HP Pavilion dv8000 laptop

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Hi,

I am working on a Pavilion dv8000 laptop, which was heavily infected with viruses, trojans et al. I removed the hard drive and inserted it into a 2.5" enclosure and carried out a number of scans using different anti-virus/malware programs. My problem arose when I reinstalled the hard drive in the laptop. I was carrying out a final anti-virus scan when the computer automatically switched itself off halfway through the scan. I powered the laptop back on and checked the power management settings and set them to not power down.

I then rescanned the hard drive and after about 20 minutes the system powered down again. HMonitor is showing CPU core temperature peaking very occassionally at 87oC but normally running at around 65-73oC. If it was an overheating problem, then presumably the system would not power up again after shutting down? But the system does power up again after shutting down. Does anyone have any other possible explanation to this conundrum. It is presently powered from the mains and the battery is showing 100% charge.

Many thanks,
Mark

 

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First off i would format the disk and then reinstall the OS to ensure no virus is the cause for problems.

Other than that i would do as you were doing and see about monitoring the temps using a few different apps if possible. Try by process of elimination removing various hardware components to see if you can get it running smoothly without a reset.

If you have any spare parts, try swapping the hard disk, ram and other bits with known good spares.

I know from working with many Dell Latitudes that they usually have diagnostic utilities either installed on the motherboard or download-able from the Dell website which will test all of your hardware for many problems. Perhaps they provide these diagnostic tools for your model?

Can't think of much else off the top of my head. Let us know if you work out what was wrong.

(Just realised it's a HP not a DELL Doh! Even so perhaps HP have some utilities available although i don't think i have seen any on the ones i support)

 

Anything related to system problems in Event Viewer?

 

Thanks for the replies and advice. I am a bit reluctant to reformat the hdd, as it is not my laptop. I have booted into Safe Mode and successfully run anti-virus scans without it powering down. So, it seems that it is not a hardware problem, but rather a problem working in Windows normal mode running scans?

There is nothing significant in Event Viewer that would indicate where the problem lies. I have tried to boot up with an XP CD to work in Recovery Console, so that I can use CHKDSK, but it did not recognise there was a hard drive present. Although in Windows Disk Management, the hard disk is recognised and shows a Healthy status. Also I used the hdd diagnostics in BIOS/CMOS and it passed successfully.

 

Well, if it works ok in safe mode, it's unlikely to be a hard drive problem.

Try running MSCONFIG and disable stuff thats starting up automatically when windows starts.

Also, display drivers are often the culprits for re-booting type crashes, you could look to see if there are any later drivers on the manufacturers site.

 

Most antivirus software is great for blocking malware from infecting a computer... but absolutely abysmal at removing malware that has already infected a computer. If you can't remove the malware by hand, you should probably wipe and reinstall.

Plus, consider: you might (and I stress, MIGHT) be cleaning up the stuff your AV app can see... but what about the stuff that your AV app CAN'T see, like rootkits? Once a virus hits one of my systems, that system is compromised and I can no longer ensure the security of the data. If you want to be SURE everything's removed, wipe it.

 

First off, I agree with BM - if I have a computer that has been "heavily" infected with viruses, I would always consider reformatting and re-installing as you just don't know what's being left behind as no anti-virus programme is 100%. Is it possible to discuss this with the laptoip owner or is it not an option at all?

My other point Mark is that you make no metion of whether you have turned off automatic restarts on the laptop?