blacktech

Hi everyone,

About three days ago, my otherwise well-behaved HP Pavilion dv8000 laptop running XP started crashing. Like, I'll be typing in a Word document or doing something fairly innocuous (or nothing at all) and the whole machine just shuts down. It doesn't even go through the shutdown sequence at all. It just dies.

Although it's always run a little hot, the fan seems to be working. Did maybe something get into my registry and hunk it up? In April, this machine will be two years old. I've always heard that laptops start migrating towards the laptop graveyard around two years. Is this simply the beginning of the end?

Thanks in advance for any insights and have a fabulous New Year!

mofotronimus

Same thing has recently begun happening to me perhaps the temperature sensor is out of whack. has the problem gotten worse? it's like some disgruntled engineer planted a bomb somewhere in the bios

blacktech

Actually, it fluctuates. Like now it's been on for two days continuously, but the other day it crashed on me three times. It crashes when I run a Norton virus scan, too. I even bought one of those under-the-laptop heat detractor fans. Still crashes. Are we effed or what?

mofotronimus

ugh.. Dood... i hope not. we could start some kind of support group for owners of Dv8000's that have passed away... and talk about all the... good times

jschmidt

I work at a PC repair shop. This laptop came in a Pavilion dv8000 and its just a piece of crap.

I reinstalled windows and even during the windows installation it was running slow. Its taking 20 minutes now to find the drivers off the recovery cds.

any ideas of why its slow? i tried swapping memory.

TriggerFinger

Unplanned shutdowns can be caused sometimes by over heating. Try using a cooling pad or use a book or a marker (around 1 inch high) and place it under the laptop (specifically on the side where the LCD is). Make sure the vents at the bottom are not covered or blocked by anything.

Refrain from using the laptops completely flat on a table as this will block the air flow if you have vents at the bottom. Also on floors with carpet or in bed as these usually block the cooling vents. If on the table make sure you elevate the LCD end of the laptop by placing something like I stated above.

If using a cooling pad or by simply elevating the cooling vents from the table or the floor still give you shutdowns and a noticeable hot exhaust from the vents, I suggest you have the insides cleaned (compressed air thru the fins/heatsink or have it opened by a repair shop or by yourself if you know what to do).

blacktech

Thanks so much for the help, fixmypc. My detractor thingy with its cooling fans has pretty much stopped helping and the laptop crashes every half hour. I just opened one of the panels (the only one I dared) and, with it open, I also blew compressed air into the fan. I will be sure now to reset it on my desk (it was sitting flat on the table) and prop it up in a way that the fan isn't blocked. I have a sneaking suspicion that it needs to be opened and cleaned, considering all the places I've traveled with it.

Thanks again!

xonikz

Careful when you pull it apart to clean it. I installed a game I wasn't sure would run on the dv8000 and sure enough the thing crashed when the game was starting. Without much ado I assumed overheating and opened the whole thing up to clean it. No problems there or on assembly, but now the machine does the crash thing as soon as the fan starts blowing hard, so it's a bit intermittent how much I can get done before it randomly shuts off. If it were a desktop I'd assume the video card/processor was cooked, but video's integrated. The processor is not really upgradeable. I may be looking for another laptop (that I can't afford right now). Mine, too, is about 2 years old. time bomb

Anyone have any real expertise on this issue?

blacktech

Xonikz, I wondered the same thing about my video card, but I was planning to take it somewhere for that evaluation, since I know squat. Good to know that that's probably not the issue. I can say, though, that since I blasted the fan with compressed air, it's behaving better. I mean, it could be the heat sink, but how much is that going to cost to replace? Is it even replaceable? I might as a last ditch effort call a guy who does computer repair for a friend of mine to come over and take it apart to clean out any dust bunnies. But like you said, putting it back together might cause problems.

In the mean time, I'm saving money, anticipating that I'll need another machine within the next three months, and I'm turning off the machine during the day and at night when I go to bed to keep it as cool as possible (still not sure how much the cooling thing underneath is helping).

xonikz

The heatsink is very replaceable, so is the processor. I'm now working on mine, but it only works on my lap and not on a desk, tell me that's not weird.

dai

you can find the manual and service guide here
http://www.frc-tech.com/docs/manuals...n%20dv8000.pdf
it might pay to redo the paste on the cpu with some arctic silver
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm

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blacktech

Fascinating. Thanks Dai and Xonikz!

I'm wondering, too, now about what Mofotronimus said about the thermostat. Freak ***, man. Who do you guys trust to deal with these things? Friends? Yourselves? I'm paranoid about giving my machine to someone to fix it.

xonikz

I already had the manual and some cpu paste. This issue is something unexplainable in standard surface assembly.

xonikz

I've worked it out and found that this issue is not heat related. The temperature gauge that I temporarily installed in the machine this time around (3rd disassembly) was reading well within a manageable range and the fan didn't even kick on, however the system crashed upon transfer of some large files to backup hard drive. As that process doesn't engage high GPU usage, it's likely that it's not graphics card processor related either. I have a running suspicion that the crash is somehow related to the amount of power being drawn at any given time. If the hard drive spins up high, the computer fails. If the fan spins up high, the computer crashes as well. Disregarding heat, as that has been ruled out, it leaves me with power as being the common factor. If this were a desktop I'd replace the power supply unit. I think that it is integrated on the motherboard here though... what to do.

blacktech

Ugh. That is effing depressing, man, but it makes sense. Thanks very much for posting what you found.

dai

does the backup drive have it's own power supply

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xonikz

either way...

I'm scrounging pennies to see if I can buy a new/refurb one.

dai

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