Laptop Freezes unless I put pressure on the corners of the laptop?

[Zombeh]

Really weird problem I have going on with my old NX6110 HP laptop. It will just freeze and in order to fix it, I have to put pressure on the edges of the laptop (sometimes lightly banging it will fix it for a couple minutes). I have ran PC check and all hardware diags pass and has a fresh install of windows. What could it be?

 

[Bubbaleone]

Depending on how many times it's been banged around or dropped in it's lifetime, mounting screws, connectors, etc., etc. can all loosen up. Flexing the case might be ungrounding a short or helping a connector seat better somewhere.

I'd suggest opening it up and go through everything; check loose screws; unplug, inspect, and reseat all connectors; reseat memory modules; look carefully for anything metallic that might have fallen off, loosened up, or be out of position enough to cause a short. Also look for cracks in the plastic case where screws attach that could cause components to be out of position or move around.


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[serpretetsky]

describe the crash symptoms in more detail. It's a temporary hang up until you put pressure on the laptop or it hard crashes without pressure requiring a reboot? Blue Screen Error? Does it sometimes not boot without pressure?

If it only temporarily hangs does it completely lock until you apply pressure, or is it still running but very slowly? Does anything respond at all (can you move the mouse cursor)?

Have you noticed it crashes more often with certain programs, or completely random?

 

[Zombeh]

Depending on how many times it's been banged around or dropped in it's lifetime, mounting screws, connectors, etc., etc. can all loosen up. Flexing the case might be ungrounding a short or helping a connector seat better somewhere.

I'd suggest opening it up and go through everything; check loose screws; unplug, inspect, and reseat all connectors; reseat memory modules; look carefully for anything metallic that might have fallen off, loosened up, or be out of position enough to cause a short. Also look for cracks in the plastic case where screws attach that could cause components to be out of position or move around.


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I've reseated all memory and modules that are are there and have taken it apart to verify the seating of components, looks A-okay!

describe the crash symptoms in more detail. It's a temporary hang up until you put pressure on the laptop or it hard crashes without pressure requiring a reboot? Blue Screen Error? Does it sometimes not boot without pressure?

If it only temporarily hangs does it completely lock until you apply pressure, or is it still running but very slowly? Does anything respond at all (can you move the mouse cursor)?

Have you noticed it crashes more often with certain programs, or completely random?

It's just a temporary hang up, no blue screens, no crashes. Basically the keyboard / mouse hangs up unless I am putting pressure on some part of the laptop. once I release the pressure it hangs up (sometimes it doesn't)

The hang happens randomy, but a lot. Most of the time when there is no apps running.

 

[serpretetsky]

if you're running some animation or video in the background, that hangs as well?

edit: if it does hang, when you reapply pressure, does the video resume exactly where it hung, or does it continue as if though it was streaming the entire time the computer was locked?

 

[cl-scott]

This reminds me of the issue with the GPU solder joints going cold on the iBook G4s. Whatever it is that is going on, it is likely something that will involve some "extreme" (by the average computer user's standards) measures to solve. Like reflowing some of the solder joints or possibly replacing a few capacitors.

Odds are your current solution will be temporary and will gradually stop working, so you can either open the thing up and try to find the problem at the component level, or just decide it's not worth it and sell it on ebay for parts.

 

[paul878]

You have lose solder connections some where.
I had a laptop that had the exact same symptoms, and it was the memory slot.

 

[Matt1970]

Common problem with those. Like the DV series it needs a chip to be re-balled (re-soldered) or have something put some pressure on the chip to keep it running.

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-HP-ProBook-Compaq-Slate/nx6110-hangs-freezes/td-p/747284

 

[alzan]

Could be the system board has a crack in it; pressing down on corners or lightly tapping it temporarily closes the crack. Depending on age you might be able to still get a working board for it.

 

[uga81]

My old 700m does almost the same thing. The difference is when powered up only the fan comes on, that I know of, and it will sit in that state indefinitely. After banging a couple of times, and it does make the hand sore, it will finally begin a boot process. The worst is that after each attempt, it has to be unplugged and go totally off before a new attempt is made. It may take 15 to 20 cycles of this activity to get her going.

When I have time, I am definitely taking it apart and rebuilding. It is a great old laptop that cruises the net at great speed. With browsers now able to save your bookmarks to the cloud I can easily switch off to a newer laptop or desktop for application work.

Thanks, uga81, great to be here!