600xt won't occasionally won't wake/power-on... green light on the power adapter is out... strange [ Edited ]

[waded]

Within the last 3 weeks or so our TouchSmart 600xt has goes into an odd state 4 different times... after being left unattended for some time we'll return to find the machine appears to be off & will not turn on via pressing the power button (the button on the upper right edge of the screen.) It typically sleeps after 20min, and if sleeping he power button will be glowing orange... in this case the light is off entirely. Also, when this occurs the green light on the power adapter is not lit. The power adapter behavior is quite out of the ordinary; its light never seens to be off, even if the PC is shut down completely. But it is when this happens.

The only recourse seems to be to unplug the power adapter, then plug it back in, after which the green light on the adapter lights, the power button lights, & the machine can be turned on by the power button.

Concerned we will lose some files if the shutdowns keep occuring. We've had the machine nearly a year, and this is new behavior in the last 3 weeks. However note that not during every sleep cycle does it occur. (The machine goes to sleep after being unattended on average 6 times daily and this has happened "only" 4 times it slept in the last 3 weeks.)

Thoughts? Some power-saving circuit in the power adapter gone awry perhaps?

[Ben95111]

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waded wrote:

Within the last 3 weeks or so our TouchSmart 600xt has goes into an odd state 4 different times... after being left unattended for some time we'll return to find the machine appears to be off & will not turn on via pressing the power button (the button on the upper right edge of the screen.) It typically sleeps after 20min, and if sleeping he power button will be glowing orange... in this case the light is off entirely. Also, when this occurs the green light on the power adapter is not lit. The power adapter behavior is quite out of the ordinary; its light never seens to be off, even if the PC is shut down completely. But it is when this happens.

The only recourse seems to be to unplug the power adapter, then plug it back in, after which the green light on the adapter lights, the power button lights, & the machine can be turned on by the power button.

Concerned we will lose some files if the shutdowns keep occuring. We've had the machine nearly a year, and this is new behavior in the last 3 weeks. However note that not during every sleep cycle does it occur. (The machine goes to sleep after being unattended on average 6 times daily and this has happened "only" 4 times it slept in the last 3 weeks.)

Thoughts? Some power-saving circuit in the power adapter gone awry perhaps?

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I would suggest buying a new power adapter.

[waded · Accepted solution]

I did come to resolution on this, but in a quite ridiculous way, with HP. My machine was under warranty so I called HP support. They paid shipping for me to return the PC. The shipping box included explicit instructions not to include the AC adapter. I included it anyway so they could use it in testing, including a note about the behavior and that I suspected the adapter not the PC. They returned the PC to me with a note saying they were unable to repro the problem, and a copy of the instructions with the part I intentionally didn't follow highlighted! System logs indicate this was true, but it hadn't been even left on for the MTBF I mentioned in the note... So even if they had used the adapter in testing that is not surprising. The problem reoccurred within days at home. I called again. They payed shipping again. I included the adapter, again. This time they kept the PC on in the lab for several days until something nasty happened with the graphics driver... not the unexpected loss of power, and not something I've ever seen before in logs. They replaced this hardware and returned it as fixed. The problem reoccurred within days at home. I called one more time, and said "please, can you just send me a AC adapter... if it doesn't work I'll send it back." They did. And I started using it. The problem has not recurred since.