When I try to turn on my notebook the key board lights up, it starts to boot then stops, shuts down and repeats the cycle. The screen does not come up during all of this. The cycle is about tree to four seconds long. It has been suggested that the power supply might be bad. What do you think? Also I am having some trouble getting this thing apart to inspect for loose connections. How do I open this sucker up ? Thank you for any help you can give me! This is a HP Pavilion ze 4400 notebook.
Does this happen if you start the laptop on the battery power, without power supply plugged in? If yes, then most likely it’s not the power supply problem.
First of all I would check the memory. Try reseating the memory module, make sure the contacts on the module are clean. Try moving it from one slot to another. If reseating will not help, find a known good memory stick and test the laptop again. Try starting the laptop without the hard drive. Sometimes a failed hard drive can halt entire system.
Finally, minimize the laptop as much as you can. Check all connections. Remove all devices and leave only three main parts: motherboard, processor and memory. Test the laptop with an external monitor. If you still experience the same problem most likely you have a failed motherboard.
The maintenance and service guide for HP Pavilion ze4400 has step by step disassembly instructions. Take it apart at your own risk.
Static electricity can kill your laptop. I recommend wearing an anti-static wrist strap while working with internal parts of your laptop.
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March 19th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
thank you that was quite helpfull, it turns out that the motherboard may be bad. someone ells said perhaps the power supply but that seems to be integral in the unit. you asked about the battery, it does not seem to be charging. the only way i can get any signs of life is with the external cord attached. and it does the same thing with or without the harddrive installed. moving the ram had no efect either. Im thinking of listing it on E-bay unless I can find a motherbd new or used cheap enough.
thanks again! ……Sean
October 9th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I think its worth mentioning that some motherboards have repairable GPU’s and if you have a failed GPU the computer will most likely not post.
October 13th, 2008 at 11:16 am
My pc HP pavillion zv5000 (zv5242qv) stopped booting up. The pc will start; then show the HP icon: give you esc and f10 choices, but then goes dark. It will not respond to the f10 or imput choices. (although, it did respond to them once)
I have tested the power on my zv5000.ok voltage ok– I resat the 2 memory cards. I tried starting without the hard drive. I tried to do the memory test CD..it will not run. It appears that many zv5000 have bad mother boards. Is that something too difficult to replace? How do I get the correct part number for the zv5242qv model?
October 13th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Warren,
You’ll find motherboard removal instructions in the service manual for zv5000 notebooks.
Take a look in the memory module compartment on the bottom of your notebook. It’s possible that you can find the motherboard part number in there, it should be on a sticker.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:27 am
My hp pavillion dv9000 tries to boot you see the screen with the hp logo for a few seconds then it goes black and a message blinks rapidly in the top left corner. something like invalid boot. I think I may have deleted some important boot files. It was working fine before I messed with it yesterday. Id like to try using a recovery disk to reinstall the missing files, but have little money to spend on the disk from HP. Is there someway I could download a free copy from a site to a disk? If so, how do I reinstall the missing files? I can get to the bios screen, but it wont let me start in safe mode. Thanks for your help. M
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:21 am
My hp pavilion dv9000 is not booting up,i took it apart to add a new cpu and screen put it back together and now all i get is the lightning button blinking with the power suply in and out. What happened at first the screen came on for a few seconds and now it wont do anything?
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Nicholle Hawley,
Why did you decide to replace the CPU in the first place? Do you think the CPU is bad? From my experience CPU failures are very rare.
Did you install the same type of CPU as the original one? Maybe your new CPU is not compatible?
If your laptop stopped booting, the first thing to check would be RAM.
What did you experience when it stopped booting? Was it completely dead? Did you get any LED lights or noises coming from the laptop?
February 28th, 2009 at 8:21 am
My HP Pavillion dv9000 is doing the same thing. Failed at boot up, nothing on the screen, all LEDs are lid but power cycled after about 5-10 sec. I replaced the CMOS battery after testing foe voltage. Re-seating the RAMs. Removed main hard drive. Problem remained the same. Any suggestions? I didn’t open up the laptop yet.
February 28th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Alfonz,
Do not open the laptop yet.
Take a look at this post:
Free repair for some out-of-warranty HP Pavilion and Compaq Presario laptops
It’s possible that HP will fix your laptop at no charge. Call them first and ask about free repair for your dv9000.
March 5th, 2009 at 9:27 am
I have the same problem with my HP Pavilion dv6000. Until laptop is cold, it turns without any problems. But after a few moments, it does not react. when I run it again he behaves as well as a HP Pavilion ze 4400 notebook. Notebook starts to boot then shuts down and repeats the cycle. I tried reseating the memory module; I tried starting the laptop without the hard drive but there was no effect..
Where can I find motherboard removal instructions for HP Pavilion dv6000?
Sorry for my English.
March 7th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Andrius LTU,
You’ll find step-by-step motherboard removal instructions in the maintenance and service guide. Follow this link. It’s a pdf file and might take some time to load.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:03 am
thank you!
March 21st, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Another consideration for this cycling problem is overheating due to lint / pet hair inside the laptop. This happened to a friend of mine.
Just remove the battery pack and the case screws so that you can crack it open a bit, then use a vacume cleaner or compressed air hose to blow out the junk.
April 16th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Hi guide!
I have a laptop HP and now i got problem with it.
My laptop is NX6110, when I press start button it startu but not finish boot circle, may be it can not found CD or hardisk (i guest).could you give me some advise in this case.
thanks so much and sory about my english.
hope to see you soon.
April 19th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Roberd Lee,
Are you getting an error message, the laptop restarts or what?
June 27th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I have the same problem. My HP DV6000 starts with a black screen and reboot. This repeats for 3 times until he shutdown. My first idea was to replace the heatsink cause the fan does not work. After reassembling the fan turns on but the failure is still the same. I connected an external TFT Monitor on the VGA Port – nothing happened. I cleared the CMOS by removing the battery, still the same error. I changed the RAM with another 512K Module – nothing changed. Even with no RAM installed the DV 6000 gives no error .. ? No beep – nothing. If i install (additionally) the HDD, the DV 6000 start up one time ! and shut down. Have anyone an idea, i’m afraid the motherboard is the reason for this problem.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Mike,
Unfortunately, your description does sound like a problem with the motherboard.
Very few laptops will produce a beep error message when memory is removed.
By the way, maybe your dv9000 laptop qualifies for a free repair from HP?
July 3rd, 2009 at 8:57 am
Laptop Tech, thanks for the information but unfortunately i live in europe.
I’ll try to contact HP maybe they will be obliging
July 7th, 2009 at 7:40 am
Good day bro..
I have HP dv4000 when i tried to boot it will only shows HP icon, ESC, F10, and F12.. When i choose what drive to boot it will go back to HP icon,esc,F10, and F12.. I also tried to load default setting in bios.. but it will go back again and again.. also tried removing harddisk and it will shows same problem.. haven’t tried removing memory..
July 28th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Hi,
I have a HP dv6000 series and it has the same problem (shuts on and off repeatedly) and I can’t even get the recovery disk to run as it shuts off every 25 seconds!
I removed the motherboard, tried to start up without it, put it back when it’s starting and either way, keeps doing the same thing (on and off with or without the motherboard). I removed the RAM as well and did as with the motherboard and nothing, keeps doing it. All lights go on when it starts and the fan runs ok………………I did send my laptop to HP for the enhanced guarantee last year (they changed everything (CPU, BIOS etc!) and now I have the same problem! HP wont repair it again and I just want to recover my files. Is there anyway to get it to work for at least one more time?
Thanks!
August 3rd, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Kar
Have someone remove the laptops HDD and install it in a portable HDD enclosure. This way you can attach to a desktop with a USB cable and get your data.
November 20th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Same problem with dv6609 shuts down after 5 seconds, but sometimes it will run for 4-5 hours