Hope you can help...

[CriTiCaLops]

Alright, I just bought a HP Pavilion dv5000z notebook and it was working fine until recently. All of a sudden it started functioning very glitchy and would freeze up for 10-20 seconds at a time when multitasking. also it took 10-15 mins to boot up.

I went through allllll the anti-virus/malware and disk cleanup blah blah it didn't help. A particular problem is playing music. previously a simple task, the computer now would play it as if the CD were skipping although it was being read from the harddrive. same would happen when playing previously smooth running games.

Soooo i went to HP techsupport via a nifty little instant messaging service. After going over everything i had already tried, the techie told me to make recovery disks and use it to (i guess) reinstall windows in a way. so i did and it worked perfectly again. music played flawlessly and there was no abnormal glitching.

then in the middle of a song, it started freezing a little but i didn't pay much attention. then i got the bluescreen (only caught the phrase "dumping memory" and it went black. i pressed power and low and behold the 12hour boot was back. music skips again.

i'm pretty convinced this is a hardware problem, maybe soundcard or even harddrive...?

pleeeeeaaaasssseeee don't make me get on the phone with tech support anyyyything but that!!!

i'd be glad to give more specifics if needed. also, i can almost gurantee this isn't a virus or malware problem...

any help is appreciated.

James Newman
jnewman@ufl.edu

 

[wolluf]

I would agree with you - almost certainly a hardware problem (could it be heat?). Presumably its under warranty - can't you just get it replaced? (notebooks are more difficult than PCs to troubleshoot in this respect)

 

[bfamo]

as wolluf says, laptops are more difficult to troubleshoot.
however, let me tell you about my experience with HP laptops.

I have been using laptops from HP for the last 5 years at work, changing computers each year. The first three worked just fine, but my fourth one basically died after just 6 months. After hours on the phone with support, trying to convince them that it was not a hardware problem, I sent it in for a service. Just like the computer, the service was quite... shitty to be exact. As I expected, it turned out that there was several hardware problems with my laptop. When I started talking about switching to Dell, HP sent me a brand new computer... one month on overtime.

I am very reliant on my computer, so this whole incident caused me alot of problems (and also alot of hairs on my head).

I thought this was a one time incident, so I decided to give HP another chance. I started using my new laptop and it worked just fine... for six weeks. Thats when the audio output stopped working. I have talked to support about it, and also tried every kind of troubleshooting there is, but I have just given up and setteled with no sound. I really dont have the time to send my laptop in every two months or so.

Conclusion: After my "new" laptop dies, I am never buying HP again. I do realise that my case might be an extreme one, but my impression of the laptops quality is also with the HP support taken into consideration. If I should try to give an explanation to why this is happening, I would say that it most likely is because of the competiton in the IT-market. In order to increase profit and emsure growth, some companies cut down on costs related to component quality. On the way, HP has also forgot about the importance of taking care of the customer. Having a masters in marketing, I should know what I'm talking about.

It sounds like a hardware problem to me, and If you keep having problems after you've sent it in the first time, get rid of it.

hope I didnt scare you there!
good luck

 

[CriTiCaLops]

hmmm yeah thanks guys, that's useful info for sure.

i think i'll call HP and let em know that i'm pretty sure it's a hardware problem and that i'm dissapointed and would like to send it in for repairs. i didn't get the extended warranty or anything but i'm sure everything is still covered for a while at least.

i just gotta :ahem: let em know how dissapointed i am. haha i'll call tmrw and i'll get back with you guys to let you know how it goes.

thanks

 

[linney]

How does it boot to Safe Mode?

Is there any Bios update available, and have you tried resetting the Bios back to any Safe Defaults?

To get further information about the error look in your Event viewer.

Look in the System or Application folder. You can get to the Event Viewer via right click My Computer icon and select Manage.

Any errors logged in the Event Viewer can be expanded by double clicking on the error line.

You can also turn off "automatically restart after an error" so it will just halt at the fault and display the full Stop Error and blue screen.

Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties .
On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery .
Click to clear the Automatically restart check box under System failure , and then click OK . The error message on a blue screen should remain on the screen so you can record the error information.

To check your RAM.

http://www.memtest86.com/

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

To check your Hard Drive.

The drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software to check your drive for problems.

You can also load the Recovery Console and run ChkDsk /r to check for problems.

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP (Q307654)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q307/6/54.asp

To check your drivers.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

 

[PalmTest]

To tets if it realy is a hardware problem, you might try booting the machine with Knoppix (or another Linux liveCD) and play your MP3 collection for a few hours.