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Laptop freezes when AC is connected (but unfreezes on battery) How to back up files?

samkuiper9

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Hi people!

My laptop(HP 2230s) will only boot when AC is connected(battery is dead and will not charge when AC is connected and laptop not powered on)
In bios the laptop has got no problems @ all but when windows vista starts to boot either save mode or not it freezes!
The weird thing is than when i disconnect the AC for a while it continues booting. (battery is propably charged a bit) But i can only do this for 2 sec @ MAX before battery dies. I can boot windows by connecting and disconnecting the AC continually.... But thats idiotic, the battery does not charge more than enhough for a few secconds (i guess it only charges when it is still in bios.) And with AC connected windows is frozen completely.

Thats the story. I asume it's not the AC/PS because it works fine in bios/before OS starts or begins to boot.

The laptop has got some fancy increadibly user unfriendly interface which allows you to use your mouse... Anyway i can run several system diagnostics. Most of them freeze when they are checking Memory. sometimes at 17 % some times 47%.

But what is most intresting is that the HDD check, runs and completes and says that it failed. (without explaination)

Whats the best course of action?

I want to try to instal an other OS, but i would really apreciate it if i can BACK up my files or somehow get them on an Exteral HDD.


Many thanks!
 

samkuiper9

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Update: Diagnostic scan HDD

Hi,

Here is a little update:

first of all i tried to boot with out battery connected. Same story: In bios it's fine.
When OS BOOTS with system restore it keeps hanging @ the screen where it searches for errors. At that point i could still cancel and reboot to start the normal way.
But when OC just starts loading it freezes up.

So my best guess is an HDD problem, either drivers or a total hdd failure.

In bios i tried an diagnostic test for the HDD, it gave the following message after completing.

"Hard disk test failed
Test 2 (comprehensive) ... error: Read failure"


My main question still is how to restore my data!?
 

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If it doesnt charge but works on AC then the battery is at fault.

If the laptop freezes at the windows loading screen then that can either be down to a bad ram, bad hard drive or bad drivers.

but the way you describe it, it sounds like theres a serious hardware malfunction that can only be fixed by replacing the board inside (worst case scenario)

Download a program called MEMTEST and use it to test the ram one module at a time. It can made to boot from CD so it doesnt need a proper OS like windows to run. start the test and leave it for as long as you can. 2 or 3 hours is ok but people usually let it run for at least 6hrs. the program will test your ram to see if you have any defective modules.

as for the hard drive, take it out and see if you can hook it up to your PC and run an error check on it. it could be that the hard drive is failing which is stopping windows from booting.
 

samkuiper9

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Thank you for your reply!

it works with AC and Battery aswell, if it charges for per example 5 % and i take out the AC it actually begins booting windows. Only problem with the battery is that it just does not charge enough to boot it completely.

I assumed that it is not the PS/AC because while navigating through the BIOS it doesn't give any difficulties. But can it be that an OS requires other amounts of voltage and that the PS can't handle that? In that case its worth a try to get a new PS, because if it doens't work properly any hardware could give a mallfunction.

Thank you for your memory test i'll give it a try.
 
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If it's a standard SATA HDD you could hook it up to your main PC and backup all the important stuff (and check it for problems with for example HD Tune)
The connectors are the same.

Have you tried booting from a Linux CD / USB stick to see if it acts up (freezes) aswell?
Just to test you can grab Ubuntu here: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download

Either download the CD image and burn it to a disk or use a USB stick (there's a how-to below the regular download)

I have a feeling it's a combination of a dead battery and flaky/dying HDD.
 

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Thank you for your reply!

it works with AC and Battery aswell, if it charges for per example 5 % and i take out the AC it actually begins booting windows. Only problem with the battery is that it just does not charge enough to boot it completely.

I assumed that it is not the PS/AC because while navigating through the BIOS it doesn't give any difficulties. But can it be that an OS requires other amounts of voltage and that the PS can't handle that? In that case its worth a try to get a new PS, because if it doens't work properly any hardware could give a mallfunction.

Thank you for your memory test i'll give it a try.

not sure if its the power supply, it really shouldnt be so i would leave that till last and test all the other components first before forking out money for a new one. Just in case it does turn out to be the hard drive thats faulty etc etc
 

samkuiper9

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Update

Code:
Download a program called MEMTEST and use it to test the ram one module at a time. It can made to boot from CD so it doesnt need a proper OS like windows to run. start the test and leave it for as long as you can. 2 or 3 hours is ok but people usually let it run for at least 6hrs. the program will test your ram to see if you have any defective modules.

Did this trough a memtest86+ which i could access trough netboot. Ran it for 4 hours when i took off to school and it came out clean. No interruptions at all.

Code:
as for the hard drive, take it out and see if you can hook it up to your PC and run an error check on it. it could be that the hard drive is failing which is stopping windows from booting.

I took it out and switched it with an other laptop and it booted perfectly. I copied all my files.
De-fragmentized it, and now currently running the disk check from windows it self.

Btw i made a mistake its Windows 7, the laptop had a vista sticker on it but 7 was installed later on.

I'm going to try HD tune as well, and let you know how that comes out.

And besides this i'm trying to launch windows xp from a USB stick or a version of abuntu from a bootable DVD/USB to see if that freezes as well.

Any other suggestions?
 

samkuiper9

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Download a program called MEMTEST and use it to test the ram one module at a time. It can made to boot from CD so it doesnt need a proper OS like windows to run. start the test and leave it for as long as you can. 2 or 3 hours is ok but people usually let it run for at least 6hrs. the program will test your ram to see if you have any defective modules.

as for the hard drive, take it out and see if you can hook it up to your PC and run an error check on it. it could be that the hard drive is failing which is stopping windows from booting.

Ran memtest, which i could access trough netboot. Ran it for 4 hours when i took off to school and it came out clean. No interruptions at all.

as for the hard drive, take it out and see if you can hook it up to your PC and run an error check on it. it could be that the hard drive is failing which is stopping windows from booting.

I took it out and attached it to an other laptop: it booted perfectly. I copied all my files.
De-fragmentized it, and now currently running the disk check from windows it self.

Btw i made a mistake its Windows 7, the laptop had a vista sticker on it but 7 was installed later on.

I'm going to try HD tune as well, and let you know how that comes out.

And besides this i'm trying to launch windows xp from a USB stick or a version of abuntu from a bootable DVD/USB to see if that freezes as well.

Any other suggestions?[/QUOTE]
 

FreedomEclipse

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Code:
Download a program called MEMTEST and use it to test the ram one module at a time. It can made to boot from CD so it doesnt need a proper OS like windows to run. start the test and leave it for as long as you can. 2 or 3 hours is ok but people usually let it run for at least 6hrs. the program will test your ram to see if you have any defective modules.

Did this trough a memtest86+ which i could access trough netboot. Ran it for 4 hours when i took off to school and it came out clean. No interruptions at all.

Code:
as for the hard drive, take it out and see if you can hook it up to your PC and run an error check on it. it could be that the hard drive is failing which is stopping windows from booting.

I took it out and switched it with an other laptop and it booted perfectly. I copied all my files.
De-fragmentized it, and now currently running the disk check from windows it self.

Btw i made a mistake its Windows 7, the laptop had a vista sticker on it but 7 was installed later on.

I'm going to try HD tune as well, and let you know how that comes out.

And besides this i'm trying to launch windows xp from a USB stick or a version of abuntu from a bootable DVD/USB to see if that freezes as well.

Any other suggestions?

hmmmm, Im not sure then, If its not your ram, and its not your hard drive then it cant be the board either and i still doubt faulty laptop powersupplies make laptops crash and freeze like that but I guess at this stage its worth taking a punt.... they can be a little pricey though.

you need one thats atleast 65w according to your laptops manual.
 

samkuiper9

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HD tune

Hi, i ran HD tune and the following came out: HDD HD tune check.jpg
It's healthy, the weird thing is windows booted perfectly on my other laptop.

When i had put it back some how the battery was charged for 40% (i guess that happend when i had a netboot version of linux open.)

With that battery the laptop booted perfectly no issues @ all. Only after max 4 minutes the battery died. So its a weak battery for shure.

I did also insert the AC while it was on and it immediatly freezed up!

So my best guess would be that the AC killed the battery and screws up the whole system...

Now is there anyway that i can check if the pc distrubutes the voltage healthy? OR check the PS/AC on it self?
 

samkuiper9

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If it's a standard SATA HDD you could hook it up to your main PC and backup all the important stuff (and check it for problems with for example HD Tune)
The connectors are the same.

Thanks for the tip, i did it and it was completely healthy, it could also backup the files :)
 

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Now is there anyway that i can check if the pc distrubutes the voltage healthy? OR check the PS/AC on it self?

not sure if this will work for you but HWmonitor shows a lot of voltages - its made by the same people who make CPUID so its safe
 

brandonwh64

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I had this same issue with a laptop I had purchased a while back.

Please test this for me. Boot your PC with the AC and Battery installed then while it posts and start booting, quickly remove the battery and leave AC plugged in. See if it will continue booting with only the AC plugged in and the battery removed.

My laptop would lock up booting windows or after windows started and could not figure out why until I stumbled onto this trick.
 
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Did you try a different AC?

I remember an issues with my sisters laptop, which also had a very old battery (lasted only a few seconds). It was working just fine on AC when suddenly one day it became very very slow.
So I powered it on and got into Windows after 15 minutes of waiting and opened up the task manager where I was that the CPU was at 100% all the time. But no process used the CPU and it didn't get hot, so it was just "artificially" running at 100%.
So I tried running with no battery, but the same thing happened. I really couldn't believe that the charger could be faulty but I tried with another one just to be sure. I plug in the other one and it worked with no issues and it's still running just fine.

However this might not be the case with your laptop but it's worth a try (if you have a spare charger).
 

samkuiper9

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I had this same issue with a laptop I had purchased a while back.

Please test this for me. Boot your PC with the AC and Battery installed then while it posts and start booting, quickly remove the battery and leave AC plugged in. See if it will continue booting with only the AC plugged in and the battery removed.

My laptop would lock up booting windows or after windows started and could not figure out why until I stumbled onto this trick.

Thanks, i tried it nothing but it behaved exactly the same.

Did you try a different AC?

Not yet, i don't have one otherwise that would have been the first step.
I'm going to order a new one which i could return in 15 days if it doesn't work.
I can also order the charger with an new battery. Than the battery would only cost 20 euro's more. Any one who would recommand that?

I'll keep you guys up to date!
 

samkuiper9

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Problem Solved!

Hey every one!

I received the AC yesterday and tried it right now: It works!
All problems are gone: Windows boots without interruptions and the batterycharges quite quick!

Here is a little screenshot form HWmonitor which indicates a healthy power management.
hw monitor with new AC.jpg

Thanks alot every one! I learned some new skills following all of yours advice.
 

FreedomEclipse

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so it was the power brick after all! :laugh::laugh:

Oh well at least you had a crashcourse in hardware troubleshooting despite it being nothing to do with the actual laptop itself.

glad its working now.
 
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