HP Compaq nw8240 Intermittent Operation

[stevenriz]

Hi I have an HP Compaq nw8240 laptop that turns on, sometimes will show the BIOS screen, sometimes will start a boot to windows but always freezes after a few seconds. I am trying to get into the BIOS to see if I just let it sit in the BIOS screen if it will freeze... I even started a boot to a Knoppic Live CD but that seemed to freeze as well during hardware detection.

Why so intermittent?? Motherboard perhaps?? The power supply seems fine. The fan blows warm but still seems to be fine. I initially thought it was getting too hot and freezing... but I am not sure that is the case now....

If you have any ideas, please let me know. thank you!!!

Steve

 

[roland63]

Can you go into Safe mode? If so, you may want to look at device manager for conflicts and what not.

Did the unit suffer a power failure of some kind?

 

[BadBigBen]

Steve, if the KNOPPIX CD freezes then you definitely have a hardware problem...

I would DL the MEMTEST86+ CD and boot with it, then check the RAM, overheating of RAM can cause this behavior...

also, physically inspect the mainboard, especially the CAPACITORS, what you are looking for is leaking, bulging, or missing caps... see the following article it explains it nicely, for what to look out for:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

do not count out the PSU as being the problem, just because it gets warm and seems to work... I've seen PSUs that worked fine until a load/draw was occurring and out they went... almost anywhere there is a flow of electricity, aside from super-conductors perhaps, there is resistance that causes the cables and electronic components to get warm...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[wahnula]

Definitely hardware problems. I automatically suspect the PSU first, try swapping with a known good spare. Many OEM PCs have hideously underpowered PSUs and after a little wear, they don't produce the juice you need. Check that first, then swap RAM with known good.

When you do your testing, remove everything like HDD, CD/DVD, floppies etc. and let it sit in BIOS for a while, see if you can get it stable, then start adding hardware back.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[stevenriz]

are you talking about the power "brick" adapter or the internal power supply? or both perhaps?

 

[wahnula]

Sorry...I missed the "laptop" part. My advice was for a desktop. Putting a multimeter across the brick's output tip would be good to check, but in my experience those things either work or don't, no middle ground.

If you're starting from room-temperature RAM overheating at boot would be unlikely but possible. If there's more than one stick, try each individually then swap. Unfortunately with a lappie, repair is not so easy.

If it was mine, I would boot to the Windows CD, run the second repair operation, and see what happens. That should keep it running long enough to manifest any overheating issues.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[BadBigBen]

Whanula, I too missed that it was a laptop, but if the Knoppix CD freezes, then running Windows Repair would do nothing but freeze and be a waste of time, imho...

I am still leaning on it being either a RAM problem (RAMs that overheat do tend to freeze the machine on either laptop of desktop) or it being a general overheating of the CPU/GPU (which would definitely freeze the systems or even reboot it)...

some laptop CPUs are designed to halt operation, when an overheating situation is detected, until the temperature drops to a certain level, where it would continue with it's operation...

now that you can not enter the BIOS screen because it freezes before hand, is definitely not easy to remedy, I would go ahead and replace the RAM (as Whanula mentioned), then if you are up to it, open up the laptop and clean it out, as well as removing the HeatSink and Clean/reapply HS compound...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[wahnula]

Ben,

I was trying to eliminate the possibility of a bad download/burn of the Knoppix CD. Booting from Windows CD was only because it's known good, and to see how long (if at all) until freezing. It looks like that lappie is relatively old, no doubt a good cleaning couldn't hurt.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[BadBigBen]

Tony, I see where you are coming from... makes sense now...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"