Why Does My HP G60 Laptop Shut Off While Booting?

[Stanran]

Good day, everyone! My friend recently asked me to scrap his Gf's 3 year old HP G60 Laptop, for any good parts, because it wasn't starting up. Now I'm a Pc guy myself, so I couldn't help but to fiddle around with it, to see if I could fix it myself. Here's what I ran into. I would turn it on, but it would instantly shut off, so firstly, I checked the Ram and it apparently had two differently branded sticks: One being a Samsung 1Gb 600mhz, and the other being Kingston 2Gb 600Mhz.. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't separate brands of Ram incompatible, even if they're clocked at the same speeds, and the fact that one is 1Gb, and the other is 2Gb? Anyway, I tested each Ram stick 1 at a time, to see if it may be one, and apparently the Samsung was no good, and was somewhat the issue to the shutting off. Once it was just the Kingston Stick installed, the Laptop would manage to boot at least to the "Boot Windows Normally?" screen and would not shut off now. But the second I choose to do so, causing the Laptop to obviously boot from the Hard Drive, the Laptop shuts off, right away. So it's the Hard Drive, huh?.. Well hang on, lol. I used a SATA/IDE to USB Adapter, to see if I could access the Hard Drive, and it connected to my Pc just fine. All the Files seem to be okay: Pictures/Music etc. Is it possible that this could be fixed, by just reinstalling with Windows 7, because maybe a Boot file was missing? No idea why that would cause a random shut down, but meh. Last I checked, if a Boot file was corrupt, it would show that message, when booting from the Hard Drive. sorry this was so long, btw. Thanks.... Oh, I forgot to mention that the Laptop has no Battery, it just runs off of the Charger, and No, there are no shorts in the Power Cable. When plugged in, the Charger Led Always stays lit, so I assume it's always sending power. Oh well, I already stated that it only happens, when trying to boot from the Hard Drive.

 

[markwp]

Sounds to me like the power jack or connector is broken. The LED on the brick indicates it is getting power from the wall - not delivering it to the laptop. I would guess that when you plug in the jack, the connection is intermittent. If you can get the bios boot you described, gently touch the power connector where it plugs in - if the laptop dies, the jack is the problem (or perhaps the connector if it has been abused).

To narrow it down, use a multi meter across the pin and barrel of the connector - set the meter for greater than 20v dc and see if you get a reading. If yes, hold the connector and wiggle the cord right behind the connector - if the reading remains, the jack is probably loose or broken on the m/b.

Mark

 

[theonerm2]

It's hard to say what the problem might be.. But I'll tell you one thing for sure... Different brands of RAM will work together. I'm using different brands of RAM in my laptop right now. The motherboard could be failing.. It's likely because the HP G60 has heat issues and the constant high heat and subsequent cooling can cause the solder to kind of 'break' and have cracks so there might be connectivity issues within certain areas in the board. Check your RAM one at a time in both slots... One of your slots may be bad if my theory is correct... I've saw this happen before. A reflow should get your system back up and running if this is the issue. A reflow is expensive.. So you want to try something easier that should give the desired result. Run a hair dryer over the motherboard until it's all nice and hot... You want the solder to melt a little bit in order to fill in the microscopic cracks... So it has to get pretty hot... It should be too hot to touch. Then let it cool before use... Also clean out the fan and heatsink to remove dust.. Also repaste the thermal compound if you have any to put on the CPU so it will run cooler.

I have an HP G60 laptop by the way and I have had to replace the motherboard once. You can find them cheap on Ebay.

 

[Stanran]

Sounds to me like the power jack or connector is broken. The LED on the brick indicates it is getting power from the wall - not delivering it to the laptop. I would guess that when you plug in the jack, the connection is intermittent. If you can get the bios boot you described, gently touch the power connector where it plugs in - if the laptop dies, the jack is the problem (or perhaps the connector if it has been abused).

To narrow it down, use a multi meter across the pin and barrel of the connector - set the meter for greater than 20v dc and see if you get a reading. If yes, hold the connector and wiggle the cord right behind the connector - if the reading remains, the jack is probably loose or broken on the m/b.

Mark

OH, sorry, I didn't mean the Led on the Brick of the Charger. The side of the Laptop, where the Charger plugs in, has an Led that lights up, when power is going the Laptop, from the Charger.

 

[Stanran]

It's hard to say what the problem might be.. But I'll tell you one thing for sure... Different brands of RAM will work together. I'm using different brands of RAM in my laptop right now. The motherboard could be failing.. It's likely because the HP G60 has heat issues and the constant high heat and subsequent cooling can cause the solder to kind of 'break' and have cracks so there might be connectivity issues within certain areas in the board. Check your RAM one at a time in both slots... One of your slots may be bad if my theory is correct... I've saw this happen before. A reflow should get your system back up and running if this is the issue. A reflow is expensive.. So you want to try something easier that should give the desired result. Run a hair dryer over the motherboard until it's all nice and hot... You want the solder to melt a little bit in order to fill in the microscopic cracks... So it has to get pretty hot... It should be too hot to touch. Then let it cool before use... Also clean out the fan and heatsink to remove dust.. Also repaste the thermal compound if you have any to put on the CPU so it will run cooler.

I have an HP G60 laptop by the way and I have had to replace the motherboard once. You can find them cheap on Ebay.

I opened the Laptop and thoroughly cleaned it(didn't have any new thermal paste for the CPU though)checked both Ram Sticks, in both of the Slots, and get the same result. I also noticed that if I try to reinstall Windows using the CD Drive, the Laptop would shut off much faster, so I tried taking that out, and it still refuses to Boot Windows, without shutting down. I honestly think it could be a power distribution issue, as you suggested, though I don't think trying to Boot Windows would use so much energy, that it would cause an instant overheat, also resulting in an instant shutdown... Whatever the case, it 100% will shut off, when trying to Boot an OS. Most of the time if I just leave it sitting at the Menu Screen or Bios Screen, it won't shut off, until I choose to Boot, or put a CD in the tray, and it starts reading. Meh. I honestly don't think I wanna sit around with a hot blow dryer, waiting on Solder to melt, lol. That's up to him now. It's not like he's letting me keep the Laptop.