My laptop charger keeps shutting off?

[Takaaaa]

So I just bought a used HP dv7 laptop. It came with a Dell charger and was able to charge fine. I use my laptop as my home computer so its always plugged in. Since I always keep it plugged in, I removed the battery so over time it wouldnt kill the battery life.
So everything runs good, but I also like to play games on my laptop. when I do my laptop shuts off. I thought it might be my laptop crashing, but I noticed that the small light on the charger was off. I unplugged the charger from the wall socket and plugged it back in and the light came back on and my laptop powered up. The charger was very very hot. So I pointed a fan at it and played the game again, but it shut off again.
I thought it had to do with the dell charger and the HP laptop, So I bought a brand new HP charger. But it still does the same thing, the charger shuts off.

Is there some settings I have to change? or something wrong with my laptop?
I cant figure it out.

 

[wanchoo]

Normally in HP Laptops the shutting off of the charger when the battery is fully charged is quite normal. Happens with my HP also but not with Dell Laptop where the charger remains always on.

 

[marsmimar]

It's possible that using a Dell charger on the HP laptop damaged the laptop. It's my understanding that Dell laptops and Dell laptop chargers are designed to be compatible only with each other. Different laptop manufacturers use different power supply types and power settings to make their products proprietary. Even if the charger fits I wouldn't recommend using it. There could be subtle differences in the electrical frequencies which might prevent the charger from charging the laptop's battery or damaging internal components if the battery is removed. The wrong charger could very possibly end up damaging the laptop.

To me it's kinda, sorta like buying a Chevy but trying to make Ford or Dodge specific parts work. Yeah, they might fit, and they might actually work for a while, but . . .

 

[Takaaaa]

Normally in HP Laptops the shutting off of the charger when the battery is fully charged is quite normal. Happens with my HP also but not with Dell Laptop where the charger remains always on.

But my battery isn't in my laptop. My laptop is plugged in with no battery, since I didnt want to kill the battery life.
So does that mean that my laptop, is telling my charge that the battery (which isnt even in my laptop) is full?

 

[Slartybart]

@Takaaaa: So, you're running your laptop off of AC with the battery removed - right?

I've thought about doing this myself, but instead I've been running off of the battery and recharging as needed to cycle charge the battery.

Try this - put the battery back in, let it charge and see if the machine shuts down when you play the game. I'm wondering if your power settings need to be adjusted - don't know exactly how you would set them, but changing the "on AC" settings might help down the line. Please post back. Thanks.

 

[Takaaaa]

It's possible that using a Dell charger on the HP laptop damaged the laptop. It's my understanding that Dell laptops and Dell laptop chargers are designed to be compatible only with each other. Different laptop manufacturers use different power supply types and power settings to make their products proprietary. Even if the charger fits I wouldn't recommend using it. There could be subtle differences in the electrical frequencies which might prevent the charger from charging the laptop's battery. The wrong charger could very possibly end up damaging the laptop.

I know you said you're using a Dell charger on the HP, not the other way around. But Dell chargers have a small microchip inside them to let the Dell laptop know that it's an official Dell charger. Using a non-Dell charger on a Dell laptop could permanently cut the laptop's processor speed by 50%. It's equally possible that by using a Dell charger on your HP you may have permanently damaged the HP. This previous Forum thread talks a bit about using non-compatible chargers and laptops. I'd specifically ask you to read Post # 4.

Can HP charger be used for Gateway laptop?

Ahh yes I read through that thread. and re-read post #4. But there are so many mix answers. But I hope that my laptop isnt borken...

@Takaaaa: So, you're running your laptop off of AC with the battery removed - right?

I've thought about doing this myself, but instead I've been running off of the battery and recharging as needed to cycle charge the battery.

Try this - put the battery back in, let it charge and see if the machine shuts down when you play the game. I'm wondering if your power settings need to be adjusted - don't know exactly how you would set them, but changing the "on AC" settings might help down the line. Please post back. Thanks.

Yes that is correct. And sorry i forgot to add that. But since i ran my laptop off just the charger, when the charger shuts off, my laptop would to. So I put my battery back in so that when the charger shuts off, it wouldnt shut off my laptop since it would just run on the battery.
So I was playing my game with the battery and I would tell when the charger shuts off since the icon at the bottom would change from plugged in to just battery. I was able to play until 10% battery without it shutting off, but I had to keep unplugging my charger from the AC and plugging it back in to charge my battery while I was playing my game.

 

[Slartybart]

@Takaaaa: The other thread was a red herring - post# 20 (jloc: Sorry, I was wrong).
Ok, so the battery is in, the charger is on - then the charger (new HP charger) shuts off and you're running on battery fine until you reach the low or critical battery level - right?

All right, let me ask this: what is the machines behavior when not playing the game? I don't think that matters much, but I'm curious. I think you might consider having the battery tested or buying a new battery - it was a used HP right?

The odd thing is that your machine shuts off when running on AC only because the charger shuts off.

 

[marsmimar]

@Takaaaa: The other thread was a red herring - post# 20 (jloc: Sorry, I was wrong).
Ok, so the battery is in, the charger is on - then the charger (new HP charger) shuts off and you're running on battery fine until you reach the low or critical battery level - right?

All right, let me ask this: what is the machines behavior when not playing the game? I don't think that matters much, but I'm curious. I think you might consider changing the battery - it was a used HP right?

Not necessarily a red herring but I did amend my post due to conflicting thoughts. Point is, I do not and will not recommend mixing HP products with a Dell, or an Acer with a Gateway, or a Sony with whatever. If people wish to do so, then it's on them if something breaks.

 

[Takaaaa]

@Takaaaa: The other thread was a red herring - post# 20 (jloc: Sorry, I was wrong).
Ok, so the battery is in, the charger is on - then the charger (new HP charger) shuts off and you're running on battery fine until you reach the low or critical battery level - right?

All right, let me ask this: what is the machines behavior when not playing the game? I don't think that matters much, but I'm curious. I think you might consider having the battery tested or buying a new battery - it was a used HP right?

The odd thing is that your machine shuts off when running on AC only because the charger shuts off.

Yeah the thread was very confusing to me. haha
Yes that is correct.

It runs perfectly, no problems at all. I took my battery out again and right now Im just running off my HP charger. I have been on all day and no problems at all.
Yes, I bought this laptop used. I'll call around and see if I can get my battery tested.

I just assumed that since I had no battery and just running off AC power, that when the charger shut off, it cut off power to the laptop, so it shut off too.

 

[wanchoo]

But he is facing the same issue with a HP Charger.

Would the OP please explain why the vendor supplied a Dell Charger with a HP Laptop in the first place.

 

[Takaaaa]

But he is facing the same issue with a HP Charger.

Would the OP please explain why the vendor supplied a Dell Charger with a HP Laptop in the first place.

Correct. I bought it off craigslist from a man. I honestly didnt even realize it was a dell charger until it started shutting off when I played games. Then I looked and realized it was a dell. So I replaced it with a HP charger thinking it would solve the problem.

 

[Slartybart]

@marsimar: Only meant to point out jloc's error. I understand and agree with your position, folks do have to be careful if they mix 'n match. And yep, it's on them if they want to try it.

@Takaaaa: So, running on the HP power brick w/o the battery and the power brick stays on, hence the machine stays on - right? If this is correct, then the Dell power brick seems to present a problem - probably because of the chip in it (referenced by the thread pointed to by Marsimar). If the machine shuts down when running solely on the HP power brick, then we'll have to pursue other avenues. It might simply be that the light indicates charging, not power. We'll now in short time, I suspect.

.....It runs perfectly, no problems at all. I took my battery out again and right now Im just running off my HP charger. I have been on all day and no problems at all.
Yes, I bought this laptop used. I'll call around and see if I can get my battery tested.

I just assumed that since I had no battery and just running off AC power, that when the charger shut off, it cut off power to the laptop, so it shut off too.

 

[Takaaaa]

@Takaaaa: So, running on the HP charger w/o the battery and the charger stays on, hence the machine stays on - right? If this is correct, then the Dell charger seems to present a problem - probably because of the chip in it (referenced by the thread pointed to by Marsimar). If the machine shuts down when running solely on the HP power block, then we'll have to pursue other avenues. It might simply be that the light indicates charging, not power. We'll now in short time, I suspect.

The HP charger only shuts off when I play my game. Same with the Dell charger, only shuts off when I play games. When I first bought this laptop and didnt know it was a Dell charger, I didnt play games so I didnt have any problems for a few weeks. Only when I played my game, it shut off and I changed to the HP charger. Same with the HP charger, it works fine as long as I dont play games. As soon as I do, my HP charger will shut off after 5 or 10mins into the game.
Of course, I could just not play games, but I upgraded my laptop to play games. I'm a kid at heart, I tell yeah. haha

 

[Slartybart]

That is very strange behavior. Methinks there might be some nasty playing games with your power.

Try running MalwareBytes and then a full AV scan. Report the results

If you don't have AV software, there are free AV products, MSE, Avast, AVG.

 

[Slartybart]

@Takaaaa: I just looked at your System specs and thought "That's odd - the HP Slimline s5220y is not a laptop at all, maybe that's the problem" =:>

Could you provide complete specs for the dv7 laptop? There's a link in my sig that makes this really easy if you're on the machine when you're posting. Thanks.

Just Googled the problem - you're not alone or you're very determined.

There are many that attribute the problem to overheating. A good strat would be to clean the vents with compressed air, although a whole bunch of posts mentioned that did not help.

on HP Community....... Have you ran the battery test on your battery? The next thing that I want to do is to go into your BIOS ( F10 ) go under Diagnostics and run the short test ( Primary disc test ) and the long test ( memory test). By running these two test we can make sure that everything is okay with you Hard Drive.

on HP Community.......
but what i find really weird is that..

* Works fine under several LINUX distros

(Kubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva and Gentoo)
* Using VBox under linux, i could ran a virtual machine with WinXP and screen works fine! even on games!

i think if the hardware is the main problem.. shouldn't fail under linux also??

This thread is a long and winding road. You feel as though you're going to find tha answer and then.......
Talks about heat, battery, testing...
but no real solution

​

Also, could you see if there are any related errors reported in the event log?


Thanks again.

 

[Takaaaa]

That is very strange behavior. Methinks there might be some nasty playing games with your power.

Try running MalwareBytes and then a full AV scan. Report the results

If you don't have AV software, there are free AV products, MSE, Avast, AVG.

I run both MalwareBytes and AVG full scan once a week but never comes up with anything. I will run it again and report back.

@Takaaaa: I just looked at your System specs and thought "That's odd - the HP Slimline s5220y is not a laptop at all, maybe that's the problem" =:>

Could you provide complete specs for the dv7 laptop? There's a link in my sig that makes this really easy if you're on the machine when you're posting. Thanks.

Just Googled the problem - you're not alone or you're very determined.

There are many that attribute the problem to overheating. A good strat would be to clean the vents with compressed air, although a whole bunch of posts mentioned that did not help.

Haha yes I do have an old Slimline that is my backup. I updated my info with your link.
Oh I had no idea others have the same problem. I will try run the battery test now after the virus scan is done. I will also clean the vents.

 

[Takaaaa]

So the AVG scan and MalwareBytes came up with nothing. I also cleaned the fans, they were really clean. And the BIOs memory and harddrive test came up both "passed" and the HP battery tester said my battery was Ok.
I have no idea whats wrong. I mean I can just play games with my battery so when my charger does shut off it will run on my battery instead of shut off. But I would like to fix this incase there's a serious problem that might lead to a bigger problem.

 

[Slartybart]

Well, that sucks is terrible. Thanks for checking all of those easy things.

The post that intrigues me is the one by Nandez: the problem is not apparent when running Linux.

There are lots of other posts out there mentioning hardware fixes - but they're something I'd try or have serviced later after picking all of the low hanging fruit (the easy "fixes"). Also, it isn't clear that any of those solved the problem.

Does your machine have HP Coolsense on it? Mine did - it seemed to do more than just monitor, so I uninstalled it. The newest version seems to be integrated with HP's Total Care customer relations software (frontend for many utilities-fluff). There is a stand-alone version, but I never got it to re-install. Anyway, my machine runs fine without Coolsense.

HP (I have a few) is notorious for extraneous software. I usually remove software that I don't use or need (OEM bloat). There's a nice tutorial on removing OEM schtuff: Clean Up Factory Bloatware.

Please post your progress - I've given you a number of things to try in one post. Try the cleanup bloat first, then if the issue persists (possible, but your machine will run better w/o the bloat). Report your results and then you can think about a reInstall.

Before doing a reInstall, read the tutorial carefully and make sure you have a backup of any data you want on offline storage. Some of the steps in the second tutorial, "Reinstall", are destructive - wiping disk, making partitions, etc. If you're careful and you follow the instructions there is nothing to worry about.

A very simple solution would be to try a pad to provide additional cooling - of course that's an expense and it might not solve the issue.

These are suggestions that might solve the issue. They will do nothing if it is a HW problem. Your call on how you want to move forward. If the bloat / reinstall tutorials don't help, I'm afraid I'm out of suggestions.

Good luck, I'll think some more on it, and check back.

 

[Slartybart]

@Takaaaa: You might want to do a bit more investigation on the issue. I was looking for a temperature utility and came across HW Monitor Pro made by the same folks who make CPU-Z (CPUID). It's probably easiest if you download the setup version instead of the individual exe.

I only recently downloaded it so I'm not familiar with it's capabilities, but the information in my first run seemed fairly comprehensive as far as temps go. You might be able to track temps and that would be the best. Do want causes the issue while tracking temps and see what gets reported.

As a reference, my machine reported around 43 degrees Celsius for most components.

Since it happens during game playing, I suspect that it is graphics related.

I told you I'd check back. Other members might add their expertise, so hang in there. Thanks again.

Side note: How long have you had this machine? Can you return it to the man on Craigslist? I suspect that he might have known about the problem and attempted to "fix" it (the Dell power brick). You can usually get a great deal on a machine from a retail outlet or PC mfr at the end of the model year or before a new OS is released. I got my dv6 for less than $400 in March of this year. There are usually Back-to-School deals on new models, but the savings won't be as great. Anyway, if you can return it and get your money back, you might consider that as an option if we can't easily resolve it.
​

 

[Slartybart]

Hmmm, I normally suggest checking for updates sooner than this.

Main update page: HP Pavilion dv7-2185dx Entertainment Notebook PC
I scanned the page and didn't find many updates that might affect your situtation - lots of HP software updates, the fluff I usually remove.

But one caught my eye and after reading the more..... " - Updates the thermal table to fix an issue caused by noise from the system fan." You might not have noise, but the BIOS touches the thermal table.

If you have HP Support Assistant on your machine, you can check for updates with it.



I've never had very much success with it though, it usually only updates itself. I have to go look around my system and compare versions on the HP download page.

If not.... check the current version of your BIOS (run ==> msinfo32 or launch Speccy). If your BIOS is lower than F.46, you might consider updating it.
HP offers a BIOS Update (Intel Processors) version F.46 for your system

HP HP Pavilion dv7-2185dx Entertainment Notebook PC support sites:

• Software & Driver downloads
• Product Info
• Solve a Problem
• Notebook Support Forums
• Battery Indicator
• Battery Charging Delayed
• Fan Runs Constantly...

Many of the above suggest updating your BIOS. Just take care if you do, shut everything else down and run on AC - you do NOT want to interrupt the process.

You can also selectively limit the hardware actually running in Device Mgr- take Ethernet for example. I always connect wireless, so I disable the Ethernet HW, same thing for my modem and Bluetooth. You know what devices you use on your machine - disable the ones you DON'T use to conserve power and generate a little bit less heat.

Just remember that you turned them off - in case you're at a friend's house and try to connect to their router with a cat5 cable - it will drive you insane "Now my Ethernet doesn't work! Oh yeah, I disabled it."

You might try decreasing the resolution of your monitor - I'm not sure if that will do anything other than spoil your game experience. The theory is that the graphics driver won't have to drive the chip as hard - but again, I don't know.

Lots here for you to think about. Good luck.