Laptop powers off unexpectedly

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Hello loungers,

I have a HP Pavillion model dv6000 about 4 yrs old that shuts itself off immediately when started. I have replaced the battery and use it with the AC adapter plugged in. I have removed and replaced the RAM modules — which seem to be a very short-lived fix — it shut itself off after a few minutes of use. What else can I try?

Preston

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Hello loungers,

I have a HP Pavillion model dv6000 about 4 yrs old that shuts itself off immediately when started. I have replaced the battery and use it with the AC adapter plugged in. I have removed and replaced the RAM modules — which seem to be a very short-lived fix — it shut itself off after a few minutes of use. What else can I try?

Preston

Does the laptop seem to get hotter than it used to? This sounds very much loke a heat build up problem. You may want to consider a trip to a tech with this. Generally laptops seem less user repairable than desktops, and seem more prone to heat problems (less cooling fan capable, more stuff crowded in a small area, etc.)

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Hi Preston,

I gather that you get the same shutdown problem when running on the battery as well as when running from an AC outlet? Try completely removing the battery from the laptop and use the AC adapter without the battery installed to see if that makes any difference. But as Ted suggested, with a four year old laptop, overheating looks like a huge possibility. Have you by any chance noticed if the fan comes on anymore? If you never hear the fan running, then a trip to a tech is the way to go.

If you can hear the fan kick in, before you take your laptop to a tech, buy a can of compressed air packaged for use on computers. You can get it at Office Depot, Walmart, etc. Since you are comfortable enough to remove and replace your ram modules, remove as many covers as feasible off the bottom of your laptop to provide as much exit area as possible, and use the compressed air to blow out your fan/heatsink. If you are fortunate, you might be able to see your fan and heatsink after removing the covers off the bottom. If so, blow them out from that perspective to make the dust exit via the heatsink on the edge of your laptop. If you see a lot of dust coming out of your laptop, then that could well be the source of the shutdown problem. I would use the compressed air in several short blasts rather than one long one.

Hope this helps.

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Ted & Gerald,

Thanks to you both for those tips.

Preston

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Does your laptop actually shut down or just freeze ?

If it is freezing, this series of HP has a problem with the Maxim voltage supervisor chip near the processor. It is the only chip with visible leads on 4 sides near the right side of the motherboard.

HP has a problem with the solder joints fracturing and these fractures are not always visible even with a microscope. My nc6000 had that problem. I fixed it be reflowing all the solder joints on that chip and it has been working for 2 years without a problem.

Good luck.

PS. here is a link to a forum with pictures (at the bottom of the page – poster’s name is FreeEnterprise).
http://www.techimo.com/forum/mobile-computing/126058-hp-compaq-nc6000-problems-19.html

Seems this chip causes various symptoms other than just freezing.

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