Laptop keeps crashing-restarting-crashing-restating (Presario F572us)

[jvmiller]

I have a compaq presario F572us and lately its been randomly crashing, no bsod, just rebooting-but it would come back to windows and work fine. Ocassionally I've seen the screen scramble and freeze, and then it comes back without restarting. This worries me that it is a hardware issue and not a software conflict.

A couple days ago it crashed, then went into a cycle of crash-restart-crash, only the screen would not turn on (I wouldn't see a system startup screen), and it would never make it far into loading because it would restart. I could hear it starting up, but it would restart within maybe 5-7 seconds. Eventually, however, it came back and loaded all the way, monitor worked and everything.

Now it has crashed again, and is continually crashing and loading for 5-6 seconds and then crashing again. I cannot get into windows, nor can I see anything. This happens even if I hold the power button to turn it off and let it sit for a while.

I was able to press F10 when it first started, and I'm assuming it went into a system startup or bios screen (I can't remember what f10 does), because it was stable and didn't crash, but I still couldn't see anything on the screen. At that point I even tried plugging and monitor into it and toggling the vga key but I couldn't get anything to show up.

I worked with computer problems before, but I have no idea how to handle this one, because I can't even see when I'm in the system menu. Does this sound like hardware or software or both?

Please please please help, I dont' have money buy another computer and I really need this one.

Thanks for your help

 

[jvmiller]

UPDATE: The computer finally restarting after 10 or 15 minutes or crash-restart cycles. I'm going to reformat the harddrive and reinstall windows to see if it might be a software problem.

 

[frozenlead]

Reinstalling Windows was my first thing to try. Second would be a BIOS update.

 

[dwellman]

Sounds similar to where graphics chips would become "de-soldered" over time. Is the 6150 integrated into the NB or seperate? I'm too much of a hurry to look it up.

 

[jvmiller]

Its integrated. I've reformatted and reinstalled windows and it still crashes and restarts. I'm doubting that a bios update will do anything, it seems like a hardware issue now.

 

[jvmiller]

If its a loose connection or something is it fixable, or worth fixing for the money? Could I do it, or would I need to send it somewhere? I've never had a hardware issue before.

 

[dwellman]

Fixable? Not really. . . you'd ave to narrow it down to the particular chip or board component.

Board replacement is the only surefire solution.

 

[bameod]

My 557US was covered by an extended warranty program offer by HP because the know this a problem. Check the HP website, look up http/h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01480071&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3441671# and see if yours qualifies. I had mine fixed and back in 5 days...

Cheers,

Rich