Pavillion Notebook ze4115 Power Problems

[James Morgan]

Lately my notebook has been acting up... From a completely powered down state I attempt to power it up to watch it turn on and off four times and finally it powers on a fifth time and remains on with no indication that anything at all is happening (no activity on the display at all).

Once in a while it will power up correctly on the first try and load the operating system, but most of the time it seems to do this "power-cycling" of turning on and off four times and remaining on. Even mor erare is it actually powering off less than five times and loading the operating system.

Does any one have any idea of what may be causing the problem? (I'm not getting any beep codes and I have already reseated the RAM)

Thanks for any support you may have,

James

[Pat]

Hi, James,

Is it flickering? Try the following. You may have to reload Windows.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00304323

Pat

[James Morgan]

Pat,

Thanks for your suggestion,

My machine doesnâ t appear to be flickering on power on, it kind of just stays on for about 2 secs and then powers off powers on for 2 secs and powers off powers on for 2 secs and powers off ... and this usually happens for a total of 5 times, and on the fifth time it stays on, but my LCD remains off there is no hard disk activity either.

I donâ t think that Windows is the culprit of the problem, as this problem occurs long before Windows is even loaded. Getting to windows isnâ t really the problem I am having, its more of seeing the HP logo and diagnostic screen that you normally see on start up that is the problem.

Maybe the sensors to protect the CPU are detecting that it is too hot and triggering it to shutdown even before the screen is sent any information. That is my best guess...

I replaced flash bios chip once, and that required me to completely strip down the machine to remove the battery ("that thing is in the worst spot") and that required the removal of the heat synch fan assembly to have access to the bottom of the mainboard.
But that was about a year agoâ ¦ that should have showed up earlier than it did if that is the problem.

Perhaps I should look in to getting a replacement thermal pad or thermal gel for between the heat sync and CPU and see if that helps with the proble

[Pat · Accepted solution]

Have you checked for a virus? The blaster worm caused the same issue.

These threads regarding a similar situation may be of interest.
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=526889

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=461249

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=211701

You might also try the following.

1. Right-click My Computer and click Properties.
2. Click Advanced tab.
3. Under "Startup & Recovery" options, click Settings.
4. Uncheck the box for "Automatically Restart" under System Failure.
5. Click OK and OK.


The Notebook Forum may be of further assistance.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/categoryhome.do?categoryId=411

Pat

[James Morgan]

I'm gonna disassimble the machine over the weekend and inspect the standoffs... That seems to be the most likely cause of my problems.


Sure blaster worm may shut me down, however, I don't think that blaster is the very first program that my computer loads (2 days ago I was able to get the computer up and running, I ran the battery optimizer ~1.8% correction in battery capacity, and I ran a virus scan no sign of the blaster). The Machine still seems to decide at random when it realy wants to boot, where it is power cycling most of the time so these activities haven't really addressed the problem.


In fact, now the system will hang at shutdown, and often the mouse and keyboard go fuzzy (mouse generally goes in the correct direction, but seems to 'bounce' around quite a bit, keyboard stops responding, or sends the wrong signal ex. pressing the 'E' will result in a '[' in what I am typing). But i must only tackle one problem at a time.


James Morgan

[Pat]

For shutdown issues see this.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/266169

You might try disconnecting the All USB and 1394 devices. Restart computer.
Connect one device then restart
Connect another device then restart
Continue until all devices are reconnected
Ensure compatibility to Windows and all drivers are updated.

If still having problems, this may help.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308041

When you said mouse is bouncing around, do you mean you can point but then it moves erratically? If so, clean the mouse.

Pat

[James Morgan]

I have an optical mouse... the toutchpad does the same thing once and a while. As you stated it moves around erratically.

For now every thing seems to be pretty mormal, the mouse is behaving, and the keyboard is too, the machine is even booting normally. But then again I havent really transported the machine like I usually do from home to campus, it has remained planted on my desk.

Pat thaks for your help and piinting me to other threads. I greatly appreciate it.

James Morgan

[Pat]

You're quite welcome.

Pat

[Jeff Bates]

Were you able to fix your laptop?

My ZE4115 is doing very similar things--it on occasion gives a short beep, then 3 more short beeps; but most of the time, no beep codes or warning, just shuts down or hangs and I have to use the reset button. Problems start before booting into Windows... I suspect CPU overheating... I don't know...

[James Morgan]

@Jeff:

Prior to this occuring I had completely dissassembled hte norebook to get to the CMOS battery (in the process I had to remove the heatsynch from the CPU). It seems as if it was a heat related problem, I solved it by removing the old thermal interface material and applying a new thermal interface material pad to the surface between the heat synch and the cpu. Every once in a while the machine will have a fit and restart a few timed before finally powering up and loading an operating system. I beleive there is also a screw kit also avaible to help alleviate the problem of poor contact between the heat synch and cpu available from HP.

Best of Luck,
James