Hi everyone I'm a bit puzzled on this one. A friend's laptop is playing up. This is what we have observed: It's absolutely fine when the charger is plugged in. When running on battery, it will usually turn off (as in, the power cuts completely) after anything between 5 and 20 mins, regardless of how charged or discharged the battery is. Once it has turned itself off, it doesn't respond to the power button. Sometimes, taking the battery out and putting it back in again allows it to restart, but it turns off again after another 5-20 mins. Plugging the charger in again lets it boot up no problem. Once it has booted, the battery meter reads as it should (eg, 70% if the laptop's been used for a half an hour on the battery) and the battery charges as it should. I've had a few thoughts about what it could be. It might be overheating (the fan is always on, and I think there's a lot of dust in it), but if it's overheating, how come it's always fine when running from the charger? It could be the battery, but how does that explain the way that taking the battery out and putting it back in again fixes the problem for a while? It's about 18 months old, so is out of warranty. It was bought at Comet, and they have proved to be totally useless. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it? New batteries are about £40 or £50, so I don't want to buy one just to see if that works. Thanks for any help ch424
In the bios, are there settings for how the fan is used in whichever profile, i.e. one for when it's plugged in and another for on battery? You could be right when you say it overheats. I bought a spangly new HP laptop (6330 iirc) last year and only had it for a few months because the fans were always on. Then again, as you say, it might just want some dust and crud cleaning out from between the heatsink fins.
Oooh, that's a good idea. Thanks I'll have a look in the BIOS and make the effort to take the bottom off and dust it.. luckily I found a repair manual on the HP site!
I am actually having the same problem with my HP dv6330.. although it is nearly 2 years old. I've just resigned to only using it at home where I can plug it in, but I think I'll try this out. Thanks.
Also, it may be worth checking if there's a more up to date bios for your laptop. Sometimes they can cure problems like this. There's quite a list though, so make sure you pick the right one! (They're under Software and Drivers, then choose an OS).
