random shutdown

  • Thread starter Thread starter Little Elephant with Big Ears
  • Start date Start date
L

Little Elephant with Big Ears

Ok, here's the problem. A couple days ago, the hp dv9040 I work on started
shutting down on me quite randomly, with different applications and different
situations. I ran chkdsk and it came back with errors and I ran it again
with /f and seemed to work fine, until it happened again. did the chkdsk
thing again, but this time I didn't have the computer plugged in and while I
let it run, it ran out of juice. When I tried to start the machine again
(plugged in) it gave me the "windows did not start properly" screen from
which i chose every option- none worked. Long story short, I tried a few
other things and ended up reformatting the drive and loading xp from the
recovery partition. Only it is still shutting down when there are many
things going on, like streaming video, any kind of game involving graphics,
or if antivirus software starts running. I've checked the event logs and
there doesn't seem to be a record of anything failing anywhere, also all
devices are listed as working properly. Not sure where to go from here.
 
All those applications require alot of the pc & OS resources to run.Check
out youre pc hardware (memory,hard drive,etc),over time they do wear out,
plus memory gets its plug in tabs corroded with time which leads to
electrical
resistance with the socket.Try running microsoft memory tester to start,get
it at: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
 
Thanks for the advice Andrew, I'll let you know how it goes. Just an aside
here, I was able to recover many of my files (pics, excel files, word docs,
ppt's, pdf's- the video files did not recover) from the formatted drive with
a product called "recover my files." All names and containers were lost
though. A lesson in the importance of backup and preparedness.
 
Ok, ran the memory tests, apparently not a memory problem. Although the
computer crashed once while running the memory diagnostic, which is leading
me to believe it is not a software issue. What do you think? the computer
is only 2 years old, it gets a good ammount of use, but is not abused at all.
 
It sounds like the HP laptop has a hardware problem that might be heat
related. HP has had some problems in this area. Are the internal fans
running? Does this model have an Nvidia video chipset?

"Little Elephant with Big Ears"
 
Ok, ran the memory tests, apparently not a memory problem.  Although the
computer crashed once while running the memory diagnostic, which is leading
me to believe it is not a software issue.  What do you think?  the computer
is only 2 years old, it gets a good ammount of use, but is not abused at all.
Click to expand...

I believe that this HP is a laptop. Download "Hwmonitor" and monitor
the heat generated (http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php.)

Random shutdown are usually not that completely random. Modern PCs
have a security feature to turn the power off (aka shutdown) when the
unit over-heats. You might be able to temporary fix this by placing a
laptop cooling pad under this laptop.
 
I have found the same thing. I have downloaded some monitoring software, and
it looks like the C drive that holds the operating system and applications is
overheating. Since updating the bios version it hasn't been shutting down
randomly, but I think you are correct, it seems to be heat related. I am
trying to get HP to replace the drive that's overheating. Do you think HP
will replace the drive if it hasn't completely deteriorated? I do have an
exteded service plan, and the literature is alittle vague around this.
 
Yes, internal fans are running, and yes, Nvidia chipset. updated bios seems
to be working better, no more random shutdowns. The problem does seem to be
heat related though- I did download a monitoring program and have been
tracking the drive temps and the C drive is definately overheating- 60c+ in
some cases. Do you think the drive is faulty or would it be somthing else?
 
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