'Another' laptop won't shut down / power down properly thread (HP)

[Lambofreak]

Hi all,

Bought the wife a new HP laptop about a year ago and was noticing that the battery would always be flat when we'd go to turn it on even if the laptop was turned off last time it was used.

Now that we're on a 6 month trip its my main computer too so I noticed quickly what the problem was. About 3 times out of 4, the laptop won't shut down properly.

More accurate description: Shutting the computer down any different way through Windows, it will completely log out of and close Windows, (does not get hung on any process e.g. logging off etc), screen backlight will go off, but the power and fan will stay on.

More details on the laptop: Its a HP Pavilion P-series, much like this random one I found on Google images. Operating system is Windows 10 and one reason I suspect it is not to do with Windows is because the laptop came with Windows 8.1 but I took advantage of the Windows 10 upgrade, so changing operating systems hasn't changed anything at all.

What I have tried to fix it: Searched on Google to see if I could find any feasible fixes there, tried some including holding shift while shutting down, changing order of boot drives in BIOS, resetting BIOS settings completely back to factory, none of which helped. That's why I have turned to you lovely people

I don't think it is Windows but not sure what else it could be if a BIOS reset didn't fix it? Do you think maybe a BIOS or firmware flash? Any help would be greatly appreciated. At the moment I feel like I'm leaving the house wondering if I left the stove on. I'll go to bed and think 'aaaah I didn't make sure the laptop shut down!'

Cheers

EDIT: Problem is solved, go to 6th post (not post marked as solution) to see.

 

[dudeman509]

That is an odd one. I would start by checking for a BIOS update from HP, as well as any updated drivers. Possible that one of them is hanging at shutdown and preventing it from turning off.

 

[Lambofreak]

That is an odd one. I would start by checking for a BIOS update from HP, as well as any updated drivers. Possible that one of them is hanging at shutdown and preventing it from turning off.

Thanks for your reply. Checked HP's website and there were some driver updates available, installed as many as I could but none made a difference.

As far as BIOS goes there no updates on the downloads page for this laptop that I could see which is a bit of a dead end unfortunately because its my best bet at this stage I think.

I did however find a hardware diagnostics utility separate to the BIOS which I tested everything and it passed. There was a tool to update the BIOS there too but with nothing to update it to that's a dead end as well

Any more ideas? Haha

 

[dudeman509]

Short of a complete Windows reinstall, I'm fresh out of ideas, sorry! Maybe some bad habits carried over with the W10 upgrade.

 

[Lambofreak]

Short of a complete Windows reinstall, I'm fresh out of ideas, sorry! Maybe some bad habits carried over with the W10 upgrade.

All good I'm thinking of buying an SSD to put into it cloning the drive then once its activated properly doing a full reformat anyway (to make best use of the SSD by giving it a clean start), so this has kinda just pushed my decision.

Thanks for your help, if anybody else has any ideas in the meantime feel free to share!

 

[Lambofreak]

Ok so just to put some closure to this thread. Only just got back from overseas and got a chance to put the SSD in the laptop. That seems to have fixed it. Not sure why the mechanical drive was stopping it from shutting down (maybe it was faulty who knows) but I'm glad its fixed

I marked dudemans post as the solution so the thread would show up as resolved.