Laptop keeps shutting down

[ovidiutaralesca]

Hello! My father disassembled his laptop today to clear the dust. It went well, he cleaned it with alcohol. He did not touch the cooler, he only took the fan off and blew the dust built within.
When he powers his laptop up, after the Windows 7 logo, the laptop shuts down. This makes me think of CPU overheating, but it doesn't really make sense since he did not remove the cooler.


He managed to boot in Safe Mode, but after he attempted to use HP Recovery Manager to restore the laptop to factory settings (the restoration failed somehow), he gets an error message in Safe Mode saying that the computer has gone through an incomplete restoration.
Could it be the Hard Drive?

Unfortunately, there is no computer service anywhere near him, that's why he did this by himself. He had cleaned the same laptop a few times before and everything was fine. I'd be glad if someone could help me.

The laptop is a HP Pavilion G7.

 

[mcnumpty23]

if it worked before he disassembled it and immediately after it doesnt

then chances are its something he did

possibly disconnected the fan? and didnt reconnect it?

 

[ovidiutaralesca]

if it worked before he disassembled it and immediately after it doesnt

then chances are its something he did

possibly disconnected the fan? and didnt reconnect it?

He did, the fan starts spinning. I am sure it is something he did, but I have no idea what.

 

[prtaylorwichita]

Does it give any diagnostic info when booting or is it simply an HP Splash Screen? There are so many things that could cause the issue including RAM or other hardware if they are not seated properly. It is possible that a static discharge damaged a memory module.

Creating a boot USB drive with MemTest86 might be a good test for RAM errors and basic CPU and memory functionality. Or you could use a USB bootable version DSL Linux. If the system can not even boot to a MemTest86 boot USB drive or DSL Linux, then you may have a more serious issue. If either of these work then your problem may be with the hard drive.

 

[ffg7]

if the laptop works in safemode but not normal mode then is a software issue. instead of doing a factory reset in safemode try system restore in safemode.

 

[ovidiutaralesca]

It worked, but only once, which is strange. Now when he tries to install a new copy of windows, Copying Windows Files goes from 0% to 100% instantly, and then gets stuck on Expanding Windows files at 0%.

 

[ffg7]

try reseating the ram after using a pencil eraser on the gold contacts on the ram.

 

[ovidiutaralesca]

@ffg7 I will try that.

In fact, he managed to install Windows 7 trial. This is pretty strange because it pretty much rules out hardware problems I guess. Now he tries to restore the factory settings with HP Recovery Manager to get the drivers and genuine Windows installed. I'll keep the thread updated.

 

[prtaylorwichita]

@ffg7 I will try that.

In fact, he managed to install Windows 7 trial. This is pretty strange because it pretty much rules out hardware problems I guess. Now he tries to restore the factory settings with HP Recovery Manager to get the drivers and genuine Windows installed. I'll keep the thread updated.

It does not completely rule out a hardware issue as it could be an intermittent issue with something that is failing, temperature is often the key factor on memory, CPU, and chipset components. But it is certainly more promising if it was able to compete a trial Win 7 install as opposed to failing during the process.

 

[ovidiutaralesca]

He managed to install Windows 7 x86. He had no x64 disk, but that is fine for the moment. The thing is: when he installs his AMD video drivers( only x64 drivers are available), the laptop shuts down after Starting Windows phase, like I described in the main post.
I cleaned up his drivers with some software and the laptop now works, even though he has no video drivers (he only surfs the internet).
As for tests, HDD health is OK except for temperature (it runs at 50C which is quite high I think), no bad sectors. CPU temp peaks at 85C after one hour in Prime95 at 100%.

I don't get it, is the driver causing the problem? If so, why did the problem occur only after he disassembled the system?

 

[ffg7]

which g7 series of laptop as there is 7 series?

 

[ovidiutaralesca]

which g7 series of laptop as there is 7 series?

The model is G7-1260us.

 

[ffg7]

amd, intel or nvidia videocard?

 

[1shado1]

amd, intel or nvidia videocard?

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02996675

 

[ffg7]

but drivers page shows all 3 which is why I posted that question.

 

[ovidiutaralesca]

It has AMD video card.

 

[ffg7]

hp win7 32bit drivers link. http://hpnotebookdrivers.com/hp-pavilion-g7-1260us-notebook-pc-windows-7-32-bit-drivers/

 

[1shado1]

but drivers page shows all 3 which is why I posted that question.

Point taken.
(My bad)

 

[ovidiutaralesca]

Thank you! I will try to install those drivers in the following days. I will update the thread with the result.

 

[ffg7]

can also try the amd site to get the latest drivers if the amd driver from my link works. did he get the sound working?

 

[ovidiutaralesca]

Sound worked by default. He installed network drivers and they worked. I forgot to mention that before he started cleaning the dust, the laptop was in stand-by, without battery. He force-stopped it. May this be the cause of the fault?

 

[ffg7]

download the correct sound drivers from that link. don't think so on the fault.

 

[prtaylorwichita]

Typically a force stop when in stand by, suspended, or hibernated hasn't caused any problems in my experience unless prior to going into that state it had installed updates. Windows 7 will typically roll back the updates if necessary upon reboot. Occasionally take one or more reboots, then prompt you for any rolled back update(s) again.

Since this model according to HP has an Intel Core i3 processor it will have the Intel Chipset, which will include the Intel VPU on the motherboard. However, on many laptops the interface will not be exposed to the outside for connectivity. In the base model, it was available with the Intel HD Graphics 3000, however it appears that more advanced models might have been available with either the AMD or nVidia VPUs. Unlike a desktop, the advanced options would not expose the onboard Intel Graphics Adapter. But that explains the confusion on which graphics adapter you should use or install on a rebuild.

As far as general rebuilds, I usually start with the chipset drivers which often helps Windows recognize onboard hardware and either automatically detect and download the drivers or allows Windows to tell you what drivers it needs during the detection process.