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I have an HP ProBook 4520s, and a non-bootable 3TB Seagate 3.5" USB external drive, externally powered, formatted NTFS on a single partition. The laptop freezes on the HP splash screen only when this drive is connected, the caps key blinks 5 times, and won't load the bios or Windows... Just hangs on the splash screen. This only happens when the external HDD is connected, otherwise boots fine.
At this point, I've tried everything I can think of, including:
anti-theft and drive lock options disabled
UEFI boot mode enabled
changed UEFI boot device order
usb device boot disabled
legacy usb support disabled
bios is most recent version
using different usb ports and the esata/usb combo port
there is no Windows Boot Manager on my system (it's running Win 10, btw)
It's worth noting that I can completely disable the USB and eSata ports within bios, and the system boots normally with the 3TB drive connected, but then these ports are completely unavailable, meaning they are dead when windows boots.
Also, it will boot normally when the ports are enabled, the 3TB disconnected, but a small flash drive is connected. The problem appears to only be an issue with the large external drive.
From what I've read, there seems to be an issue with ext drives over 2.xGB that cause this problem on some HP machines. Some say bios update fixes the problem, but didn't help mine. Others have mentioned that after some time (unspecified), the problem just corrects itself, somehow, and the computer begins booting fine with the large external connected. No real "fix it now" solutions that I've seen tho.
I'm in the process of running diagnostics tests in the bios just to say I tried, but don't expect anything to come of it.
So I'm just wondering if anyone knows a solution, or can confirm that there is none?
EDIT: I've been using this drive for a long time with other computers without any issues (all non-HP/Compaq's). It's an isolated problem with just this machine.
Brian B
Posted 2016-09-30T15:14:14.393
Reputation: 11
Is the BIOS trying to boot to an external drive before it looks for the internal one? Try looking through the BIOS to see if something like this is enabled. Furthermore, are there any remnants of an operating system on this 3TB ext drive? – Kaizerwolf – 2016-09-30T15:48:02.770
@Kaizerwolf It appears to completely freeze the system and throws some type of hardware error (caps blinking indicates this). It won't even try to boot, and it won't let me enter bios, boot menu, etc.. just froze solid. Have to power off and disconnect the ext drive, then boots normally every time. I've tried disabling usb boot, legacy usb support, and putting internal HDD as first boot dev. There has never been an OS installed on the ext drive. It's always been used strictly for file storage. There are some ISOs stored on it, but not 'installed', and nothing making it a bootable drive. – Brian B – 2016-09-30T15:54:50.597