zv6000 dead CPU fan?

I've been having problems with my laptop for the last 3 days with it not being able to POST for some reason. Today I think I have narrowed it down the a possible dead CPU fan.

When I turn the laptop on, it takes up to 10 seconds to get to the HP splash boot screen with options for setup, network boot, etc. Then after 2-3 more seconds everything shuts off. I noticed that both fans (CPU, GPU) start-up when I press the power button. However they both then spin down, and then only the GPU fans spins back up leaving the CPU fan sitting idle.

This happens with the AC only, battery only, or both in.

Am I right in thinking that the CPU fan needs to be replaced? Here is a video I took with my cell phone of what shows on screen when it powers on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq8sH9zWzcs.

 

Nobody has any other ideas? Or did this just slip through the cracks...

 

I don't think it can be the CPU. If the CPU gets to hot you would notice it by the heat and I don't see how it can overheat in 10 sec.
The motherboard seems fine (otherwise you would hear 3 distinct beeps...most of the cases at least).
since you can go to the BIOS, why don't you check if everything there is ok. It doesn't hurt to try and restore BIOS defaults. Check what HDD the BIOS detects and what GPU it detects. It is possible that the RAM causes this. Try pulling out the easily accessible chip and booting without it.

 

I can't get into the BIOS since for some reason it doesn't respond while booting as I showcased in the video. I have tried holding down F10 from before pressing power, and also pressing it repeatedly while its booting.

I have reseated the ram multiple times, and removed the battery to reset the CMOS.

Tried booting with no ram in the system and the same result happens.

Could it be that the system is shutting itself off because it is detecting the CPU getting too hot because the fan isn't running?

 

I suppose it's possible, but not likely. Prop up the back of the notebook a bit and position a fan to blow across the notebook (small desk fan, etc). Or use a notebook cooler. If the notebook stays on longer it might be a heat problem.

You could take the notebook apart and clean out the heatsink, or at least blow compressed air through the vents (sometimes the fan doesn't like that).

You could try removing the HD and optical drive and seeing if that makes any difference. Once in a very rare while a bad drive will cause startup problems.

Try booting with only one SODIMM installed.

It sounds like your motherboard is going bad, failing POST and shutting down. If so I'd sell the notebook on eBay as broken and put the money towards a new dv5z.

 

I'm not sure this will make a difference. I've held the laptop upside down to watch the fans and I have a ceiling fan that blows down. The power on time didn't change. But I'll see if theres something else I can try.

Done that.

Tried that.

Tried this as well.

Been looking at one of these as a replacement just in case, sounding really good.

Earlier in the year my desktop computer would sometimes not POST, and if it did, it would sometimes randomly reboot or reboot itself in cycle. This was diagnosed as bulging capacitors. I've looked at the ones on the laptop motherboard and don't see that this time. I know this is just one possible issue out of dozens though.

 

Have you tried pressing Esc on bootup to get rip of the HP bootscreen and see if you can see and system startup details? , maybe an error

 

I have the Compaq R4000 (same thing as the zv6000) and my fans also start up and then shut down during startup. Based on that, I'd guess that it's not the CPU fan that's preventing the computer from booting. I know that these machines are power hogs but it should still boot - even without the CPU fan, it doesn't get hot that fast. These machines won't boot from USB but should boot from the optical drive with the recovery disk inserted. I didn't see if you've tried that but it could be that your hard drive is on the fritz. I can hear mine spin up during startup. That still doesn't explain why you can't get into bios but at least try to boot from the DVD drive and see what happens.

 

I'll try this when I get home tonight.

I bought a external exclosure last night and I'm able to access everything on there just fine from my desktop. I'll see if I can dig up the restore disc, but I know I haven't been able to boot to a retail XP disc.

 

Have you by any chance flashed the BIOS just before the notebook went dead?

 

Just tried with hitting ESC with bootup...however that key is supposed to go to the boot menu. There was no response still.

Nope, I don't even think I've ever flashed the BIOS. If I had, it wasn't anytime recently.

Here is some more background info from when this started last Friday. Maybe it can help to narrow down the possible culprit...or if its just gone and I need a new one.

On Friday morning, I went to take my Sandisk usb drive out. When trying to shutdown the U3 software, it said that it couldn't exit because some program was in use however there was nothing open. So I just took the drive out and my system locked up. I left it that way as I was late for work thinking that it would hopefully unfreeze while I was gone.

I got back home about 11 hours later and its still stuck in the same position. I manually powered down and it wouldn't boot into XP. I tried booting in safe mode and it stalled on a file (no idea what it was). I think that maybe it was looking for my usb since it froze when I pulled that out. I tried rebooting with that in but it didn't make a difference.

I went and found my retail XP disc to do a system file repair. I was able to get to the blue screen that says "Setup is starting Windows" or whatever but it just sat. I thought that maybe its just running really slow cause of something so I let it sit there at that spot all night. I wake up Sat morning and it hadn't moved so I tried again.

Could I have fried something by letting it sit frozen all day while I was at work?

 

Any final ideas from anyone?

I'd like to be able to decide for sure if I should just take it in and get it repaired somewhere, or buy a new one.

That $120 on the dv5z and $100 on dv5t discounts are going quick I think. Need a machine for video editing in that $1500 range.