Z7000VA Freezes when on battery power after 3 min

[Sorry for the re-post, but that other title just wasn't descriptive enough -mm]

I was recently given a Z7000VA as a temporary use machine and noticed that the laptop freezes, completely locks up, almost exactly 3 minutes after running on battery power. I can use it for hours while plugged in, but if I start up on batteries, or unplug after starting plugged in ... Freeze! All I can do is hold down on the power button for 5 sec and reboot.

Anyone experience this? Is it a bios / cmos thing? Is it a Windows thing? I'm running XP Pro w/ 512mb ram.

Michael

 

Try going into the BIOS (press either F1 or F2 during POST) and see if it locks up there. If it does then there's something up with the hardware.

 

Press F2 for going to BIOS. Is it freeze if you use AC adapter ? Normally, the problem relate to memory. If you can, use memory tester to verify any error there. 2nd thing relate to a cpu overheat, it should not be an issue because of a 3 mins after turning on.

Cheers

 

I will try the stay-in-bios test to see if it's the hardware. No, the laptop does not freeze when plugged in using AC adapter, and it doesn't even get a little warm. My guess is it's a Windows thing on battery usage.

 

So I did the F2 test by staying in the CMOS while on battery power. No freezing. While I was in there I changed one of the settings in the CMOS for power saving on battery (set LCD and Processor both to disabled) and no change: once in Windows, three minutes on battery power and the laptop freezes up. I'm guessing the issue is with Window's power saving features, although I have all Advanced Power time settings set to "never" and it still locks up.

Any advice?

Michael

 

The issue is most likely hardware related as milestone said. Please load bios setup defaults fromt he exit tab. Set boot order so that the laptop boots from the cd before the hdd. then download
http://www.memtest.org/download/1.65/memtest86+-1.65.iso.zip
run it for one hour.
1. Start Nero Burning-rom
2. In Nero go to "Copy and Backup" tab.
3. Select "Burn Image to Disk"
4. Under file types select all files and point to the ISO file you just downloaded.
5. Presto! After the image has been burned you can boot your computer with the cd. You have to make sure bios is set to boot from cd before hard drive.

 

I'll give it a shot and report back. Thanks for your help.

 

BTW, is it possible to reprogram the keyboard? I'd like to set the right-side Windows key and Ctrl key to Ins and Del. I hate that they're all the way at the top-right of the keyboard. I'd also like to disable the top-right Del key since I use the Home key frequently and have accidentally hit the Del key a few times.

Michael

 

I haven't had a chance to run the file you linked to, but I did go into display settings, advanced, and disabled ATI PowerPlay. Now I can use the laptop on battery power for about an hour until it freezes. This happened right around the time the battery graphic in the toolbar (near the clock) went to the 1/2 full graphic.