I have a HP Pavillion Entertainment PC laptop. It's approximately 3 years old. I've searched tech support answers online and nothing has helped. It's no long under warranty so calling them is not an option besides my main priority is retrieving family photos from the harddrive.

My issue is this:

When powered on it will do one of four things:
1-Turn back off within seconds.
2-Prompt to start normally or in repair mode (Either option produces the same result) it shuts back off after it gets to the user log in screen.
3-Blue screen of death (flashed so quickly I couldn't read it before it turned off
4-RARELY it'll stay on for a few minutes or hours at a time.

Things I've tried:
1-Removing the battery and AC cord and holding the power button for 30 seconds to drain power before putting the battery in and trying to power it on (doesn't help) and plugging in the AC cord (doesn't help)
2-Turning it on in safe mode. (again doesn't help)

Things the internet tells me it can be:
1-Fan is locked up or power source for fan needs replaced.
2-The powers source unit needs replaced
*mind you, I am clueless how to do either beyond opening up the bottom of the laptop*
3-dust, etc buildup. Am attempting to blow out the laptop with compressed air after work.
4-I'm out of luck.

I'd settle for keeping it on and working long enough to get family photos either burned onto discs, transferred onto a memory stick, transferred to our netbook, or transferred external hard drive. Though, the last two options I would need SOME instruction.

Can anyone help or refer me to a person or place of business that can help?



Thanks!

call 951-2076 ask for willam watson he's very good and his rates are more than resonable

You said you've tried safe mode, do all the same things happen in safe mode? When you're in safe mode, your computer is only starting services it needs to run. If you're experiencing power failures or BSOD in safe mode, it's likely you're looking at a hardware failure.

I'm going to say it's likeliest a HDD problem because I've seen it before with similar models. I don't suppose it runs long enough to get hot - did it used to get very hot to the left of the touch pad and is there any whirring or clicking?

http://www.amazon.com/SAT...915&sr=8-4

Might be worth a try to pull the HDD, stuff it in a cheap enclosure, and see if it'll spin up.

Four years ago I bought one of these HP Pavillion 9000 series laptops. About a year later I had the similar issues. I learned that there is a problem with the video card getting hot and a poor soldering job that causes display issue. There is also BIOS issue. There is also a battery issue. I took mine to a repair place here in Gillette and told them to fix it only if it was going to cost less than $150.00 (salvage value on ebay). They charged me $147.50. The computer worked for 1 week and went back to not booting up or having display issue.

I went and bought my first mac laptop and have not had any computer issues since.

The HP Pavilions (actually not just HP, but other brands as well) with nvidia video chipsets did have an overheating issue that I think caused the gpu to desolder from the motherboard. I think the symptoms of that were display specific... no video output to the built-in display AND no video ouput to the external display or colored lines/squares on the display.

I know a guy who had an HP with this nvidia problem and nvidia sent him notice of a class action lawsuit settlement which gave him several options for replacement machines (free or reduced cost).

If the video chip is getting so hot it desolders from the motherboard then other things are getting pretty hot too.

Here's some info. It would be interesting to know if your laptop is one with this chipset.

http://www.worldlawdirect...010-a.html

http://www.nvidiasettleme...index.html

Oh, and Richard, the brands of computers with the defective nvidia chipset:

Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Apple.

The settlement relates to the purchase of Dell, Hewlett-Packard ("HP"), and Apple notebook computers containing NVIDIA chips. It will provide for (1) replacement of the NVIDIA graphics processing unit or media and communications processor, which are referred to in this Notice as the "chips," if you purchased a version of certain models of notebook computers manufactured by Dell, Inc., or Apple Inc. containing one of the NVIDIA chips, and your notebook computer is experiencing certain identified symptoms; or (2) a payment from a $2,000,000 settlement fund established for the purpose of providing reimbursements to persons who purchased a specified model of notebook computer, experienced certain identified symptoms, and paid to have the notebook computer repaired, although the amount of reimbursement may depend on the number of reimbursement claims received; or (3) a replacement notebook computer similar in kind and value, if you purchased a version of certain models of notebook computer manufactured by HP containing one of the NVIDIA chips and your notebook computer is experiencing certain identified symptoms, and if you return your eligible malfunctioning HP notebook computer once your claim is approved.

http://www.nvidiasettleme...VF_NOT.pdf

From the sounds of it, you got an overheating issue. There's usually two causes for this in pre-manufactured laptops; it's either a problem with your power supply, or a problem with the board in the laptop. Because this is a laptop, you probably would have noticed a problem with the external power supply by now if that was the problem. This leads me to believe you have a now faulty motherboard. Most likely whats happening is the processor is getting to hot because of power issues, and the computer is hitting the kill switch. A possible and easy fix would be to buy a new board and swap the old one out. However, it would most likely be a better use of money to buy a new computer and salvage the old hdd for your photos and files and what not. You could also do as mentioned above and throw it in an external enclosure, although i've yet to see an enclosure designed for a laptop hdd. However, if you did decide go the external route, I could probably help you out with a little bit of engineering and ingenuity. If you need some more help feel free to get a hold of me through the email linked to this account. It might take me a day or two to get back to you but it's better than nothing. Good luck.

That link is an enclosure for a laptop HDD.

Thank you all for the great information. I'm looking into the nvidia stuff and if it's applicable to my circumstances.

I'm going to probably persue the HDD suggestions because that sounds likely. I'm really not concerned about saving the laptop as a whole just the photos... so really the most affordable way to do that is best for me.

I'll contact some of you via email option on here with further questions.

Thanks again! I really didn't expect so much helpful advice.

Some more. Didn't notice that the previous link ships from China.

http://www.amazon.com/2-5...pd_sim_e_1

http://www.amazon.com/HAR...sim_misc_3

No "engineering and ingenuity" required, I promise.

You haven't stated the model, but they all are pretty easy to get to the HDD. Here's an example:

http://www.insidemylaptop...00-laptop/

Pull the HDD, plug it into the enclosure, it'll only go one way. Plug the little end of the USB cable into the enclosure and the big end into a working PC and see if it shows up under "My Computer".

Piece of cake, eh?

Sounds doable! Thanks!

Lesson learned? BACK UP BACK UP BACK UP and PRINT pictures that are important to you. Changing technology will never make a photograph go away or be unviewable.

My mistake on the enclosures. I've seen PATA ones before just not SATA, which I thought was really weird. There are ways to pull that data off without having to buy an enclosure, but if that's your chosen route it will work just as well. And like Amorrette said, you definitely should invest in some sort of back up storage, because things like this happen all the time.

It's also good to keep in mind that if your backups are stored in the same place that your computer is, it's not really a backup. If your house burns down your backups and printed copies will be just as gone as your computer. For $5 a month you can get software that will automatically back up your files to a remote server and you don't have to do anything.

http://www.carbonite.com/

I second Levi's suggestion about offsite backups. Carbonite is an excellent way to accomplish that task.

when the last time you had it cleaned, sounds like dust in the fan, simple problem but most people don't check it out. Call if you need help I do repairs or trouble shooting on computer. Eric 853-1048