laptop needs to warm up before boot

[norm1320]

I have a feeling this is going to be a case of "more trouble than the laptop is worth" but I'd like to at least figure out what the cause is if I can.

patient -

HP Pavillion DV9000 running 32bit Vista Home Premium

symptoms -

After it has been turned off for long enough to cool down, it takes over an hour to boot. It first goes thru numerous cycles of powering on/off without ever getting to post and without turning the display on (not even the backlight). After a while it will finally turn the display on and post. When it gets to this point it may boot directly to windows, or it may ask to go into start-up repair. When it does the latter, I have sometimes gone into repair, and other times I have chosen to attempt to boot directly to windows. Sometimes it boots the rest of the way, other times it will suddenly re-boot. It does not seem to matter whether I attempt start-up repair or not, it simply seems to reach a point eventually when it is "warmed up" enough to start. Once it does boot into windows it runs fine, can be restarted at will without issue, and shows no signs that there is anything wrong with it. It is only if it is allowed to cool down that the problem arises again.

Other probably unrelated issue -

For nearly two years it has had a faulty battery which will not charge, but which the owner does not wish to replace. I don't think this is relevant to this problem, but thought that I should include it just in case someone thinks of a connection.


I was thinking that it might be a dying capacitor, since I have seen occasions where a cap reaching the end of its life would work fine when warm but not from a cold start. But this is only a hunch.

Any ideas?

 

[Boston Pro Comp Serv LLC]

HP Pavillion DV9000 running 32bit Vista Home Premium

Motherboard/graphics chip/fail

 

[HDDLAB]

What are the results of the diagnostics ran on the system ? Do they show any problems ? I would check the hard drive as well I have seen similar slow startup be a bad /failing drive.

 

[norm1320]

What are the results of the diagnostics ran on the system ? Do they show any problems ? I would check the hard drive as well I have seen similar slow startup be a bad /failing drive.

Diagnostic tests show nothing wrong (both the built-in BIOS hardware tests and windows based tests). However I can only run them when the system gets to that point where it will actually run, at which time the symptoms disappear.

edit - I should add that I have taken the HDD out and connected it VIA USB to another computer to make an image just in case. It worked fine and didn't show any errors when testing it in that configuration.

 

[NYJimbo]

Motherboard/graphics chip/fail

+1 usually some large BGA chip, gpu, southbridge, etc.

 

[norm1320]

+1 usually some large BGA chip, gpu, southbridge, etc.

So I assume you would concur with my original gut feeling that it's not really worth fixing on a DV9000.

 

[Boston Pro Comp Serv LLC]

I've haven't had any come back after a reflow/reball + the copper shim, but I assume I am lucky. I don't do the reflow or ball myself I send it out and I recommend aganist it, but if the customer wants the customer gets, as long as they pay. We aren't talking about 100's here maybe like 20, I talk them out of it if I can.

 

[mr m]

Before you take a hammer to it remove the battery and see what happens.

 

[NYJimbo]

Before you take a hammer to it remove the battery and see what happens.

A battery on a obvious thermal issue? Do you think the battery needs to get hot for the machine to boot ?

 

[Kieran]

reflow

ive come across this issue on several hp laptops as its a known fault with them. theres supposedly a bad batch of solder on these models which causes this issue. over time the heating up and cooling down of the graphics chip has caused the solder around it to develop micro-fractures and the connection between the board and chip has become bad. it starts after an hour or so of trying as its heated up enough to reflow the solder "temporarily". ive done a few reflows of the graphics chip with heat guns and a copper coin between the heatsink and chip and it has worked well for me. i wouldnt recommend an oven reflow as it can damage other parts of the board. so far its worked for me about 5 times and all the laptops are still going strong so i think you should give it a go as you have nothing to lose. hope this helps.

 

[NYJimbo]

.. theres supposedly a bad batch of solder on these models which causes this issue.

A bad batch of solder ? Can you post a link to anything about a "bad batch of solder" ? I have not seen this myself.

 

[Kieran]

A bad batch of solder ? Can you post a link to anything about a "bad batch of solder" ? I have not seen this myself.

i came across it on another forum some time ago when i was researching the problem with the nVIDIA chips on these laptops. also a utube video of a professional reballer doing a reflow where he mentions hp used a bad batch of solder on their laptops. i wouldnt be sure this is the culprit but it could play some part in it together with the bad cooling / venting these laptops have. quite interesting all the same. these line of laptops also have a tendancy to fail just when there out of warranty a lot of the time by just a few days

 

[mr m]

A battery on a obvious thermal issue? Do you think the battery needs to get hot for the machine to boot ?

Had a Dell E1505 last week that booted and ran fine until it warmed up. Then it ran in slooow motion. Whether I opened IE, typed in notepad or tried to modify the startup in msconfig the CPU acted like it couldn't keep up to my inputs. The cursor would lag behind my motions on the touchpad. A check would appear seconds after I clicked a box. It was like the CPU was busy processing needless interupts.

I yanked the battery, rebooted and voila! It ran fast, for an XP system anyway. Yeah, I've never seen that before either. Maybe the temp sensor in the battery was stuck in a loop. Who knows. She too admitted the battery had been dead for years. I figured it was worth a few minutes of the OP's time to try it before relegating the pc to cyber heaven.

 

[norm1320]

Thanks for the help everyone.

It does seem pretty clear that a reflow/reball is indeed what it needs. (and no, taking the battery out didn't work. But it was worth the 3 seconds it took to try it. I've seen things work which really shouldn't have before)

 

[dhenxie09]

Fixed Temporarily

I have a feeling this is going to be a case of "more trouble than the laptop is worth" but I'd like to at least figure out what the cause is if I can.

patient -

HP Pavillion DV9000 running 32bit Vista Home Premium

symptoms -

After it has been turned off for long enough to cool down, it takes over an hour to boot. It first goes thru numerous cycles of powering on/off without ever getting to post and without turning the display on (not even the backlight). After a while it will finally turn the display on and post. When it gets to this point it may boot directly to windows, or it may ask to go into start-up repair. When it does the latter, I have sometimes gone into repair, and other times I have chosen to attempt to boot directly to windows. Sometimes it boots the rest of the way, other times it will suddenly re-boot. It does not seem to matter whether I attempt start-up repair or not, it simply seems to reach a point eventually when it is "warmed up" enough to start. Once it does boot into windows it runs fine, can be restarted at will without issue, and shows no signs that there is anything wrong with it. It is only if it is allowed to cool down that the problem arises again.

Other probably unrelated issue -

For nearly two years it has had a faulty battery which will not charge, but which the owner does not wish to replace. I don't think this is relevant to this problem, but thought that I should include it just in case someone thinks of a connection.


I was thinking that it might be a dying capacitor, since I have seen occasions where a cap reaching the end of its life would work fine when warm but not from a cold start. But this is only a hunch.

Any ideas?

I have same problem too. When turn on my laptop only power indicator lights up and blinking about 3 seconds interval on battery mode.When i plug in the adapter, the battery light indicator was blinking. I have acer aspire 4752g laptop and I've tried a lot of hardware troubleshooting. check the CMOS battery if it cause the bios not booting up, check the RAM if it was, check all that connected to the motherboard but no luck.

But i've tried to warm it using Sunlight and Electric Iron then it will on with no problem.. try it and its temporary repair your laptop to boot up..

I've done a lot of research on this and find out that there's a chip goes to be dead like capacitor, If capacitor goes to be dead, it will back to life if it gets warm.

I suggest you to bring it to the technician that know how to re-balling and re-heat.

 

[glennd]

ive come across this issue on several hp laptops as its a known fault with them. theres supposedly a bad batch of solder on these models which causes this issue. over time the heating up and cooling down of the graphics chip has caused the solder around it to develop micro-fractures and the connection between the board and chip has become bad. it starts after an hour or so of trying as its heated up enough to reflow the solder "temporarily". ive done a few reflows of the graphics chip with heat guns and a copper coin between the heatsink and chip and it has worked well for me. i wouldnt recommend an oven reflow as it can damage other parts of the board. so far its worked for me about 5 times and all the laptops are still going strong so i think you should give it a go as you have nothing to lose. hope this helps.

Concur. We also call it "dry joints" where the solder goes dry and stops conducting. Heat can sometimes make them conduct again. Sometimes it can be salvaged by resoldering the joints in question if you can narrow it down.

I've also seen similar symptoms in a laptop with a dead battery. Removing or replacing the battery may resolve it. It's a gamble tho...

If a customer came to me with this unit, I'd call it a write off.

g