HP G62-105SA Notebook - Shuts down suddenly, randomly, and often

[robc87]

Hi there,

My HP G62-105SA is roughly 3 months old.  I did not have this problem until about 1 or 2 months after I bought it.

What happens is the laptop shuts down and restarts suddenly.  The screen goes black and the computer begins loading again from scratch.

It just happened when the laptop was not being used, so if it as an error that has been encountered then it appears to be a background process.  Another possibility is heat?  Not sure about that.

If you can help me in any way that would be great.  Fixes, walkthroughs, ideas? Anything.

If you need any more information then just ask.

Thanks for your time and help.

Cheers,

Rob

[Knute]

Many times a laptop overheating is directly related to the cooling of the processor. The main culprit is the fan. The fan sucks in air from the bottom and blows it out the side. It will also suck in hair, dust, and other debris. That stuff often gets trapped by the heat sink and over time builds up in a layer which chokes off the cool air going to the processor making the fan work harder.



What I recommend is getting some canned air and blowing out the vents in the side and bottom of the laptop. If after doing this you still have problems with over-heating, and your laptop is in warranty, you can take your laptop to a HP Authorized Service Center and ask them to clean the fan and heatsink. You can check your warranty here:

http://www13.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyResults.do?admit=109447627+1286541891570+28353475



If it is out of warranty, consider searching for the maintenance manual for your specific model, in the manual there are schematics for taking apart the laptop. Cleaning the fan is much easier that removing a motherboard, so don't feel to intimidated by the idea. Also you can remove the heatsink and then remove the thermal grease and apply a new layer which also helps alleviate heat related issues.



I hope this helps. If you like my advice and it works for you, please thank me by clicking the Kudos Star under my screen name, thanks!

[miguelangl]

I have the same problem, my G62 shuts down randomly when I´m not in front of it. The problem is not related to the overheating since I've been monitoring the temperature with a program called CoreTemp and every time the cpu reaches dangerous levels it logs the date and time, I checked it and has nothing to do. It is not related neither to the work load sometimes It just happens when I have the Internet browser open with a couple of tabs and I go to the bathroom. I have checked the logs of Windows and this is the info it provides : 

Critical Problem - Kernel Power 

Restarted the system without shutting down cleanly first. This error can occur if the system stopped responding, blocked or interrupted electrical power unexpectedly.

My guessing is that this is a software problem since everything starts when the laptop switches to economize mode.

[robc87]

I am pretty sure the problem was Zone Alarm.  Nt happened since it was uninstalled.  So, yes, in this case, it was a software issue. 

The heat is a problem with the G62 though - always make sure the fan isn't blocked.

[shadeylane]

I keep having this problem, and it has NOTHING to do with the fan or with Zone Alarm. I had ZA on it for over 6 months and it only started messing up and shutting down randomly recently. It's happened more often as the past 3 months progressed. I've had it restart on me 5-6 times in a row.

[shadeylane]

The fan has nothing to do with it. I've cleared my fan out, even went as far as an image reset, and it still has the blue screen issue. The fan doesn't even get hot enough to hit dangerous levels, so this theory is completely ridiculous. It's some form of software issue but I still can't pinpoint it. It's happened to my mom's desktop also, and she ended up having to buy a new one.