hpfix

[hpfix]

HP Spectre Convertible x360 Laptop Battery Charge Issue and Resolution

My daughter needed a laptop in 2017.   I did my research and ended up buying 

HP Spectre Convertible with core i7 7th generation, 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB SSD, touch screen, and Windows 10 Home.  At the time the best deal for this was at Best Buy and I paid roughly $1,200.  Product # X7V20UA#ABA

I know PCs and Macs very well and kept it up to date with bios updates and all the Windows updates and even the big updates such as Creators update.

Anyway less than a year into its life it would not consistently charge.  So I bought another charger from Amazon, still same results.  Over the next few months it got worse and worse (the orange light for charging would not go on), so I went to best buy.  I was willing to pay the Geek Squad to fix it.  It was now 13 months old and just out of Warranty.  They said they only fix software issues but they were certain it was a battery issue and I needed a new battery.  I had no other good ideas so I call HP and bought a new battery,  They wanted me to ship the laptop to them and they would add it and ship it back.  I told them no, just let me buy the battery and I’ll install it myself.

After watching youtube videos I finally managed to take the back case off (I needed to remove two rubber “feet” to get the last two remaining torcx screws). and replaced the battery.  I thought this fixed it but sure enough the issue came back.

After a few months of this I called HP support and wanted them to fix it.  I get a hold of them and the costs is $600+ dollars!!!  They say the motherboard has to be replaced.   I explain my situation and ask if they can do it for less money, to my surprise, they knock of $200 so the total charge is $400+.  I agree and they ship me a fedex box and I ship laptop and original charger to hp repair in Oakland California.  I give them the pin so they can log into the laptop.  We back up the data before shipping and I had a full system backup as well from a few months ago.

A few days later I get a call on my cell from the hp tech and he says it is charging just fine.  I explain it is intermittent and he agrees to replace:

- motherboard

- battery

I get it back exactly 1 week since I shipped it and they sent me a charger as well.  It does charge but I can’t log with PIN as I keep getting this error

Error Code: 0x80070032

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hello-winpc/login-setup-wont-take-a-pin/248fbc21-eb94-41b5-8e2f-1e134dc5316e

Nor can we log in with facial recognition.  I can’t set a new pin either. I google around and try a few things and no luck.

This was one thing I tried

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-security-winpc/windows-10-will-not-let-me-set-pin-to-sign-in/6ed4bdab-3a6d-4568-b88e-6b37367ddebb

  I call HP Support and they have me do a reset by pressing and hold 3 buttons for 20 seconds three times and then reboot.  Still no luck.  They then suggest re-installing Windows 10!!

I then do a full system restore from USB drive and still no luck.

Out of desparation I re-install windows 10 but keep apps and data and still cannot log in.

So then I google around some more and see this

https://www.iseepassword.com/windows-10-cannot-add-pin.html

I try to delete the C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\ngc folder but can’t.  I eventually figure out how to add permissions to do it (I make a copy of it). But it still does not work, I cannot set the pin.  I then try a few more times and reboot a few times and eventually I was able to set  the PIN and log in with it and set the facial recognition.  It required me to get rid of the NGC folder for sure.  

This was a total pain and took many hours