Hp G6000 Startup Problems

[SnowmanPete]

A friend has just given me a HP G6000 Series Notebook PC to have a look at as its not starting up.

The symptoms are that the lights, fans come on once the power button is pressed, stay on for about 2 seconds and then the thing just switches off again. Following this, the notebook decides to go through this process every 5 seconds, and the only way to stop it is to remove and reinsert the battery. This happens with and without the power pack being attached.

Apparently the PC shop that it was taken to originally said the machine could have overheated due to the fans malfunctioning, but the fans are still operating fine! They also suggested Hard Drive failure, but surely I would still get the hp logo screen? (Nothing comes up on the screen by the way).

Any Help would be greatly appreciated.

[bwolper]

Pete,

Try replacing the RAM with one you know is working and see if that has any kind of effect on it.

In this forum,  clicking on Kudos is a great way of saying thanks.

[SnowmanPete]

Thanks for that,

I have tried replacing the RAM with some matching memory from my other laptop but to no avail. I have also now tested the hard drive by placing it in my other laptop, and I have managed to boot into Windows Vista from the hard drive.

Sorry for the delay, I was working on the laptop at my girlfriend's house and had to fetch my laptop from home.

Ben.

Message Edited by SnowmanPete on 07-15-2009 08:36 AM

[bwolper]

Ben,

Did your friend (the one from whom you got the laptop) give you recovery disks with it?  If not, you might want to order recovery disks from the hp. Try running a recovery disk program.  If this works, great, if not, it might be a motherboard problem.

Let me know.

[Kodi]

did you try doing a hard reset(remove the battery and disconnect the AC plug...hold the power on button down for about 30 seconds..reinstall the battery and plug in the AC. push the power on button)....see if this helps.  reply either way.

[SnowmanPete]

Thank you both for your suggestions. I have tried a hard reset, following the procedure detailed and, unfortunately, it has had no effect whatsoever.

With regards to the recovery disks, I do have a set but the laptop doesn't get far enough for anything like this to be of use. I doubt it stays on for long enough to get the DVD drive to open, we're talking 3-5 seconds at the most and the screen doesn't even blink.

I'm starting to suspect that the motherboard has failed, and as its out of warranty, does anyone know how much a new motherboard for a G6000 series would cost?

Ben.

[bwolper]

Hi Ben,

Okay there is one more thing you might want to try.  I have heard that this resets the BIOS to its default settings.

1.     Turn off the computer.

2.     Remove the battery and disconnect the power cord.

3.     Let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes.

4.     Plug the power the cord back in but DO NOT reinsert the battery.

5.     Hold down the insert/scroll button at the same time hold down the power button for 20-30 seconds.

6.     Release the power button while still holding down the insert/scroll button.

Windows should reboot.

If this does not work, you can usually get another motherboard online for about 150 USD.

Good luck.

[SnowmanPete]

Thanks for your help. I have just tried your suggestion and it had no effect. 

I have since had a look at the HP Parts Store (UK) to see if a new system (mother) board can be obtained, and they are not currently orderable.

I'm just going to advise my friend to purchase a new laptop, I think that would be the option especially with the brilliant deals being offered everywhere at the moment - especially with Windows 7 Hardware becoming available. I've removed the Hard Drive and copied their documents so at least that is safe. 

Once again, thank you to you both.

Ben. 

[adude]

It seems that this model of laptop has some serious flaws. I have had 2 laptops come to me with exactly the same problem

both are G6031EA -

I have tried contacting HP about the problem but with no success, but I will try again, and this time I'm going to 

send them URLs of all the posts I can find regarding this problem with this laptop.

If you ever find a solution please let us all know on this forum.

[ghostdogtree]

I have the exact same problem. It is a g6000 too. The Model is a G6065ea. I too have tried replacing the ram. I find that if I take cmos battery out for a few minutes then reinsert it it will boot once. But as soon as I restart or shutdown I have the same problem. Weird. Gonna work out if a BIOS update is possible.