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Amilo D7830 switching itself off

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Amilo D7830 switching itself off

Postby nickholmes » Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:26 am

I have an Amilo D7830 which is well out of warranty.

It has worked fine for ages, but the battery hasn't been holding its charge for a while, and has recently been turning itself off.

It has now reached the point that it won't boot into Windows anymore. It just gets to the desktop, and then shuts down.

I assumed that the battery had died, but before I ordered a new one, I thought I would investigate a little.

I removed the battery, and just connected the mains supply. Still the same. (suggesting the battery is not causing the shut-downs)

I can boot into safe mode no problem. I thought that there may be an issue with a driver, so swapped the hard drive out and tried to do a factory restore.

The laptop boots from the CD and goes through the initial stages of Windows setup (loads all of its drivers) but as soon as it gets to the screen where you chose whether you want to start recovery console or install a fresh copy of Windows, the system shuts down.

I then came to the conclusion that it was overheating (but it is strange that it happens at exactly the same point each time)

I opened removed the heatsink and fan assembly and replaced the thermal transfer paste with some high performance silver stuff, still exactly the same.

I then ran some DOS-based diagnostics tools... I ran a CPU burn-in utility which should generate plenty of heat, but it completed with no errors. I did the same for memory and hard disk, none of which caused the machine to reboot.

This suggests that it isn't overheating.

DOS applications seem to run fine, it is just when I run Windows, or try to install Windows...

I have tried disabling power management in the BIOS, but it makes no difference..

I have completely run out of ideas. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

Thanks

Nick
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Postby NickS » Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:01 pm

If you can boot into safe mode no problem, it could be a RAM issue: that could cause it to fail at the same point (I had this on a desktop machine that ran W98 fine and fell over trying to install XP - a memory check program showed the problem). Do you have more than one RAM module? If so try it with one at a time. Or find and download goldmem or memtest86.
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Location: Nr. Basingstoke, UK
Notebook:
  • Amilo Pi1536 T7200
  • Toshiba Satellite Pro 4200 series

Postby nickholmes » Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:01 pm

Thanks for the response.

I tried memtest86+ but it found no errors.

To be on the safe side, I switched the memory for some I had lying around, but still cape up with the same error..

I tried to install ubuntu linux in case the issue was confined to Windows.. The system still crashed, but this time I could at least get a readout on the screen as linux reports more as it boots..

The system crashes when or just after it loads the ACPI drivers...

Any ideas?

Nick
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Postby NickS » Wed Jun 13, 2007 12:51 pm

nickholmes wrote:Any ideas?

Hmm. I'm not clear how far you got with the Ubuntu installation - is the error when booting from HDD? Will it boot and run from a "LiveCD" like Knoppix or Trinity Rescue Kit? (I'd try TRK first).
Can you turn off DMA in the BIOS?
NickS
 
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:14 pm
Location: Nr. Basingstoke, UK
Notebook:
  • Amilo Pi1536 T7200
  • Toshiba Satellite Pro 4200 series

Postby nickholmes » Wed Jun 13, 2007 1:48 pm

Sorry 'tried to install ubuntu' was a bit misleading..

The ubuntu CD I have is a LiveCD version, so you have to load ubuntu from the CD before you can install it... At this point, the HDD is completely blank..

I put the CD in, I get the menu asking do I want to 'Run/Install unbuntu', 'Run in safe graphics mode', 'Install using driver CD', 'verify disk', 'boot from HDD', etc...

I click on 'Run/Install ubuntu', the unbuntu splash screen appears for a while, then the screen goes blank, then it lists it progress until it gets to something like 'Checking VESA state' and it either crashes now, or just as it displays something like 'Loading ACPI Driver'..

I will have a go at running the Trinity Rescue Kit tonight..

I don't remember seeing anything in the BOIS referring to DMA, but it will have a look..
nickholmes
 
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Postby NickS » Thu Jun 14, 2007 12:44 pm

If the TRK CD boots OK (it's a command-line Linux), I'd try Ubuntu in "safe graphics mode" - I'm beginning to wonder whether there's a problem with the graphics; is that a separate card on the 7830?
NickS
 
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:14 pm
Location: Nr. Basingstoke, UK
Notebook:
  • Amilo Pi1536 T7200
  • Toshiba Satellite Pro 4200 series

Postby nickholmes » Thu Jun 14, 2007 2:03 pm

The TRK booted fine - both with and without ACPI support... Maybe ACPI was a red herring after all..

Ubuntu crashes at the same point reagrdless of whether I select 'Run/Install Ubuntu', 'Run in Safe Graphics Mode', or 'Install using driver CD'...

I had a look for a way of disabling DMA, but I can only chose between (from memory);

Auto
SingleWord Mode 0
SingleWord Mode 1
SingleWord Mode 2
MultiWord Mode 0
MultiWord Mode 1
MultiWord Mode 2
Ultra Mode 0
Ultra Mode 1
Ultra Mode 2
Ultra Mode 3
Ultra Mode 4
Ultra Mode 5
Ultra Mode 6

I tried a handfull of them for both CDROM and HDD, but it didn't make any difference..

I assumed setting both HDD and CDROM to DMA 0 Mode 0 and PIO Mode 0 would be best for troubleshooting, but it still suffered the same..

I thought about graphics as well, but I woudn't expect the system just switch off like it does... I would expect some display scrambing or something.. I also ran a couple of graphics benchmark applications the other day which didn't seem to complain either..

You're right, the graphics card is removable on this machine, but I would imagine the cost of replacing it would be more than the value of the machine...
nickholmes
 
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Postby NickS » Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:18 pm

Well, it sounds as though you're getting to the end of the line. www.mxm-upgrade.com does look like a pricey gamble. Matrox used to have a proper diagnostic for their graphics cards; a shame not everyone does.

Have you tried running on a single stick of RAM, just in case there's a memory slot/controller problem?

I would also try removing the HDD to see whether it will run from a GUI LiveCD.

It may also be worth re-seating (removing and reinstalling) the video card, but that probably isn't an easy job and may require you to do something with thermal transfer paste.
NickS
 
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:14 pm
Location: Nr. Basingstoke, UK
Notebook:
  • Amilo Pi1536 T7200
  • Toshiba Satellite Pro 4200 series

idem

Postby red9 » Wed Jul 04, 2007 8:27 am

I have the same problem too with my amilo D 7850 except that mine freezes after 2mn. I tried to change the RAM with 2 new stick, change the HD with a new one, but without success. the machine always freeze. Tried to use ubuntu live CD, it freezes but when I' using a BART windows live CD, sometimes it crashes and sometimes it works without a problem. Strange problem but I don't know what to do! any help please?

Red
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Amilo D7830 switching itself off

Postby Steph1969 » Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:02 am

I have the same problem with my amilo D 7830 except that it dies - switching itself off - now even when I try to boot from BART windows live CD.

Over the last days it did look like the boot time before switching off became shorter and shorter. I thought it was the battery but even with taking out the battery and connect to power adapter this Amilo still dies. First I could see my windows xp desktop completely before it died, then only the resume windows process and now it dies in within 5 to 15 seconds.

And how can I save my data on my HDD as I expect it is not the drive?
Steph1969
 
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*SOLVED*

Postby nickholmes » Sun Nov 18, 2007 9:16 pm

I solved my problem... (Some time ago, but forgot to post anything here..)

It turned out to be the power supply.. The power supply I have been using was 19V 3.7A whereas the label on the bottom of the laptop states 20V 4.7A

I borrowed a suitably rated power supply from a friend, and it worked perfectly..

I can only assume that while the battery was good, it didn't matter much as the battery was acting as a UPS, but as the battery stopped holding its charge, the laptop couldn't get enough juice out of the power supply alone...

A replacement power supply and battery from ebay worked a treat...

It is worth noting that unlike most laptops, this one doesn't seem to work at all without a battery installed. If you remove the battery and just connect the power supply, it won't turn on.

Nick
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Postby Steph1969 » Wed Nov 21, 2007 8:26 am

Thanks, that about the power supply makes sense because I indeed also use 19V 3.16A and I also removed my battery but there is something else funny.

With this 19V and battery removed, when I put a strong external fan on it, it worked fine!!! I could to my surprise normally log on into XP for more than one hour. I did the 'PCpitstop' and got the reply back that all hardware and software was working fine. The same with my ubuntu boot CD, with which I even could work with fan on lower power without any problems, and again, this all was with my battery removed.

So, I still am not too sure that the power supply will resolve my amilo, and spending 80 AUD for a battery or 150 for an adapter is a bit too much for me without being sure that this will resolve it..
Please advice. :-)
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Postby amilo33 » Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:03 am

Hello friend !
I think you should have check the setting pf your
PC that is why that it shut down again and again .
I love amilo
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Postby Steph1969 » Sat Dec 01, 2007 12:27 am

Hi mates, thx for all help, its back working. I bought a new battery and all is back fine again. Cheers
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