Thursday, December 8, 2011

A problem with my HP Pavilion dv6 Lap Top Freezing up – Grrrr!

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Today’s Blog Post


A problem with my HP Pavilion dv6 Lap Top Freezing up – Grrrr!
(Special Note: This will not likely be a terribly inspiring post today. It is about a Lap Top Computer problem that is annoying. It is posted to possibly help other Lap Top users solve their problem.)

Oh Crap! This stupid Lap Top Computer hung up completely! Just after I posted to the Blog yesterday it went down. It happened just before I had to go out to the Mall for my weekly presentation. I didn’t need that to think of all day!!!!

I have an HP Pavilion DV6 Lap Top. I purchased this in August 2011 – so it is not that old. In fact it has worked wonderfully well, except for a few times that it seems to freeze. A simple KILL works well, that is a shut off of the machine by pushing the On Button.

But not this time. This time it just sat there completely Black on the screen. That was even after I killed it and restarted it over again.

I was ready to get my hammer and truly kill it. I hate computers that won’t obey.

But I am old now – even older than computers. When I began as a Computer Tech way back in 1965 we expected that every problem would be new… but every problem was fixable as well. There would always be a ‘trick’ in some way to get by the problem that you have had before you.

Later in the day I called a ‘friend’ who suggested that I might have a “static” problem of some sort. That was a great suggestion to consider. Here is the step process that I tried. I also published these words to a HP Forum where others seemed to have the same problem.

Now it doesn’t fix the problem or reason that it happens but it gets by when everything else is locked up tight.

What actually happened…
Quoting from my post to the HP site…
“I experienced a few lock ups -each a little different until yesterday when it went completely BLACK - cap lock light on - f10 and f11 lit orange. A KILL usually fixed the problem and got me back up again. But not this time. Apparently it is caused by a 'static' hold up of some kind or other. I was able to get the machine back up by these steps..(did not fix the problem but rather got by the lock up)
1.) Turn off the machine-
2.) Unplug the AC-
3.) Take out the battery -
4.) Hold down the Power Button for 20 seconds- which deals with the "static" thing
5.) Reconnect the AC with the Battery out - then boot machine-
6.) After the computer runs through the complete start up - shut down normally -
7.) Re-install the Battery - reboot - and away you go -

This is kind of a very old computer fix from the 1960s and 1970s - when I started working on the first computers. Why the heck HP has this problem with something made in 2011 - blows my mind!”
Unquote

Now my guess is simple. Because we all want the machines to be smaller and smaller we are experiencing similar problems. It is very likely that other Lap Top Computers are having similar problems as HP. The equipment inside is very similar… and electricity does the same thing in certain areas of the country. Zap, Zip and Pop. Make the machine smaller and it will possibly happen again.

I had a Toshiba Lap Top back a few years ago that had/has a problem with static as well. If you touched the speakers which were on the front left and right – it would knock out the computer completely.

It only happened when the air was dryer. Out west in Canada with lower humidity it happened a lot. In the east it only happened when the humidity dropped and sparks appeared as you walked over the carpet.

By covering the whole of the lap top’s upper surface with a thin, sticky, shelf plastic – speakers and all – it solved the charge zapping problem. Sound was little muffled but it worked.

By buying a HP Lap Top with speakers not on the front I solved that problem as well.

There is one consoling factor when you work with a computer. I learned this a long time ago… and it makes it easier to deal with the issues I face. Simply put, “If there is a possible problem on a computer, it will happen to me and my machine!”

There. That makes it much easier to solve. And the second part of what I have learned over these years is, “There is always an answer from someone that has had the problem before.”

Good luck today. Maybe this post will help someone – that is swearing and ready to get the hammer out for one last time.

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/

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