Need some computer help - I'm at a loss at this point.

[Vance]

Well I'll just word vomit for you all and hopefully someone can give me some direction...

The unit in question: HP Pavillion DV7-1285dx
6GB Ram
1 x 500mb primary drive with the OS on it.
1 x 1TB secondary drive partitioned into 2 drives

Okay - so - the thing keeps randomly (and I do mean randomly like some times it'll stay up for 2 days, some times 2 minutes) completely blacking out (not shutting down, just blanking out) or going into sleep mode.

I checked the event log and there is no application error associated with this - but there is a critical error #41 (unexpected shutdown) error logged.

Other than that --- NO clue as to the root cause.
I added a 2nd HD, 1 TB about 2 weeks ago, but this problem started BEFORE that. In fact I bought the drive because I was afraid damage was being done to the primary drive with these outages and wanted to get my photography off that drive before something catastrophic happened.

I also bought a new copy of Win7 Professional and reformatted the C drive entirely so it was as fresh as fresh could be.

I did some online digging and the closest thing I could find was a blurb saying that if the battery was toast, it could cause the CMOS battery to be toasting out, which could cause the outages --- but --- I literally just replaced the bad battery (arrived today) and the CMOS battery which arrived a couple days ago, but I just put it in after I made sure to have the laptop battery too.

Immediately after replacing both items ... POW.. abrupt power outage / sleep mode again - 4 times. So I theorized --- maybe this is the power supply.

Nope --- I removed the power supply an went battery only... POW - sleep mode twice in a row, once literally after I had just keyed in my PW to log into windows, the second about 5 min in.

ANY guidance is greatly appreciated.
Hell at this point I might be willing to let someone take over remotely and see if they can figure this out. I am literally at my whit's end with this thing.

[salsashark]

I had a HP DV9 several years ago that had very bad overheating problems. Eventually, it burned out the mother board.

After googling, I found the issue was in the design and HP had recalls out for it. Unfortunately, I was outside of the window.

Symptoms:
Started with the wifi going out occasionally, requiring a restart to get going again.
Next, I lost one of the USB drives
Finally, the PC started doing EXACTLY what you describe. The screen would just go black. Sometimes, yanking the battery and power cycling worked, sometimes it took an hour to cool off before I could get back on.

There were some youtube fixes out there, basically shimming the mother board. But, by the time I found them, the damage was done.

http://www.insidemylaptop.com/fix-video-failure-hp-pavilion-dv2000-dv6000-dv9000-notebooks/

Big, expensive paperweight.

[DiddysR6]

have you tried.... copy all of your data off of it, run a wipe disk, and then re-image ? we get a few Kernel power failures at work, and that's are fast remedy. In stead of racking our brains for days trying to find the problem, we just start from new lol

[jslew]

What happens if you pull the battery out and go power supply only? Did you buy a new HP battery or a cheapo? Latest BIOS? ...if so, might be worth a re-flash in case somethings corrupt. Does power cord make good connection w/ laptop, or does it go to battery if you wiggle it? Just a few things to check...

[WolFeYeZ]

Sounds like something wrong with the display driver. Try updating it.

That is if I understand the situation, the screen is just going black but not shutting down right?

[TransNone13]

My money is on motherboard.

[Filo]

I'm going to guess a thermal shutdown problem too. It could be real like salsa is talking about, or it could be a component going bad and giving bad results. I would try opening up the case and blowing a big fan on it while running and seeing if it shuts down any differently. Although, given your descriptions of timing, if it is a thermal shutdown it is happening because of a bad part.

[TurboGizzmo]

Start the computer in the BIOS menu or onboard diagnostics and see how long it stays up and running in one of those menus.

When i first read HP and Laptop I too agree they seem to have thermal issues. I use to repair them but it takes a good chunk of time to break them down and redo thermal or add better heat sink, etc. Last time i had a client with this issue i engaged a ebay seller that does the thermal repair and shipped the laptop off to him for repair.

[birchyboy]

1) Remove all but one of the memory sticks and run the computer. If the same thing happens, remove that stick and replace it with the other. If it still fails, remove the 2nd stick and add the 3rd stick (assuming you've got 3 2gb sticks). Hopefully this will help you rule out the RAM by identifying any issues.
2) Find an article online about how to clean the cooling fan and air channels. Some of the new HP's have a very easy way to remove the bottom cover. Regardless, get a can of compressed air and clean out any dirt that you can, but don't spray for too long at a time as it could cause condensation.
3) Use MSConfig to shutdown everything that automatically starts when you start the computer. It's unlikely that a program is causing the issue but it might be.

[Vance]

http://www.insidemylaptop.com/fix-video-failure-hp-pavilion-dv2000-dv6000-dv9000-notebooks/

Big, expensive paperweight.

WOW - I certainly hope this isn't what's going on :(


have you tried.... copy all of your data off of it, run a wipe disk, and then re-image ? we get a few Kernel power failures at work, and that's are fast remedy. In stead of racking our brains for days trying to find the problem, we just start from new lol

Yes - did a complete primary drive wipe, reformat, and fresh install just about a week ago. It was still crashing / going into sleep mode even when Windows was going through it's critical updates run. I had to bring it out of sleep mode or full power cycle it back up for it to continue.


What happens if you pull the battery out and go power supply only? Did you buy a new HP battery or a cheapo? Latest BIOS? ...if so, might be worth a re-flash in case somethings corrupt. Does power cord make good connection w/ laptop, or does it go to battery if you wiggle it? Just a few things to check...

Doesn't matter if the batter is in or not -- same issues either way.
The new battery is a cheapo --- but the HP battery never worked since I bought it. It was always on a power supply as the battery only lasted about 5 minutes max. I had no problems with this as it is my photo editing and gaming machine and always was pretty much stuck in one place.

I just did a flash update - went from F2.6 to F2.D (dated Nov 2010).

Power cord is rock solid in the port - no wiggle room.


Sounds like something wrong with the display driver. Try updating it.

That is if I understand the situation, the screen is just going black but not shutting down right?

Not quite --- it does a black out / sleep mode and sometimes even a complete shut down to power off --- none of which are requested or warned about prior to it happening.

The driver is up to date with the latest / greatest Nvidia drive for the card in the machine. I cross checked it with Nvidia's auto-detect system which agreed it was the latest available. Did that right after wiping the drive and reinstalling Windows.


My money is on motherboard.

Still hoping it's not :(


I'm going to guess a thermal shutdown problem too. It could be real like salsa is talking about, or it could be a component going bad and giving bad results. I would try opening up the case and blowing a big fan on it while running and seeing if it shuts down any differently. Although, given your descriptions of timing, if it is a thermal shutdown it is happening because of a bad part.

Like buying one of those bigass fan laptop USB things?


Start the computer in the BIOS menu or onboard diagnostics and see how long it stays up and running in one of those menus.

When i first read HP and Laptop I too agree they seem to have thermal issues. I use to repair them but it takes a good chunk of time to break them down and redo thermal or add better heat sink, etc. Last time i had a client with this issue i engaged a ebay seller that does the thermal repair and shipped the laptop off to him for repair.

I hadn't tried that (leaving it in BIOS). I'll see what it does.


1) Remove all but one of the memory sticks and run the computer. If the same thing happens, remove that stick and replace it with the other. If it still fails, remove the 2nd stick and add the 3rd stick (assuming you've got 3 2gb sticks). Hopefully this will help you rule out the RAM by identifying any issues.
2) Find an article online about how to clean the cooling fan and air channels. Some of the new HP's have a very easy way to remove the bottom cover. Regardless, get a can of compressed air and clean out any dirt that you can, but don't spray for too long at a time as it could cause condensation.
3) Use MSConfig to shutdown everything that automatically starts when you start the computer. It's unlikely that a program is causing the issue but it might be.

I only have 2 memory sticks for the 6GB - 1 4 and 1 2... but I'll give that a go and see what happens.
I already cleaned it out as best I could find from online sources.
I have not tried the MSConfig notion yet.

[Vance]

Here's an update:
I tried tasking the unit with a little Lightroom, then a little Photochop --- worked fine.
THEN I tried firing up Steam, and playing a little Dead Island... and POW... the unit died. Full on died. Had to power it back up.
Powered it up, got to the login screen... and it died again.

My confusion now knows no bounds :(

[TransNone13]

Motherboard, there is likely a faulty power management component going out. Load, and thereby heat are accentuating the problem.

[Vance]

Frak.

Any viable solution or is this a "start saving to replace the whole damn thing" situation?

[TransNone13]

http://www.motherboardchoice.com/HP-Pavilion-dv7-1285dx-Motherboard-System-Board-Replacement-3C39P4017646

It's only $199

[j0ker]

Are your fans running?

Is the CPU fan running?

Have you opened up the case and checked to make sure there is no dust blockage of the fans or cooling airways?

[Filo]

I am a big fan of cheaply finding the problem before spending money on fixes. Those USB fans would be one possibility, but I would rather borrow one than buy one. Another thing that just occurred to me (as a diagnostic) - if you have one of those blue gel ice packs that don't get solid and it is big enough, put it under the laptop and retry your Steam/Dead Island test and see if it lasts longer before shutting down.

[Connman]

I had a HP DV9 several years ago that had very bad overheating problems. Eventually, it burned out the mother board.

After googling, I found the issue was in the design and HP had recalls out for it. Unfortunately, I was outside of the window.

Symptoms:
Started with the wifi going out occasionally, requiring a restart to get going again.
Next, I lost one of the USB drives
Finally, the PC started doing EXACTLY what you describe. The screen would just go black. Sometimes, yanking the battery and power cycling worked, sometimes it took an hour to cool off before I could get back on.

There were some youtube fixes out there, basically shimming the mother board. But, by the time I found them, the damage was done.

http://www.insidemylaptop.com/fix-video-failure-hp-pavilion-dv2000-dv6000-dv9000-notebooks/

Big, expensive paperweight.

Lol, I had the exact same laptop, exact same issue. Wifi burns out first, then the shut-downs, eventually fried MB. HP told me I was 6 mo out of a replacement warranty but since it was a known issue, they would fix it for $250. But at that point I decided to put the $250 toward a new machine rather than risk another meltdown after a "fix".

[salsashark]

Lol, I had the exact same laptop, exact same issue. Wifi burns out first, then the shut-downs, eventually fried MB. HP told me I was 6 mo out of a replacement warranty but since it was a known issue, they would fix it for $250. But at that point I decided to put the $250 toward a new machine rather than risk another meltdown after a "fix".

I never bothered to contact HP after seeing that the recall had ended, but I decided that my money would be better spent on a different laptop as well. Going on 4 years with a Sony Vaio and haven't had any issues. Money well spent.

When I was looking at the Sonys. the sales person at Microcenter swore up and down that HP had corrected their issues, but I wasn't willing to give them another shot. So, I can't speak about them now but depending on the age of Vance's rig, my apprehension sounds warranted.