Laptop spontaneously powers off

drjsparker · 03-25-2009, 04:48 PM

Greetings...thanks in advance to your insight.

I've got an HP Pavillion zv5000 that will power off, not shut down, but power off sporatically (as though you flipped a light switch or pulled the power cord).

A couple of notes:
-I recently wiped the HD clean and reloaded WXP
-The battery in this laptop is worthless; must be powered by A/C....my first thought was that it was a power problem.
-Problem occurs after computer has been running a while, ie in the morning it's fine, after it's been running for a few hours it will cut off...my second thought was that the processor was getting too hot, but both fans on the underside are running
-When I start it up in the morning, it will run for a few hours. Once it cuts off, if I try to power it back up it will get so far in the boot sequence (sometimes not very far at all, other times all the way to the desktop) and then cut off. At this point in the day, it will rarely get to the desktop before it cuts off.
-That said, I just ran a diagnostic check on the HD from within the BIOS (which took an hour) and it never cut off....the HD passed btw. It seems to occur only when Windows is trying to boot up, but as I stated, it's a clean install on a formated partition.
-The computer also cuts off when I am booting off of the WXP disc (I'm trying to run DSKCHK).
-The sequence of events today:
-This morning: Booted off the WXP disc, reformatted the HD and reinstalled WXP
-Installed OFFICE 2003
-Installed a couple of MS updates
-Up until this point everything was ok...I had come to the conclustion that the previous OS had bugs and that that was the problem
-Installed drivers from the 'DRIVER RECOVERY DISC' that contains the originally installed drivers from HP
-Laptop began cutting off...at this point I'm wondering if the problem is a driver I just installed, but...
-Also cuts off in SAFEMODE

I think that's about all the clues I can give you. Again, thank you for any thoughts you can offer.

John

**TriggerFinger** · 03-26-2009, 10:13 AM

Hi John,

Is the CPU area still hot? Is the laptop giving off very warm to hot air? Try cleaning it first. Use a can of compressed air. You clean the air vents/heatsink areas. Best if you can clean the insides as well.

Also while using the laptop, make sure the vents/heatsink are not obstructed and if possible elevated a bit from the desk

03-25-2009, 04:48 PM	#1 (permalink)
drjsparker Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 7 OS: Win XP	Laptop spontaneously powers off Greetings...thanks in advance to your insight. I've got an HP Pavillion zv5000 that will power off, not shut down, but power off sporatically (as though you flipped a light switch or pulled the power cord). A couple of notes: -I recently wiped the HD clean and reloaded WXP -The battery in this laptop is worthless; must be powered by A/C....my first thought was that it was a power problem. -Problem occurs after computer has been running a while, ie in the morning it's fine, after it's been running for a few hours it will cut off...my second thought was that the processor was getting too hot, but both fans on the underside are running -When I start it up in the morning, it will run for a few hours. Once it cuts off, if I try to power it back up it will get so far in the boot sequence (sometimes not very far at all, other times all the way to the desktop) and then cut off. At this point in the day, it will rarely get to the desktop before it cuts off. -That said, I just ran a diagnostic check on the HD from within the BIOS (which took an hour) and it never cut off....the HD passed btw. It seems to occur only when Windows is trying to boot up, but as I stated, it's a clean install on a formated partition. -The computer also cuts off when I am booting off of the WXP disc (I'm trying to run DSKCHK). -The sequence of events today: -This morning: Booted off the WXP disc, reformatted the HD and reinstalled WXP -Installed OFFICE 2003 -Installed a couple of MS updates -Up until this point everything was ok...I had come to the conclustion that the previous OS had bugs and that that was the problem -Installed drivers from the 'DRIVER RECOVERY DISC' that contains the originally installed drivers from HP -Laptop began cutting off...at this point I'm wondering if the problem is a driver I just installed, but... -Also cuts off in SAFEMODE I think that's about all the clues I can give you. Again, thank you for any thoughts you can offer. John

03-26-2009, 10:13 AM	#2 (permalink)
TriggerFinger Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: USA Posts: 11,846 OS: Vista SP1, XP SP3, PCLinuxOS2007	Re: Laptop spontaneously powers off Hi John, Is the CPU area still hot? Is the laptop giving off very warm to hot air? Try cleaning it first. Use a can of compressed air. You clean the air vents/heatsink areas. Best if you can clean the insides as well. Also while using the laptop, make sure the vents/heatsink are not obstructed and if possible elevated a bit from the desk __________________ DBAN - Memtest86+ - BartPE - Linux LiveCD - ImgBurn - HDD Diags - Disk Copy HOW TO BURN AN ISO FILE