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General discussion

HP Laptop sudden shut down

by hatchmar Dec 21, 2004 9:01AM PST

Hi, maybe you people can help me. I have an HP Pavilion N5270 laptop that was working just fine untill one day when it started suddenly shutting down without warning. it just goes blank. my first thought was the battery so i tried without a battery only connected to AC. not it. i then tried several things to keep it cool because i thought that it maby overheating. not it. just to be sure that it wasnt video i hooked it up to an external moniter. not it. maybe the hard drive /virus? i removed the hard drive and just powered it up and went into BIOS. not it. nothing i tryed gives me any clue to what this is. i have found through searches that this is a fairly common problem with HP N500's but i still havent found any answers. HP acts as if they never heard of such a thing.

Discussion is locked

21 Posts
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How old?
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Dec 21, 2004 9:07AM PST

This is usually a lesson about keeping up the warranty until you are willing to suffer a failure.

Bob

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Heatsink/ventilation issue if it is a Pentium 4M cpu
by KenSanramon Dec 21, 2004 10:53AM PST

Yes, how old is that model and is it a Pentium 4M cpu ???

There have been other people posting here recently that were having overheating problems after a period of time but when they opened up the notebook (or had a tech do it) and flush out the heatsink and or ventilation system the notebook went back to its normal state (not overheating and shutting down).

This might not be your issue but I don't have enough other information or the current age of your notebook. I had a shutdown issue on my Compaq X1000/HPZT3000 that was caused by a keyboard bios problem that was rectified immediately by a notebook bios update from HP/Compaq.

But given you were having no problems until now (I had the problem immediately and my notebook is less than 6 months old) it may be a heat related issue and the heatsink/ventilation ducts may be compromised.

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RE: Heatsink/ventilation issue if it is a Pentium 4M cpu
by hatchmar Dec 23, 2004 12:10PM PST

One of the first things i did was to take it into a cold room at work and keep compressed air flowing through it. after this did not work, i tore it apart, cleaned it up real well all around the fan and even started it up without any of the covers on with a fan blowing on it and still shut down. it is getting up there in age (4 years) but it is /was a nice computer.

when it shuts down, it is extremly unpredictable. i can turn it on after it sits for a day or 2 and it will shut right back down, no time to heat up. or, it may run for 1 hour and die, then i restart and it will run for 5 hours. then the next time- right away.
id hate to spent a couple hundred bucks on a new motherboard and not have that fix it, but if i knew for sure it would... i would.

it is a P4 cpu 700mhz (HP pavilion N5270)

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hp laptop overheating issues
by chetvaldes Jan 13, 2005 11:45AM PST

I have a ZD7000 that makes a lot of heat- the first one I purchased got fried when I set it down on a short piled carpet and tried playing a DVD- When the video started skipping I noticed that it was quite warm- the intake vents on the bottom are too easily blocked. It seemed ok after I set it on a hard surface, but started acting strange and ultimately failed shortly after. Strange that there is no protective mechanism or alarm to warn the user. A side intake vent would be a good idea, as even setting the unit on loose paper could block the vent.

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RE: How old?
by hatchmar Dec 23, 2004 12:02PM PST

actually, it is out of warranty. i bought it in late 2000 with 3yr warranty.

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That's a not so sudden death. 3 years is par for this course
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Dec 23, 2004 12:13PM PST

There are repair centers like notefix.com and others. This may be time to consider repair or replacement.

Bob

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re re
by hatchmar Dec 23, 2004 12:12PM PST

i might have kept up the warranty, but they are so ridiculously expensive, i can probably get parts to fix it on my own, i just need to know for sure what it is before i do that.

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Does the CPU has speed-step?
by unknownkw Dec 24, 2004 3:53AM PST

Try lower your CPU clock to see if it still restarts at random. If it does fix it consider a CPU replacement/upgrade.

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re: speed step
by hatchmar Jan 1, 2005 10:14AM PST

yes it does, and ill check it out. thanks!

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Intermittent Shut Down - Check for a BIOS Upgrade
by webcoder3 Dec 24, 2004 3:39AM PST

Same prob. on my boss' laptop. I believe it was an NEC Versa. The bios needed to be updated.
Check the HP website for BIOS updates and what they fix. Since there are only a few bios mfgs, they could have the same problem/fix.
Good luck.

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Will the bios upgrade mess with the bootloader?
by bsgdanoob Dec 14, 2009 12:42PM PST

My laptop has ubuntu and windows vista.I want to update the BIOS driver since i am facing the same problem on my hp pavilion dv 2500.I am not sure if it will mess with grub bootloader or even mess with other partitions.Help!

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BEWARE.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Dec 14, 2009 11:12PM PST

You dug up a 5 year old post to post your new question.

In theory and in practice the answer is no. This does not mean that somewhere, some day some one will not have an issue.
Bob

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HP Laptop sudden shut down - me too
by IanMGSmith Jan 4, 2005 11:46PM PST

Hi,

My Hp Pavilion zt1121s purchased April 2002 now shuts down intermittently and quite unexpectedly at least once a day.

I am going to try all reasonable suggestions however I think this is a hardware problem of some sort.

Regards,

Ian

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HP Notebook Intermittent Shutdown
by JoelGHancock Jan 16, 2005 10:10AM PST

I have a HP Pavilion ze5385. Purchased in June 2003. In last few weeks has begun to shutdown for no apparent reason, usually when in heavy use, especially when I try to do backups with Norton Ghost or Retrospect. I have swapped hard drives and all the system memory. Still have the same problem. Tonight I did a system bios update (10-2004).

It seems to run hot, but no hotter than when I first got it.

Any possible solutions?

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Absolutely.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Jan 16, 2005 10:53AM PST

Try my former replies. And answer the same question.

Bob

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ze5385 intermitten shutdown
by LouieR Feb 10, 2005 1:42AM PST

Hi Joel,

Have you found a solution yet? I have the same problem with my system (purcashed 5/03)!

Louie

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Intermittent shutdown
by JoelGHancock Mar 30, 2007 9:22PM PDT

Found the solution. My notebook had gathered so much lint and dust that it was overheating. Once I used compressed air to clean it out, the problem went away completely. JGH

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Laptop is not starting up...
by Zimbola Dec 22, 2009 10:52PM PST

I have a HP 500 notebook. It was working fine until the screen suddenly disappeared and was off. (not shut down).
I tried charging it, checked whether it ran out of battery. But whenever i press the button to turn it on, the battery indicator blinks four times. What are the possible problems it might have?

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HP is lying.
by dontchyawishyaknew Feb 12, 2005 3:38AM PST

Which isn't unusual for them in my experience.

First of all, it sounds like your motherboard. Of all of the problems with laptops and desktops, unexplained shutdowns are the MOST common. It has to do with the regulator caps on the mobo in most cases, other times it's either a bad proc (cooked) or some other cyber catastrophy.

HP has never heard of it?!@? BULLHockey! I am a certified HP business PC engineer, and have fixed over 2000 vectras for a major airline here in Atlanta. Trust me, blown motherboards is not a new thing by any stretch. I worked on PCs for this airline, but have owned several HP laptops, and this is a very common problem. Bad motherboard.

Now, that assumes the power adapter and or battery is functioning properly and all cooling equipment is operational. With that said, look at a mobo replacement. Parts should run 400 to 700 dollars, plus labor. Don't pay more than 2 hours for labor, it's not hard to swap out a mobo on a laptop. Trust me, I have done hundreds of them.

Good luck.

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Repair
by ikenfixit Feb 12, 2005 4:39AM PST

We can repair them alot cheaper than replacement.

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Locking.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Dec 22, 2009 11:07PM PST

Sorry but this discussion is old and now broken.

So members don't add to this busted discussion (a forum bug) this discussion from 2004 is now closed.

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