New HP Laptop Issue

JWM

Hi all, I wonder if someone could advise me please. We bought an HP Pavilion Laptop online last June from John Lewis for my son who is in his final year at Uni.

All was great until last week at 50% charge it just died. Plugged in the charger, soon went up to 100%. Then last night at 65% it died again.

So when plugged in all is OK, but obviously something not right.

Just rung John Lewis who say the only option is for us to send it to them for repair which will take 28 days.

He is not in a position to not have a laptop for a month with his finals in May. Do we have any options? is it worth taking it to a PC repair shop for a quick fix or will that just make things worse? Or should we just wait and only use it plugged in?

Really disappointed with John Lewis, we went with them for the better customer service but I think 28 days is way too long, and its really unfortunate that its at this time.

unforeseen

So what do you think is reasonable considering JL has to get it to there chosen repairer. They then have to diagnose the fault, order in the new parts (which will have their own timeline), fit and test and then return. 

Why would you think a local repair shop could do it quicker. 
Even if you used the warranty and sent it to HP it would be a similar time frame. 

Neil_Jones

This will almost certainly be a battery issue.  May need recalibrating, or its worn out.

https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c04700771 might be of interest.

Batteries are not as a rule covered by warranty as such, as they are usually user replaceable fairly easily.  They tend to only be covered for six months.

The short term fix is use it plugged in all the time.

Are you using this on a desk or on the bed?  If its on the bed or some other similar thing where the vents get blocked, please don't do that as it will go off if it gets too hot as will happen when the vents get blocked regardless of what state the battery is in.  Keep the unit on a desk where possible.

JWM

unforeseen said:

So what do you think is reasonable considering JL has to get it to there chosen repairer. They then have to diagnose the fault, order in the new parts (which will have their own timeline), fit and test and then return. 

Why would you think a local repair shop could do it quicker. 
Even if you used the warranty and sent it to HP it would be a similar time frame. 

I understand what you are saying, but it couldn't have happened at a worse time - 5 months to finals! I suppose it was more the woman's attitude on the phone, she even threw in 'It may take longer than 28 days of course'.

I suppose I just expected a friendly/empathic approach- she was very much - that's it, take it or leave it, get off the phone, next!

JWM

Neil_Jones said:

This will almost certainly be a battery issue.  May need recalibrating, or its worn out.

https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c04700771 might be of interest.

Batteries are not as a rule covered by warranty as such, as they are usually user replaceable fairly easily.  They tend to only be covered for six months.

The short term fix is use it plugged in all the time.

Are you using this on a desk or on the bed?  If its on the bed or some other similar thing where the vents get blocked, please don't do that as it will go off if it gets too hot as will happen when the vents get blocked regardless of what state the battery is in.  Keep the unit on a desk where possible.

Thanks, I will look into that.

We always use the desk.

Surprised it only lasted 6 months though.

jsmith9

Your battery should have lasted years rather than months so you definitely should try a warranty claim. Meanwhile, could try a couple of things:
1. unplug charger, leave laptop on to completely drain the battery to zero, then see if the battery resets itself when you charge it.
2. remove the battery and use the laptop as a desktop only ie always plugged it
3. buy a replacement battery - Google it - they seem to be fairly cheap (but note there is a slight chance it might be the charging circuit that is failing, in which case your original battery might be fine and a new battery won't fix it. This is fairly low probability though)

Le_Kirk

IF you do decide to send it to JL for repair/replacement make sure your son takes a back-up of ALL his work and that he has copies of any programs/apps that he may have installed.  Repairers are well known for taking HDDs back to factory settings.

JWM

jsmith9 said:

Your battery should have lasted years rather than months so you definitely should try a warranty claim. Meanwhile, could try a couple of things:
1. unplug charger, leave laptop on to completely drain the battery to zero, then see if the battery resets itself when you charge it.
2. remove the battery and use the laptop as a desktop only ie always plugged it
3. buy a replacement battery - Google it - they seem to be fairly cheap (but note there is a slight chance it might be the charging circuit that is failing, in which case your original battery might be fine and a new battery won't fix it. This is fairly low probability though)

Thanks, will do.

JWM

Le_Kirk said:

IF you do decide to send it to JL for repair/replacement make sure your son takes a back-up of ALL his work and that he has copies of any programs/apps that he may have installed.  Repairers are well known for taking HDDs back to factory settings.

If it has to go back it won't be till the end of May, when his Finals are done, but he has said all his work is in the cloud.

But thanks for the reminder, while it is still working he is double checking everything has a copy.

Neil_Jones

Le_Kirk said:

IF you do decide to send it to JL for repair/replacement make sure your son takes a back-up of ALL his work and that he has copies of any programs/apps that he may have installed.  Repairers are well known for taking HDDs back to factory settings.

As a general rule no repairer guarantees data.  Whether you send it to PC World, or a small retailer or  Outer Mongolia, data is the owner's responsibility and they should have their own backups.  In fact any "warranty repairs for software" are generally not covered and if they are exercised, all they'll do is reset it anyway.

CoastingHatbox

Hi JWM,
Which model of Pavillion laptop is it?

Under no circumstances should a laptop instantly lose power. Even if the battery capacity is depleted, the user should receive a battery low warning before this happens and the laptop should gracefully shut down before the battery becomes fully depleted.

There are a few possible causes of this problem.

1. Battery fault
2. Motherboard fault
3. Firmware fault

I support Dell Hardware so I can't really speak at all for HP Laptops, however, this laptop should have a built in diagnostic utility that should test the battery health and confirm the battery charges like it should. With the exact model number, we should be able to find the steps for launching the diagnostic utility. It may indicate decisively what the fault is. This BIOS utility probably will also give battery health information and may even have a system event log which could show useful information from the occasions on which the laptop has lost power.

I would also make sure all the device drivers and firmware (even some batteries have firmware) on the laptop are up to date. You should be able to obtain the latest driver packages in one of three ways:

1. Using an update utility already pre-installed by HP on the laptop
2. Downloading all of the latest applicable firmware from the HP support site
3. Via Microsoft Update

The third option is the easiest and should happen automatically. However, it is the least reliable method because it takes time for the latest device drivers to become available via Microsoft Update. Often a manufacturer will release an update months before it becomes available from Microsoft.

In terms of getting the laptop repaired, John Lewis may allow you to upgrade the warranty provided with the laptop to one which to on on-site warranty, rather than a return-to-base warranty. This means that an engineer and the parts to come to you, instead of returning the laptop to JL, who in turn probably send it onto their repairer.

If JL don't provide this warranty upgrade option, then it may be possible to buy an on-site warranty direct from HP. If so, they will have multiple warranty levels which are probably based on how quickly repairs are expidited. I know with Dell the most expensive warranty option gets you a repair within 4 hours, where as the standard one is next business day. If a HP on-site warranty is an option, be sure to check the details in order to avoid spending more than you need to.

Another option is to obtain a spare laptop for your son to use, whilst the original is sent away for repair by JL. It doesn't necessarily have to be a new laptop. Because I'm so dependent on having a working laptop, I've always kept a spare one around. In fact, right now there are three spares, although one is earmarked for a friend of the family who is cash strapped right now and in need of one in the near future.

Good luck.

TL;DR: Run embedded diagnostic utility and confirm drivers are fully up to date