pompless
04-12-2004, 10:14 PM
So I've been trying to fix my friend's HP Pavilion 8575c and I seem to
have left it in worse condition than when I began. I could really use
some help figuring what went wrong. Sorry if this post is overly long,
but I want to give every detail of what I did.
The original problem was that it would freeze occasionally while
online, especially after being turned on for long periods of time. I
got the feeling it was an overheating problem because the CPU cooling
fan was making a loud growling noise. So I opened up the computer and
cleaned out all the dust with compressed air. I removed the CPU
cooling fan and it looked very worn out and dirty so I ordered a
replacment online. While waiting for the new fan to arrive, I
reinstalled the old fan, left the chassis open and the computer seemed
to run a lot better, so that kind of confirmed my theory about an
overheating problem. I'd ordered what I thought was an exact duplicate
fan, but when the new one arrived, I could see there were some slight
differences. Both are Delta Electronics DC12V Brushless fans, model
#EFB0512HA. The difference is, the old fan has three wires coming out
of it and the new one has only two. Both end in a 3-pin connector, but
whereas the old one has three wires going into the connector, the new
on has only two and an extra wire looped from one connector hole to
another. I've included some links to pictures to help illustrate the
difference:
Here are the two fans themselves, the old one on the top and the new
one on the bottom:
http://tinyurl.com/3g2yj
And here are the two connectors, the old one on the left and the new
one on the right:
http://tinyurl.com/2fann
And for reference, here's a link to the new fan I bought:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/buyextras/b50babefan1t.html
You probably can't see it in the picture, but the only difference
between the specifications listed on the fans themselves is that the
old one says 0.15A-F00 and the new one just says 0.15A. Also, on the
old connector, it says MXT 2-29 and on the new one, it says MSH 08. I
guess these two fans aren't exactly the same despite the identical
model number, but I figured the new one would be fine, so I installed
it. That's where the real problems began.
At first, everything seemed fine. I started up the computer with the
chassis still open and the new fan sounded great, much quieter and
smoother than the old one. So I shut it down, pushed the drive cage
back in, put the panel back on and started it up again. Everything
still seemed fine, although on starting up this time, I heard a slight
squeak inside the computer like something was having trouble spinning
for a second. I'd heard this noise once before when I first started
diagnosing the freezing problem, long before I'd ever opened up the
chassis. But then everything sounded fine again and the computer
started up normally. It's running Windows 98, btw. I then remembered
that I'd disabled the antivirus software, so I re-enabled it and tried
to restart. This time, it didn't shut down properly. The screen just
went black and the computer continued running for a long time and
didn't seem like it was going to reboot. I tried to control/alt/delete
it and that didn't work, so I tried holding down the startup button
which also didn't work. I ended up having to cut the power on the
power strip to turn the thing off. So I started it back up again and
disabled the antivirus app again, thinking that was the problem, but
the computer froze when I tried to click the "OK" button. I ended up
having to cut the power again to shut it down. So I started it up
again and this time just tried to shut it down to see what would
happen. This time, the hard drive seemed to shut down properly, but
the power supply fan (not the CPU fan) kept running and the power
light stayed on along with the light near the floppy drive. I ended up
having to cut the power again. So then I started up again and made
sure the antivirus app was disabled which it was and tried shutting
down again. This time, everything seemed to shut down properly, but
the power supply fan kept going for about 20 seconds or so and then
finally stopped. I thought it was just taking a while to shut down or
something, but then when I pushed the startup button again, the thing
wouldn't even turn on!
So now I'm really freaking out and figured installing the new fan
screwed something up. So I unplugged everything and opened up the
computer again. I noticed upon opening it that there were a couple of
wire connectors coming from the power supply box that weren't plugged
into anything and I have no idea where they're supposed to go. I'm not
sure if they were like this before or if I somehow accidentally
unplugged them when I was installing the new fan. I really don't think
I did. It could very well be that they're not supposed to be plugged
into anything at all. One connector says P4 and the other says P8.
Here's a picture of what they look like:
http://tinyurl.com/2xuct
So I put the old fan back in and then as soon as I plug in the power
cord to the power supply box, the computer starts up without me even
pushing the startup button! Even weirder is that after a couple
seconds it just dies like the power has been cut off and then a second
later it starts up again! On then off, on then off, over and over all
on it's own without my even touching it. I eventually just unplugged
the power cord. What the hell is going on?! Have I totally destroyed
this computer just by installing that stupid fan? I have a few ideas
about what could have gone wrong.
1. The new fan screwed up the power flow somehow.
2. When I first pushed the drive cage back in, I unknowingly crimped
or unplugged some wires or cables.
3. When I used the compressed air, I had the can tilted at a slight
angle and unknowingly sprayed liquid on something important.
4. I unknowingly blew something out with static electricity when I was
fiddling around inside the computer. I don't think this happened,
although I wasn't wearing a grounding strap.
Anyway, as you can probably tell, I'm very inexperienced with fixing
computers and I'm sure I did lots of things wrong. I'm sure turning
off the power stip so many times like that wasn't a good idea, but I
couldn't shut it down any other way. Control/Alt/Delete the power
button did nothing. I just hope that I didn't permanently damage my
friend's computer. Any ideas on what went wrong?
have left it in worse condition than when I began. I could really use
some help figuring what went wrong. Sorry if this post is overly long,
but I want to give every detail of what I did.
The original problem was that it would freeze occasionally while
online, especially after being turned on for long periods of time. I
got the feeling it was an overheating problem because the CPU cooling
fan was making a loud growling noise. So I opened up the computer and
cleaned out all the dust with compressed air. I removed the CPU
cooling fan and it looked very worn out and dirty so I ordered a
replacment online. While waiting for the new fan to arrive, I
reinstalled the old fan, left the chassis open and the computer seemed
to run a lot better, so that kind of confirmed my theory about an
overheating problem. I'd ordered what I thought was an exact duplicate
fan, but when the new one arrived, I could see there were some slight
differences. Both are Delta Electronics DC12V Brushless fans, model
#EFB0512HA. The difference is, the old fan has three wires coming out
of it and the new one has only two. Both end in a 3-pin connector, but
whereas the old one has three wires going into the connector, the new
on has only two and an extra wire looped from one connector hole to
another. I've included some links to pictures to help illustrate the
difference:
Here are the two fans themselves, the old one on the top and the new
one on the bottom:
http://tinyurl.com/3g2yj
And here are the two connectors, the old one on the left and the new
one on the right:
http://tinyurl.com/2fann
And for reference, here's a link to the new fan I bought:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/buyextras/b50babefan1t.html
You probably can't see it in the picture, but the only difference
between the specifications listed on the fans themselves is that the
old one says 0.15A-F00 and the new one just says 0.15A. Also, on the
old connector, it says MXT 2-29 and on the new one, it says MSH 08. I
guess these two fans aren't exactly the same despite the identical
model number, but I figured the new one would be fine, so I installed
it. That's where the real problems began.
At first, everything seemed fine. I started up the computer with the
chassis still open and the new fan sounded great, much quieter and
smoother than the old one. So I shut it down, pushed the drive cage
back in, put the panel back on and started it up again. Everything
still seemed fine, although on starting up this time, I heard a slight
squeak inside the computer like something was having trouble spinning
for a second. I'd heard this noise once before when I first started
diagnosing the freezing problem, long before I'd ever opened up the
chassis. But then everything sounded fine again and the computer
started up normally. It's running Windows 98, btw. I then remembered
that I'd disabled the antivirus software, so I re-enabled it and tried
to restart. This time, it didn't shut down properly. The screen just
went black and the computer continued running for a long time and
didn't seem like it was going to reboot. I tried to control/alt/delete
it and that didn't work, so I tried holding down the startup button
which also didn't work. I ended up having to cut the power on the
power strip to turn the thing off. So I started it back up again and
disabled the antivirus app again, thinking that was the problem, but
the computer froze when I tried to click the "OK" button. I ended up
having to cut the power again to shut it down. So I started it up
again and this time just tried to shut it down to see what would
happen. This time, the hard drive seemed to shut down properly, but
the power supply fan (not the CPU fan) kept running and the power
light stayed on along with the light near the floppy drive. I ended up
having to cut the power again. So then I started up again and made
sure the antivirus app was disabled which it was and tried shutting
down again. This time, everything seemed to shut down properly, but
the power supply fan kept going for about 20 seconds or so and then
finally stopped. I thought it was just taking a while to shut down or
something, but then when I pushed the startup button again, the thing
wouldn't even turn on!
So now I'm really freaking out and figured installing the new fan
screwed something up. So I unplugged everything and opened up the
computer again. I noticed upon opening it that there were a couple of
wire connectors coming from the power supply box that weren't plugged
into anything and I have no idea where they're supposed to go. I'm not
sure if they were like this before or if I somehow accidentally
unplugged them when I was installing the new fan. I really don't think
I did. It could very well be that they're not supposed to be plugged
into anything at all. One connector says P4 and the other says P8.
Here's a picture of what they look like:
http://tinyurl.com/2xuct
So I put the old fan back in and then as soon as I plug in the power
cord to the power supply box, the computer starts up without me even
pushing the startup button! Even weirder is that after a couple
seconds it just dies like the power has been cut off and then a second
later it starts up again! On then off, on then off, over and over all
on it's own without my even touching it. I eventually just unplugged
the power cord. What the hell is going on?! Have I totally destroyed
this computer just by installing that stupid fan? I have a few ideas
about what could have gone wrong.
1. The new fan screwed up the power flow somehow.
2. When I first pushed the drive cage back in, I unknowingly crimped
or unplugged some wires or cables.
3. When I used the compressed air, I had the can tilted at a slight
angle and unknowingly sprayed liquid on something important.
4. I unknowingly blew something out with static electricity when I was
fiddling around inside the computer. I don't think this happened,
although I wasn't wearing a grounding strap.
Anyway, as you can probably tell, I'm very inexperienced with fixing
computers and I'm sure I did lots of things wrong. I'm sure turning
off the power stip so many times like that wasn't a good idea, but I
couldn't shut it down any other way. Control/Alt/Delete the power
button did nothing. I just hope that I didn't permanently damage my
friend's computer. Any ideas on what went wrong?