soldered, how do you remove it. Is there a lever like with the processor, where you place the processor in and pull down the lever? Is that how this battery works?

if it is soldered on, i would not recommend trying to pull it off at all. Now there is no lever to pull it out, its just a matter of pulling it out, here is a pic of what it should look like http://www.infopackets.com/graphics/cmos+battery.gif if your battery looks like that just pull the battery off, its not too hard and make sure you look hard over your motherboard because every motherboard is different, and will have the battery in a different place.

Let me clarify this...

You flashed the BIOS with a disc that said it was not compatible..?

Once it rebooted you have a black screen...

If this is the case... You will not be able to reset the bios...

A few machines like the one I am on have a dual bios feature so that if one gets flashed wrong or is attacked by a virus I can set a jumper and restore from a ROM...

Taking out the battery will not fix that type of a problem...

Exactly what tool did you download/use or execute..?

Ok, I was having fan trouble, as I stated, so I emailed HP Support about it. They gave me some excutable to download that would update the version of the BIOS and fix that problem. I downloaded and ran the BIOS update and after it made the updates the computer immediately turned off before I got a "finished" screen or anything. It warned me it would restart before it finished and turned off after the last step. Now I get a blank screen, where I used to get an HP logo.

Now, by a jumper, what do you mean?

Oh yeah, by the way, I wish I was informed this sooner, because I just took the entire laptop apart, took out the battery for 30 minutes, and put it back in and put the entire thing back together...lol.

I gather from your response that pulling the battery did not fix the problem...

Sorry to hear it...

Updating BIOS can go tragically wrong...

Did you get the update direct from HP...

Do you still have the link...

Did the disc have any menu or alert messages?

Be as concise as possible...

My gut feeling at this point is that you will need to replace the bios chip or find someone that can burn/flash it for you, on an EEPROM burner...