internal monitor shutdown dv9000

[vo1stv]

HP Pavilion dv9400 Entertainment Notebook PC series

I have an older HP laptop (DV9000) that is still useful as a file server and entertainment PC.  It has one problem that I suspect is a bug in the BIOS version.  The internal monitor works perfectly for about 60-120 minutes after power up.  No matter what I do however, even if I enter the BIOS, the monitor shuts off (completely black) after these short two minutes, and nothing I do seems to restore power to it (including pressing function F4).

I have worked around the problem by powering off and connecting an external display, and opening the lid just long enough to press the power button to turn it back on.  I am using the computer now to write this message, so everything else is perfect.  

It would be nice to have use of the internal screen again, however.  

I have flashed the most recent BIOS to the system and it hasn't fixed the problem.  The problem may in fact be traced back to an earlier BIOS upgrade, but I'm not 100% sure.  Can I get access to the original BIOS (circa 2007?) to see if this problem goes away if I revert the BIOS upgrades?

Or maybe someone can suggest another solution?

[Huffer]

AMD or Intel? The dv9000 series was a huge problem child that spawned recalls and class action lawsuits and cost HP and nVidia millions of dollars in reparations like 8 or 9 years ago. So I susepct the issue relates to the well-known hardware design failures of that model. 

[vo1stv]

According to System Information here are the details:

System Model HP Pavilion dv9000 (GL889UA#ABL)

SMBIOS Version 2.4
Processor AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-53, 1700 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)

BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard F.43, 22/03/2010

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 1.00 GB

I've seen people on Google suggest removing the battery and holding down the power button, but those panaceas failed me. 

Sad to hear about HPs woes with the dv9000.  I think I got my money's worth out of this one.  I'll have to check the recall to make sure there's not a safety issue in contuinig to use it, however.

[Huffer]

Glad you recognize it has provided a reasonable service life. We still have people come on here and want to fight about problems with these laptops 10 years after the fact. Safety is not really the problem. They do not catch fire or shock people; they just die. 

[JJace]

I'm not surprised to be honest, I bought one of these laptops at the time and got maybe a year and a half of useage out of it.  When I bought it, I was told the warranty would cover me for as many repairs as I needed.  I started experiencing problems like you described above and sent the laptop in for repairs.  It would come back  and within a day or two it would do exactly the same thing again and I would have to send it in for repairs again.  This happened 3 or 4 times and the last time I had a very vicious and unpleasant woman essentially accusing me of doing this on purpose.  She told me that HP now refused to repair it again because it wasnt their fault.  I didn't have the money to go to a lawyer and she was so unpleasant I just gave up.  I kept the laptop because I figured it might be useful for parts or something and it was in storage forgotten until last year when a friend of mine said he would try to fix it.  I have had a working laptop for months now but I have recently started having another problems which appear to be related to the version of BIOS on this machine.  But now I read on this thread that all along it was HP that had sold me a flawed good, and then made it out to be my fault?! Unbelievable. And you work for these people for free?!

[JJace]

I'm not surprised to be honest, I bought one of these laptops at the time and got maybe a year and a half of useage out of it.  When I bought it, I was told the warranty would cover me for as many repairs as I needed.  I started experiencing problems like you described above and sent the laptop in for repairs.  It would come back  and within a day or two it would do exactly the same thing again and I would have to send it in for repairs again.  This happened 3 or 4 times and the last time I had a very vicious and unpleasant woman essentially accusing me of doing this on purpose.  She told me that HP now refused to repair it again because it wasnt their fault.  I didn't have the money to go to a lawyer and she was so unpleasant I just gave up.  I kept the laptop because I figured it might be useful for parts or something and it was in storage forgotten until last year when a friend of mine said he would try to fix it.  I have had a working laptop for months now but I have recently started having another problems which appear to be related to the version of BIOS on this machine.  But now I read on this thread that all along it was HP that had sold me a flawed good, and then made it out to be my fault?! Unbelievable. And you work for these people for free?!

[Huffer]

And you spend your time dredging up issues on 10 year old laptops? Most people are grateful for the help but occasionally I run into someone who makes it a bit unpleasant. 

[vo1stv · Accepted solution]

I can understand the frustration. I'm not sure if hp has learned from their failure since I dread using my modern HP with Windows 10. I much prefer using my iPad or Android phone.

[Huffer]

Yeah well good luck batch editing a bunch of photos in Photoshop, OCR'ing a bunch of scanned documents, video editing, compiling some Code or even writing the Great American Novel. Some of us still work with our computers but most people, like my maiden aunt, just post on Facebook or share recipes on Pinterest where an iPad or a phone is just fine. Oh and of course you can always give yourself a Solution just because you can and not because you had anything interesting for the good of the Order. Pure class. Nice job. Kudos to you, too.