# HP Pavillion DV2000 Blue Screens & Crashing



## A-Trice (Feb 5, 2008)

Hi all,
right, had this DV2000 model getting on for 2 years, served me very well, quality machine for me, now the other week, i turned it off at night, came to turn on it said, the OS failed to close properly error, so i tried start up normal and last best configuration & safe mode
So, i tried to reinstall XP which failed, i went onto the bios and tried a HD check, which failed everytime. I then tried to install Vista on it, which actually worked fine, then it began to crash, in which the screen would go black and it would power down. 3 times in one night was enough for me.
So i bought a new HD installed it , so i format the HD with the vista install and it installs fine, then i go onto vista and start downloading the updates, at which it crashes to blue screen, it happend 3 times on consecutive restarts.
So i think maybe just a bad install, i try again, except now the install procedure crashes =/ crashed 3 times in same place.
I took battery out and replaced, unplugged the mice, and now the install worked, and im going about installing the updates,, hopefully it wont crash, but based on whats gone before it's likely
So anyone hear offer any help as to fixing it, despite me already replacing the HD, could it be the RAM, now im actually on the OS any programs to tell me if it is the RAM, im extremley frustrated atm, looking for answers

Help very much appreciated


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Hi have you checked with HP if this model compatible with Vista? I heard not all laptops could run Vista. Some may need BIOS update. So checking with the manufacturer on this would help.

You said you have a new HDD already, so as not to complicate things further, install what operating system you were running before (XP?).


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

By the way run Memtest86 if you want to check if it is RAM. Run it for 1 to 2 hours (pref. run it longer). Also if you have 2 sticks of RAM, it is better to test one stick at a time.


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## A-Trice (Feb 5, 2008)

thanks for the response, how do i go about using memtest 86 do i burm the iso to CD ?

Ive just tried to reseat ram, didnt notice any movement, but it has not crashed since..

the HDD was running XP previous to Vista

The model is compatible with Vista says so on the little sticker  its out of warranty so HP wont care 

im going to try the indivdual sticks for crashes before i do the memtest

hmm...

could the little reseating attempt work ?

another friend believes it could be the CPU overheating, anyway i could check ?


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Yup a reseating could work (you could be lucky) 

Memtest86 is good tool to keep handy... and yes you have to burn the ISO to CD. I suggest you test each RAM with Memtest86 so you will see it your RAM is performing well. The problems with RAM sticks is that they may not crash your system but surely you would notice that sometimes your computer would just perform soooo slow.

CPU overheating is possible (and can destroy your mobo for good). Try NHC and SpeedFan but the last time I checked, they do not run well with Vista. But that was almost a year ago, they could have probably improved and patched the app to support and run on Vista by this time.

I use a cooling pad to cool my laptop down. But before I got one, I used a book or a marker about an inch thick to put under my laptop (LCD side) just to elevate it a little to be sure the vents are free of any blockage.


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## A-Trice (Feb 5, 2008)

After the reseat, i had a great spell, installed updated, etc
with no problems, restarted, went onto windows live and  crashed.

noticed, before it crashed when i was typing it was taking ages to come through on screen, this a symptom that the ram is at fault ?

ill get Memtest 86 done, one little thing, on device manager it says the 'Coprocessor' is not functioning due to no drivers, everything else has drivers which Vista found ant auto downloaded, what could this missing driver do, or could that be the cause!

definatly going to do a Ram test


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## A-Trice (Feb 5, 2008)

just done the SpeedFan test

jesus, Core is apparantly 77C

thats got to be why


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## A-Trice (Feb 5, 2008)

I know its a triple post, a MOD can merge since i forgot the 30Min deadline 
But, what the hell, its idle at around 65 thats whay to much, could the fan be not working properly..

or should i notice, when i was importing itunes songs the temp went from 65 to 88'c which will crash it no doubt, heres the reason!

90'c now, oh my days

will one of those underlatop coolers work


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Goodness! A few degrees more and you can boil water  . A 70+ Celsius for me is way too hot already. At most I get 65 Celsius and when it hits that point I can hear the fan speeding up. Your high temps may be one of the causes of the crash or can be a combination of both (high temps + dying RAM stick).

A cooling pad can help but not really solve it. If you are tech savvy enough to open it up, you can check the thermal grease or thermal pad between the heat sink/spreader and the CPU. The video chip may (although not all I think) have a thermal pad too. If these are dry or too old, they may not conduct heat properly anymore. You may need to apply thermal grease or put in a new thermal pad. Since you have opened it up already, you might as well clean the thing up. Use compressed air to clean the fins of the heat sink. On thermal grease or pads; personally I prefer thermal pads than thermal grease/paste.

I have not experienced slowdown when my laptop heats up. I really do not think so. It will crash or shutdown / turn off of course. I still would recommend Memtest86 just to remove all suspicion that the crash is caused by the RAM.

About the Co-processor driver. Since you freshly installed Vista. I assume you went to HP website and download all drivers, didnt you? If you have not, I suggest you do.


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## A-Trice (Feb 5, 2008)

whoa...

its got compartments for the RAM, HDD, Processor...

that would require the whole case removal!

this laptops getting on, so im assuming the grease would have dried, if this was a desktop, id be comfortable doing it, but a laptop, i dont feel confident opening it all up. A fan may have failed, i hear one whirring, and at around 70 it goes into overdrive, ill buy a cooler, for now i might see if i can get a local repair shop to do me a cheap clean up on the heatsinks fans, if it is a fan, would it be easy to repair 

its running at around 60'c now...

is it usual for the core temp to heat with increased load ?


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Yup increased load can heat it up. A fan starting and stopping is normal... depending on the core temps. It runs faster when it core temps rise and reach a certain level. A fan/temp control app (i.e. SpeedFan?) can override this.

If you are bringing it to a repair shop, have them check your thermal pads as well. Since you will be paying $$$, have them clean it up. Check the screws when you get it from them... sometimes it will miss a screw or two after a repair (well depending on the shop) :grin:

By the way where do you place your laptop when you use it (i.e. table, bed, pillow, etc.)??? Wherever you use place it just make sure vents are clear of any obstruction. If you have vents at the bottom, elevate that part about an inch or two. Try this first if you still overheat before you buy a cooling pad.


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## A-Trice (Feb 5, 2008)

i have, its proped up so the cooling vent is up off the table its on atm..

its still running around 70 / 60 i cant see why its still so hot, i put it next to a fan the temps shot down to 50 ish, so i think the cool pad would have a good impact!

its 1am here in the UK this god damn laptop is getting me so annoyed, these temps cannoy be right, this has to be the reason for the insta-shut downs, i imagine it would be around 100 before it turned off!

what should i do first, cooling pad and blow out the vent at the back!

or

take it to a repair shop and get them to check out the heatsinks, pastes / tapes etc

just tried speedfan, its not showing any available fan's despite me able to hear one, so thats a no go on the Fan settings hmm


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Gosh... your temps are just way too high... are trying to brew coffee in there? An operating temp of 40 to 65 Celsius is quite normal. Running above 75 (esp. over 80) is pretty hot already.

Joking aside... get a cooling pad. It can help now and in the future whether you decide to bring it to a repair shop or not. If you have a can of compressed air there, give the vents a good boost of air. 

I do recommend trying these first before you bring it to a repair shop.


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## A-Trice (Feb 5, 2008)

Ahh ok! judging by the fact its recently started happening, probably caused the whole problem! im going to guess that the old HDD was fried due to temps, and if im not carefull it will happen again, where the HDD is feels really hot!

Im guessing a fan has broke, and so i hope a cooling pad can subsitute for the fan, if i cannot maintain sub 40 with the pad, im going to have to see about getting the inside looked at and the fans sorted out!

does what i suggested sound plausible ?

once again, thank you so much for the help, 'fixmypc' seems like your username genuine 
you got aim or msn or anything, in case i need your expertise again


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Thanks but there a lot of good members here in the forum too that can give you help and advise should you need a tech support online. I have YM but I rarely go online with it - sorry. I really encourage that you post here so that others can share their ideas too (ideas and suggestions that I may miss). I could put in my YM here in my forum's profile if it can be of future assistance.

Yeah I agree with your idea. As for sub 40... hmmm above 30 is quite reasonable but lower than 30 is almost impossible if ever. As per my experience, a 40 above but not higher than 65 or 70 on heavy load is already a good operating environment. Bring it down to around 30 to 50 range first. If you are running a normal load (email or internet only and nothing else) and it's still hitting 70, then have someone take a look inside.

Your HDD could be hot if it keeps on spinning. It will keep on spinning if you are running some apps that require many reads and writes. A bigger RAM could help to assist in paging (getting data from HDD) but cooling pad is a major plus in this area.

I not too sure if you really have toasted the other HDD. If you are curious just save it and if you have time low level format it the Ultimate Boot CD. It could be that the hang and the failure you got before was caused by overheating too.


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## A-Trice (Feb 5, 2008)

something else..

the temp increases when the CPU Clock goes from 804 MHz to 1608 MHZ

why is this ?


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

That is perfectly normal. An increase in clock is always directly proportional to its temperature. This is why overclocked CPUs need more fans to maintain a cooler environment compared to one that is not. Why? Because it needs more power to run at a higher speed... more power means more electrons passing through thus giving off more heat. I think of it as a car, the more you rev it up to accelerate and reach a certain speed, the hotter the engine gets.


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## A-Trice (Feb 5, 2008)

Left it on with the cooler all day, was stable at around 40, had a mass song import, it went up to the 50s stayed around that then dropped when the itunes finished..

would those temps be ok ?


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Wow! Those are great already... 

:4-clap::4-clap::4-clap:


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## A-Trice (Feb 5, 2008)

its constantly at 40's even sub 40's

its not crashed touch wood, since ive been monitoring the temps and making sure they were below 90...

maybe the heat was causing ram to fail, or maybe its just an auto shut off mechanism

my friend has the newer version of this laptop got this year, his was running at 60, on the same table as mine, except mine had the cooler and ran at 40
looks like HP love heat

hahha


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Most computers do 'auto' shutdown when they hit certain temps. This is to protect the electronic components from melting, burning even.

Run heavy applications or play games to really heat it up just to see what is the highest temp it can get with the heaviest load :grin: .

By the way since you are at it... get a can of compressed air and shoot some into the vents. If your laptop has not been cleaned for a while, you will notice a cloud of dust coming out other vents during the first few blows. If possible, target the fins of the heatsink (these are supposed to be clean as these do the heat exchange). Do this while the laptop is OFF so you can go past the fan. Continue until there's no dust coming out. Do this at least once a month (or depends on how clean the environment is).

Lastly if doing the cleaning and putting it on a cooling pad still heats it up, have a repair shop open it up to check (especially the fan and the thermal pads/grease), and replace as necessary.


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