Pavilion shuts down while in use

[equiphimah]

Dear sirs,
I have a 4 yr old HP Pavilion A6110E computer running Vista.
This weekend it started to shut down (power lost) while it was being
using......it just shuts down!! If you press the On/Off button, it will
boot-up using the recovery mode & then work fine for awhile till it
decided to shut down again (no rhyme or reasons) I tried another power
sources, checked all connections and even confirmed that there was no
dust build-up in the system. The odd thing is that it will start-up
immediately once you hit the power button. It does do a recovery
start-up because it was turned-off incorrectly......almost like someone
pulled the plug!! There is no set time frame or warning.....just seems
to loose power. All the fans are working fine (rotating), the CPU fan
does speed up at times then slows back down. I was thinking it might be
the power supply, but from past experiences once the Power supply is bad
the PC will not boot......plus the light stays on at the back of the
power supply. Is it possible for the system to be overheating even
though all the fan are working? Are there any other possibilities that I
might be missing? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!!!

Mike

[davy]

Hi, Mike.
Yes it could be the power supply, it has to provide a decent regulated
smooth 'ripple free' current on demand... if it can't then the whole
machine will give up.

Certainly do no harm trying a replacement as long as the power rating in
Wattage is equal to or greater than the one that is in.... it's the mobo
and it's fittings that determine the amount of power drawn, all the
supply has to do is to be able to provide it for, if it can't things
start to get into difficulty!

Also, look out for dust build up around the fans and CPU heatsink, a
small clean paint brush is ideal here for dusting purposes.

If you think about it the PSU (Power Supply Unit) does more work than
the CPU because it provides ALL the power that is demanded, the most
common failure in power supplies are the capacitors, they age very
quickly with heat and ripple current.

davy

[GMAN]

check for bulging capacitors

http://www.badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=5

[equiphimah]

Hi Davy,
Thanks for your response!!! I have already removed the heatsink &
confirmed it was clean.....also used compressed air to clean everything
else in the box. Truthfully it was the cleanest PC that I've worked
on.....no dust buildup at all except a couple of dust bunnies. I was
thinking it might be the Power Supply, but then I read the HP
Troubleshooting process & since the LED was always lit & the PC would
start-up, it led me to think it was OK & look for something else. I did
install a temperate monitoring software & saw the CPU peak to 97C so
that led me to believe it was either the heat sink / CPU fan or maybe
the box cooling fan. Unfortunately, I don't have spare parts to
troubleshoot with so I need to get the different items.....hoping to buy
the right one.

Thanks again!!!
Mike

[joe]

With the CPU getting to 97 degrees, look at the following possibilities.
1) The CPU fan has failed. Do the blades rotate freely? If not the
lubrication may have failed. The fan may not be moving enough air to
keep the CPU cool. ->Replace the fan
2) The heat sink is plugged with dust. You seem to have ruled this out.
-> Clean the heat sink.
3) The heat sink is not mated to the processor properly. It must be in
close contact. The mounting hardware usually has some sort of spring
mechanism to hold the heat sink onto the processor. -> Check and fix.
4) The heat sink grease may have failed. This is a grease-like substance
between the top of the processor and the heat sink. If this has dried
out or not providing uniform coverage heat will not transfer from the
processor to the heat sink well. Since you have removed the heat sink
you should clean both parts and apply new grease. -> Clean and replace
the grease (Arctic Silver is popular.) Ideally there is a thin, uniform
layer of grease between the processor and the heat sink.
5) Airflow through the box may be bad. The processor could be getting to
97 degress partly because all the air in the box is getting too hot. ->
Make sure all vents are clear and the case and power supply fans are
moving air properly. The bearing can also fail in those fans, reducing
airflow.

[equiphimah]

Thanks Davy & Gman for your help & directions on fixing my issue!!!
Last evening I replaced the Heat Sink with a Rocketfish Universal CPU
Cooler that I got at BestBuy. It was a little "OverKill" as compared to
the OEM part but it did the trick.....now the PC barely hit 50C (as
opposed to 60-90C). The PC ran all night & is still running.......so I
think my problem is solved!! So this closes my help request!!!

Mike

[GMAN]

In article <equiphim...@no.email.invalid>, equiphimah <equiphim...@no.email.invalid> wrote:
>

Bad Capacitors