HP Pavilion dv6700 shuts off unexpectedly [ Edited ]

[Zibb]

I have an HP Pavilion dv6775us Entertainment Notebook, running Windows Vista. Recently, it has begun shutting off unexpectedly and without warning, as if the power supply had suddenly been cut, despite the fact that it is plugged in to the power adaptor almost all the time. I can't recreate this occurrence through anything I do, it happens seemingly at random. However, I can usually expect it to happen if I am running a larger program, like a game or watching a movie. After it shuts off, I cannot power the laptop back on immediately. Most of the time I have to remove the battery itself, let the laptop sit for a few minutes, then replace the battery and try again.

This same problem occurred a few months ago. I updated the BIOS and the problem seemed to be resolved, up until a few days ago. I updated the BIOS again, but this time it did not work. The computer will shut off regardless.

My laptop is very rarely ever turned off. Most of the time it is put into sleep mode and left on the power adapter. I thought it might be the battery, but I unplugged the power adapter and it runs fine on battery power alone. So far, it has run on battery alone for about an hour and has not shut off. The computer never seems to be particularly hot when it shuts off and I keep my computer elevated off the desk surface to promote air circulation.

Unfortunately, there is no error message produced and I have run out of ideas. Could someone help me or offer any suggestions, or am I better off calling HP tech support?

Message Edited by Zibb on 12-31-2008 11:02 PM

[Huffer]

Call HP Support but the first thing they are going to ask you to do is restore the machine to factory specs. Shutoffs like that are very hard to diagnose. It can be overheating, bad video card, bad memory, bad hard drive, or even viruses. Taking it back to factory specs eliminates software as a source of the problem.

[Zibb]

Thanks for the help. Hopefully HP support might have a solution for me... provided I'm still under the 1 year warranty.

[sp]

I'm not sure if you tried this, but I was experiencing the same problem with my daughter's Presario V4000 running Windows XP. I was sure it wasn't heat related because things didn't seem to be getting too hot and right after it would shut down I could immediately restart it. This morning the last auto shutdown occurred after being online and surfing for drivers and fixes, it just shutdown after 2 1/2 hours of solid performance without a hiccup. It has actually been doing this for quite sometime, but my daughter was at college and I had no access to the laptop. I immediately restarted it and went to the HP online diagnostics center. It passed every test - except the battery test - which advised it needed to be calibrated, so I followed the instructions for that process and ran the diagnostic again - it passed later on.

I also updated as many drivers as I could, including the Intel Chipset, Video driver and network drivers just for the heck of it, thinking that the video driver might have been causing the problem as it usually shutdown after my daughter reported watching TV shows on the internet. Anyway -

The point I wanted to get to was while I was waiting for the battery to recharge I decided to take the cover panel off the CPU compartment. When I did that it reveiled the heat sink over the CPU. It looked clean enough but I noticed a little piece of lint between the edge of the heat sink and the airflow channel coming from the fan so I decided to take the heat sink out. Low and behold the channel was almost completely packed with lint. I removed the lint, washed out the heat sink (a copper device with multiple channels to allow the air to pass through) to make sure the channels were all clear. I then went up to radio shack and bought a tube of heat sink compund and put that on the CPU and heat sink - put everything back together and have been running solid for around 5 1/2 hours. I have been watching TV shows on line while installing applications and so far so good.

Although airflow seemed to be ok initially (one of the reasons I didn't think it was a heat problem) the airflow is now at least double what it was. I hope this helps. So far it is helping me with my problem.

[Zibb]

Thank you for your advice as well. That may well be worth looking into; my desk is a little dusty sometimes.

[sp]

Well, almost 24 hrs later and it is still up and running. I let it stay on all night on AC power on my desk and it did not shut down. I will leave it running the rest of the day to see how it goes.

[Zibb]

I didn't find anything particularly dirty or out of the ordinary when I poked around a bit. I cleaned out any dust I found. I'm taking a crapshoot and updating the my video card drivers, as the shut downs do tend to happen more frequently when I'm playing a computer game.

[sp]

Did you remove the heatsink? I am curious if it was the same type - with channels for airflow - or just fins> 

I have been running the system for the past 2 days solid without a single shutdown, I'm not sure if any one single thing was the fix but whatever the solution was it seems to be working for me. Thankfully my daughter will not be playing any PC Games so it shouldn't be an issue. However, I do still notice some lag when watching TV episodes but that is over a wireless connection so that might have something to do with it. I haven't bothered to try it on a LAN, as long as it works for surfing and scholl work I not to concerned about TV watching, LOL. Good luck.

[Zibb]

I wasn't brave enough to actually remove the heatsink myself, so I'm going to have a slightly more technically inclined friend take a look at the innards of my computer with a more advanced eye. It seems like it might be an airflow problem, so I'm hoping he finds something and we can get it fixed without going through the hassle of shipping it off for a few weeks and hoping HP finds something.

[sp]

The heatsink is a snap to remove (should only be 4 screws) and doesn't affect any other components so don't worry about removing it. The only thing is when you put it back on make sure you get some heatsink compound and put a little on the cpu where the heatsink makes contact. As they used to say "a little dab will do you". Once theheatsink is removed you will be able to see the airway between the fan and the exhaust port. Just make sure it is clear and the channels on the heatsink are as well. If everything was clear just make sure the fan is actually working. If that isn't the ptoblem I'm not sure what the issue is and you might just have to ship it off to HP.