Posted on 05/05/2006 1:56:46 PM PDT by Spacetrucker
I am having a difficult time figuring out a problem with my laptop (HP pavilion zv 5000). It powers up fine on AC power, but will not run on battery power at all. The control panel says the battery is in good working order, at 100% charge, and I have run the troubleshooter on it several times to no avail. I am hoping that this may be some kind of program thing that has the battery switched off (before you ask I looked - the battery is enabled) because until next week I cannot afford to buy a new battery ($199.99) and I am going to be traveling this week. Any one with any info as to how I may discern the problem would be greatly appreciated.
HP needs to replace your unit, if it's still under warranty.
Get a horse...
Try erasing all the porn on your hard disk.
it acts as if there is no batter when I try to power up - but the computer itself (control mgr., device mgr.) recognize it and show it as operating properly.
If the laptop simply dies when AC power is removed after it is booted up, then the battery is likely toast. Have a look at what it reads on a volt meter.
Sounds like some hardware circuitry issues to me. It's hard to believe that even a poor condition battery would be so bad as to not put out any current at all. Better call HP.
I have a 3 year old z4700 and it has been solid after going belly up right out of the box. Drink a whole lot of beer before calling HP, though - their support is in India.
portable/laptop selected ?
This probably won't make you feel better, but I've had terrible experience with the battery and power systems of several HP/Compaq laptops, including failed batteries and failed charging circuits.
Does the battery get hot? I had a similar failure (battery would show 100% charge, but would only hold power for a few minutes before dying. In that case, the battery would heat up and it and the area of the notebook where it was mounted would be uncomfortably warm to the touch. A new battery fixed the problem (for six months, until an unrelated failure of the power circuit fried the motherboard).
If I were you, I'd look at a battery replacement, as your only other option is to send it back to HP for repair - it will take them a week even to look at the problem, with no guarantees of how long any repair might take or how much it will cost. I was quoted 4-6 weeks for repair on a (different) HP laptop that was only 6 weeks old at the time; motherboard replacement would probably be north of $500 if it were out of warranty. You can find new laptop batteries much cheaper on eBay; just search for "zv5000 battery". Looks like right now batteries for your model are running about $65 plus shipping.
Just a quick update - tell me if you all don't think this is just ODD - I recently (by accident) discovered that if I unplug the power cord from the wall and THEN unplug from the computer, the battery will function properly. WTH is up with this computer?? I've talked to a few with some knowledge and it mystifies them.
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