Laptop shutting down randomly

Redsoxfan

In the past few days our laptop has started shutting down at random enough intervals (it's a HP Pavilion dv6000 and is around 2 years old).

I tried doing a system restore back to when everything was ok, but it hasn't solved the problem.

Could it be a hardware problem of some sort-any suggestions?

RAM was upgraded around a year ago. No other significant mods. The laptop is used around 4 hours a day, pretty much every day.

waraf

Can you give us any more info? Is it running on battery or mains power when it shuts down? Is there any warning? Does it completely lose power or just reboot? Any extra info (no matter how trivial it seems to you) may help us find a solution

Overheal

Is it under load when this happens? Does it get very hot? Does this happen on the battery or the AC (or both)?

Greenman

The fan might be blocked with fluff etc.

Redsoxfan

waraf wrote: »

Can you give us any more info? Is it running on battery or mains power when it shuts down? Is there any warning? Does it completely lose power or just reboot? Any extra info (no matter how trivial it seems to you) may help us find a solution

Running on mains (always)

Completely shuts down and does not reboot.

No warning.

Overheal wrote:

Is it under load when this happens? Does it get very hot? Does this happen on the battery or the AC (or both)?

It varies-maybe only one application might be operating or a few when it happens. It does get pretty hot, but I can't be sure that there has been an increase in the heat recently. Only on mains (the battery is pretty much fooked so can'rt tell if it will happen on just battery)

Greenman wrote:

The fan might be blocked with fluff etc.

Could be alright, I will look into this.

I may have been streaming live video at each of the times it has shut down, but can't recall-I will test this evening.

Overheal

"the battery is fooked/2 years old"

I just remembered something. Check my new thread.

http://gizmodo.com/5254885/hp-recalling-70000-laptop-batteries-over-fire-hazard-concerns

There was another class action lawsuit you might also like to be aware of

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&lc=en&cc=us

waraf

I would be inclined towards an overheating problem on this one. Can you check to see if the fans are spinning when it heats up?

thehomeofDob

I'd lean towards overheating also. With a heavily blocked fan you don't need to be doing much for it to overheat. It also won't reboot until it cools down.

Redsoxfan

Overheal wrote: »

"the battery is fooked/2 years old"

I just remembered something. Check my new thread.

http://gizmodo.com/5254885/hp-recalling-70000-laptop-batteries-over-fire-hazard-concerns

There was another class action lawsuit you might also like to be aware of

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&lc=en&cc=us

Cheers-checked and my battery is not affected. Suspect the reason it is fooked is that it was never 'trained' properly.

Assuming it is the fan (I think I had to replace a heatsink and fan in a FJ Siemens before-is it common enough?), should I have a go at this myself or hand it over to a pro (I have messed about with laptops before, but amn't that competent)

I see Marx recommended for repairs-would it be worth taking this problem to them?

waraf

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Cheers-checked and my battery is not affected. Suspect the reason it is fooked is that it was never 'trained' properly.

Assuming it is the fan (I think I had to replace a heatsink and fan in a FJ Siemens before-is it common enough?), should I have a go at this myself or hand it over to a pro (I have messed about with laptops before, but amn't that competent)

I see Marx recommended for repairs-would it be worth taking this problem to them?

Head over to the ask a favour/do a favour thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055522997 and see if someone who lives near you with a bit of IT knowledge will look at it for you. Worth a shot at least....

Redsoxfan

waraf wrote: »

Head over to the ask a favour/do a favour thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055522997 and see if someone who lives near you with a bit of IT knowledge will look at it for you. Worth a shot at least....

Cheers-but that's just a forum request thread at the moment! I will check out adverts.ie though......

Laptop is running ok for the past 2.5 hours, but the fan is making a bit of noise.

jimmycrackcorm

Does it shut down when on the mains supply? Download an application that can monitor the system and CPU temperatures and keep an eye on them.
Also check the system event log in case there are any clues there...

gamer

DOWNLOAD HWMONITOR, i think that when your cpu or grahics cards reaches a high tempeture the pc shuts down.
Have you got a standard intel graphics card or is it sumthing like a geforce 150meg vram card.Maybe the geoforce card is not working.
GRAHICS card temp shoud be 55 degrees approx.See here http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

Redsoxfan

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Does it shut down when on the mains supply? Download an application that can monitor the system and CPU temperatures and keep an eye on them.

Yep-shuts down on mains. Will download the monitor and keep an eye on them.

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Also check the system event log in case there are any clues there...

Nothing unusual in the log.

gamer wrote:

DOWNLOAD HWMONITOR, i think that when your cpu or grahics cards reaches a high tempeture the pc shuts down.
Have you got a standard intel graphics card or is it sumthing like a geforce 150meg vram card.Maybe the geoforce card is not working.
GRAHICS card temp shoud be 55 degrees approx.See here http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

It has a GeForce Go7400. If this wasn't working properly, would streaming video force a shutdown? I've attached the results from the HWMONITOR scan from this evening

Do the results look ok?

gamer

SORRY i meant is the graphics card fan working,LEAVE it 4 2hours see if the cpu or geoforce card temp goes up over 60degrees.ANY program can case a shutdown IF THE CPU or graphics card gets too hot eg 50 chrome tabs running youtube.READ the temps after 2 hours.

Signpost

Dont suppose you bought it in dixons / currys? Had a HP & a Toshiba which both suffered similar fate as yours. The insurance just replaced (after 42 days :mad:) because they could not repair it.

Redsoxfan

Signpost wrote: »

Dont suppose you bought it in dixons / currys? Had a HP & a Toshiba which both suffered similar fate as yours. The insurance just replaced (after 42 days :mad:) because they could not repair it.

No, bought it in the local Click store over 2 years ago.

Signpost

Chances are its gonna break your heart so I'd say bury your losses and scrap it for a new one. Not ideal but the other way is infuriating!

Redsoxfan

In fairness, it has been used heavily (well, used for hours every day, but not for online gaming or other heavy duty work) since we've bought it and I'm not surprised that it would give some trouble at this stage.

As it hasn't shut down in the past few days, it looks like it may be related to streaming live feeds-and so maybe it is related to the graphics card. Might try streaming tonight and see what happens

thehomeofDob

How's this workin out for you bud? Problems go away?

Overheal

if its still overheating try giving it to a repair shop and ask them to do something with the cooling. Maybe its something to do with a bad join between the GPU and the heatsink.

Redsoxfan

Howdy lads.

Took the laptop to Marx last weekend (it was giving the same problem off and on as described above), they called yesterday to say that they could find no problems after stress testing the fan and had it running for several hours with no problems. I asked if there was any point in replacing the fan and heatsink anyway, but they said no, so I collected it again today. We shall see I suppose....

Thanks for your help-I may be back!

ttm

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Howdy lads.

Took the laptop to Marx last weekend (it was giving the same problem off and on as described above), they called yesterday to say that they could find no problems after stress testing the fan and had it running for several hours with no problems. I asked if there was any point in replacing the fan and heatsink anyway, but they said no, so I collected it again today. We shall see I suppose....

Thanks for your help-I may be back!

Takes very little time to download the Windows Memory Diagnostic create the bootable CD and leave it running the full test overnight.

I've looked at many similar problems of random crashes with no logged errors and many of them end up being the result of bad memory.