# HP Pavilion zd8000 issues



## aclary1 (Feb 26, 2010)

Working on my mom's laptop. She told me it would turn off a lot when using it which I'm assuming was from it overheating which she told me it would do a lot. Last week she was using it, it started getting hot and then she smelled a burning smell. She immediately cut it off and asked me to look at it. I tried turning it on, was brought to the XP screen where Windows is loading and then it immediately cut off. I had it plugged up to AC power which was the only LED displayed on the front of the laptop. Battery doesn't appear to be charging either. The machine won't even turn on with only the AC power hooked up. It's not an AC power adapter problem as the green LED light on the adapter is on. 

I took the laptop apart, cleaned it, checked all the wires, boards, etc. and couldn't find anything wrong. Anyone have any ideas? MB replacement?


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## IT-Tech (Oct 12, 2009)

Hi and welcome to TSF!

Please check the DC Jack to see if it is broken or loose.


 Plug the AC Adapter into the laptop
 At the DC Jack connection (where the adapter plugs into the laptop), gently move the plug-in left to right and then up and down - watch the POWER LED and BATTERY LED to see if the lights activate or flicker.

Thanks!


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## aclary1 (Feb 26, 2010)

IT-Tech said:


> Hi and welcome to TSF!
> 
> Please check the DC Jack to see if it is broken or loose.
> 
> ...



Thanks. I tried this and now the battery and power LED are both lit. When I try to power the laptop on you can hear it start to fire up and then about 3 seconds later it turns off again. Both lights are still on and I can hear a barely audible whining sound. Any ideas?


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## IT-Tech (Oct 12, 2009)

Hi an thanks for the update!

Please clarify some things for me….

Are you saying that when you did the DC Jack test that the lights came on for the battery and power?

Please remove the battery and try it again… then try to power it on without the battery installed.

Thanks!


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## aclary1 (Feb 26, 2010)

Sorry I should of given more info in my first post. 

The front display of the laptop looks like this: (the top laptop)









The 4 lights on the front indicate the following from left to right: 
1 - power light
2 - battery light 
3 - AC power light - computer is receiving AC power
4 - hard drive activity light 

Before I took the computer apart the only LED light to display was the one on front that indicated that AC power(light #3) was connected to the computer, even when the battery was in. 

Now that I have taken the computer apart and cleaned it and made sure all wires were correctly attached I get the battery light(#2) and the AC light (#3) to come on. This makes me think the battery is charging at least. When I hit the power button all the lights flash, the power light(#1) comes on for a few seconds, the machine starts to come to life, and then it instantly shuts down again. Nothing even appears on the screen. And lights 2 and 3 are the only ones to appear. 

I honestly didn't even try the DC jack test as it appears to be receiving power. I thinks it something else but I have no idea what could be causing the problem. 

I haven't yet tried it with the battery taken out. Thanks for helping with this. 

I'm currently backing up the hard drive to another computer but should be done with that shortly.

Any ideas?


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## IT-Tech (Oct 12, 2009)

Hi an thanks for the update!

I have lots of troubleshooting ideas! LOL

It is extremely important to test the DC Jack. Just because the light illuminates doesn’t mean it has enough power.

Also, it is extremely important to try with the battery out because many times the battery can cause the system to fail.

A few more things to try are:

Be sure to disconnect the AC Adapter and remove the battery before you do any of these! I would recommend leaving the battery out for now.

*RAM reset/reseating*

Please remove the RAM from the system
Try to power the system on without the RAM – you should receive system beeps
Reseat the RAM and try to power on again
*Possible Hard Disk Drive (HDD) causing power on failure*

Please remove the HDD from the system
Attempt to power on the system with the HDD out of it
Thanks!


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## aclary1 (Feb 26, 2010)

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond. Had a busy Sat. 

Ok so this is what I tried from your suggestions:

First off I removed the battery. 
Tried powering on with the HDD out. Got nothing. 
Took the RAM out and tried again. Nothing. No beeps or anything. 
Tried with both out and got the same result. 

Now I put the battery back in and tried the same thing. This time when I hit the power button all the lights on the front come on and you hear it start to boot up for about 2-3 seconds and then it immediately shuts off. It does this regardless of what I've taken out(HDD, RAM) or put back in. 

Another interesting thing i've noticed is that when I hook up the AC power to the computer with the battery in you can hear a barely audible whining sound and the only 2 lights on are the AC and battery power light. It will do this for about 3-4 minutes, then both lights go off, the whining noise stops, and then it resumes with both the noise and lights about 15 seconds later. 

Any other ideas you might have?


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## IT-Tech (Oct 12, 2009)

Hi and thanks for the update!

Yes, please use a multmeter to check the AC Adapter output. The output should equal the identified output on the back of the adapter.

Thanks!


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## aclary1 (Feb 26, 2010)

I don't currently have a mulitmeter. Any suggested ones to get?


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## aclary1 (Feb 26, 2010)

Not to mention cheap


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## IT-Tech (Oct 12, 2009)

Hi...

LOL.. No, I don't really have a preference. Just about any will do as long as it can measure the output correctly. You could probably take it into a computer shop and have them check the voltage for you too. No reason to buy one that you will only use every 2 or 3 years.

Thanks!


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## aclary1 (Feb 26, 2010)

Ok i borrowed one. Now what? LOL


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## IT-Tech (Oct 12, 2009)

Measure the output from the adapter! LOL

Link on how to do it!

http://www.fonerbooks.com/laptop11.htm


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## Abryan (Apr 1, 2010)

OMG, need to keep this post alive. 

I just put a new motherboard in my zd8000 (03/30/10). It worked fine Wednesday morning (03/31/10). It actually worked on the AC cord without the battery, that morning. I put the battery back in it, spent the whole day updating windows to SP3 & my virus software and running scans. So I got about 10+ hours of no problems operating. Note that I am aware if the inherent heat issue with the zd8000, so I kept the thing on a cooling pad the whole time. Later that evening about when the service pack update was finishing my daughter said she smelled something burning in the room with the laptop. I started looking things over & a software monitor said the machine was running about 58 degrees C. The back of the laptop around the CPU, video card, & memory were fairly cool, but the battery, ugh the battery was extremely hot. The comp then shut down just as described above in aclary1's post above. I took the battery out & no response from the comp. Waited a while for everything to cool off & put the battery back in. It powered up for a bit, started loading windows, & powered off. So far I am experiencing the exact symptoms as aclary1 has been describing.

I also noticed that my DC adapter was very, very hot too. I wonder if the DC adapter was affected by trying to charge a practically non responsive battery.

I will go home tonight and voltmeter the DC adapter and repost a response.


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## IT-Tech (Oct 12, 2009)

Hi and thanks for the update!

It's not uncommon for the AC ADAPTER to get pretty hot; however, if something smelt like it was burning, then it is time to definitely find out what the output is.

Also, it could be a defective battery in the system. Try running it without the battery again and see if the AC ADAPTER gets that hot again.

Thanks!


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## Abryan (Apr 1, 2010)

Machine will not run on just the DC power cord, it did when I first put the mother board in. Now it sounds like a capacitor powering up (w/ no battery in), then when I press the power button, sounds like the capacitor discharges & the laptop does nothing. Then I put the battery in, press the power button, it starts to boot up for about 40 sec or so then goes dead


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## Abryan (Apr 1, 2010)

It has a EN 60 320/IEC 320 standard sheet C13 8 pin power cor having abot of trouble w/ theulti meter


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## Abryan (Apr 1, 2010)

Scratch that last post, it seems to be a 5 pin connector.
GND, 19.5v, 7.4v, 19.5v, GND


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## Abryan (Apr 1, 2010)

Took the motherboard back out today. Found 2 MOSFET drivers sitting above the battery were burned up. 

So now did the shear heat of the battery burn the MOSFETs, or did the DC Charger burn them trying to charge an old battery.


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## IT-Tech (Oct 12, 2009)

Hi and thanks for the update!

Normally, over voltage will destroy them quickly. Was the motherboard a direct, exact replacement for this specific system? They have very little tolerance to overvoltage and this is usually what kills them in a very short time.

Thanks!


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## Syhr (May 13, 2010)

Hi guys, hopefully this thread can be kept active for a bit as I'm having slightly similar issues. I have a zd8000 as well and am unable to boot it properly, however my problem is a bit different.

My laptop will not boot, make any noise, light up, or anything. I have long removed the battery and have been using the machine more as a mobile desktop so I know my only battery has been dead a long time.

The AC power light DOES turn on every time i plug in the adapter and it does not blink if I wiggle the jack. My laptop worked just fine, I always used a cooling pad and made sure I never let it get too hot. I powered it off one day and then a few days later tried turning it on and am in my current situation. I could care less about the laptop since it's about 5 years old and I have a desktop that I use now, I just need all the information off it. The problem is, all my backups were erased as I was using my backup external hdd to backup my work computer and erased the files form my laptop. 

A few days after it refusing to turn on the first time, it randomly worked normally, turned on and had all the programs running that had been when I hibernated it the other day, I figured it not turning on was something else, hibernated it again and went about my business. Now I tried to turn it on again, and nothing, just the ac light.

I read there might be some type of lockout? Or possibly problems with standby/hibernation? I've tried reseating the RAM, reseating the HDD, powering on without either or one of the two, still nothing save the AC light. Any suggestions? Thanks!


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