Laptop abruptly powers off after few seconds of booting

I have a 3 year old HP Pavilion dv2208 laptop. Recently it started abruptly powering off in like ~20-30 seconds into Windows boot sequence after almost every reboot/shutdown. Even if I leave it in Repair/Start Windows Normally stage it powers off anyway.

The only way I managed to workaround this is to enter BIOS setup screen and leave it on for no less than 10 minutes. I don't know what happens there but this helps every time.

Any ideas of possible ways to fix this that don't include replacing motherboard are highly appreciated.

P.S.: I've tried resetting BIOS to defaults, updating to the latest BIOS version, etc. Happens with both Vista and Windows 7.

Alan Mendelevich

Posted 2010-07-03T08:05:12.373

Reputation: 181

1Is this with the laptop connected to a power supply or using the battery? Have checked the battery connection to the laptop? – Jonno_FTW – 2010-07-03T08:29:06.113

There's no difference if it's connected or not. In both cases it behaves exactly the same. – Alan Mendelevich – 2010-07-03T09:53:03.283

1If it was a battery issue I'm not sure that idling in BIOS for ten minutes would make any difference... – Andy – 2010-07-03T09:53:38.573

Answers

I have an hp laptop which does exactly the same thing and it is not because it IS overheating, but because one of the fans does not work and so it is protectively not booting to prevent overheating.

datatoo

Posted 2010-07-03T08:05:12.373

Reputation: 3 162

sorry i didn't understand the 'bios trick' after 10 minutes in the bios settings it will boot fine? – datatoo – 2010-07-08T23:15:40.240

Yes. If I leave it on the bios settings screen for 10 minutes it boots just fine. Not sure it manages to start a dead fan during that period :) – Alan Mendelevich – 2010-07-22T11:11:34.353

Sounds like an overheating issue to me. The CPU is shutting down the computer because it is getting too hot. The bios doesn't use up nearly the CPU power so there aren't any issues with that. Did you install the CPU yourself? Could the CPU Fan have stopped?

Though... When you say entering the bios "helps" do you mean it lets you boot up windows and stay in windows? Or do you just means it can stay on longer than 20~30 seconds that way? If it is the former, then this is probably not the best answer. Can you elaborate on "helps"? After doing this does it let you boot into windows? For longer? Or indefinably?

Jarvin

Posted 2010-07-03T08:05:12.373

Reputation: 6 712

1No, I didn't install CPU. And this is definitely not an overheating issue cause I can leave it off for a month and then it won't boot until I do that "trick" with BIOS setup screen. When I say it helps I mean it really helps. After that it boots like nothing happened and works perfectly until I manually shut down or restart it. – Alan Mendelevich – 2010-07-03T10:41:11.580