HP ZV5000 Intermittent Shutdown Problem

[zinderellie]

Hi There,

We have a 4 year old HP ZV5000 laptop that is having intermittent shutdown problems. It appears to boot up fine and will stay on for varied periods of time, then just shutdown. It happens during both AC power and battery power. We have tried both during process of elimination. Also, it does appear to be a complete shutdown and not hibernation because when rebooted the active processes at the time of shutdown do not resume.

The laptop has been opened up and cleaned, the fans cleaned, and it is still shutting down intermittently. The time lapse between shutdowns varies.

There have been no other hardware changes or modifications. Any idea what the problem could be and/or how we might go about diagnosing the problem?

Thanks for any help in advance.
Z

 

[wahnula]

Are there any errors in EventLog? You can have it hold on the error screen by right-clicking My Computer==>Properties==>Advanced==>Click Startup and Recovery, un-tick automatically Restart.


Random shutdowns are usually heat-related, your heatsink might need to be reseated. After the next shutdown, boot into BIOS and check the CPU temperature if possible (Usually Hardware Monitor or the like). If the temps are OK then I would look elsewhere.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[zinderellie]

After opening up our laptop, we noticed that only 1 of the 2 fans we can see stays running while the computer is on. The one that does not stay on is located closest to the outside edge.

We took our laptop into a local repair shop to get an estimate, and he told us that since the fan kicks on for anytime at all, which was for all of 5 seconds at boot up, it's not the fan. He also said it wasn't the mother board, but whatever is supposed to be communicating with the fan.

Have any idea what else should be telling the fan to turn on?

Also, we removed the heatsink and spread out the grease already there and replaced it. Should the grease have been wiped clean and replaced with new grease?

Z

 

[wahnula]

Have any idea what else should be telling the fan to turn on?

There is a heat sensor, sometimes in the fan itself, other times times in the area, that controls the on/off of the fan. It should NOT be running all the time!

Should the grease have been wiped clean and replaced with new grease?

This is a matter for debate, but I always completely clean the HSF & CPU of all grease before re-applying and reseating, but I've seen a lot of techs that don't do that.

To see if it's heat that's causing the shutdowns, after the next shutdown, go to the BIOS' hardware monitor and have a peek at the fan/MB temp. Stay on that page, and watch if the temp continues to rise. If it continues to rise above 50C, there's your problem.

Tony

Users helping Users...