Hello all, I'm a bit of a stupid one when it comes to the inner workings of laptop hardware. Which is why I am here.

I've more or less been having issues with my HP Pavillion ZD5000 laptop running Windows XP. I've had it since summer of 2004, and granted I haven't been the best keeper of the notebook (I have stupidly left it plugged in overnight on several occasions due to download, and gotten it's backlight busted as a result. Though I was still under warranty so it was alright.), I'm also not wholly awful about it's upkeep (No food and drink in a five feet radius, defragment, have not dropped or physically abused it, etc.).

Well, it served me faithfully until one spring's night in 2006, the battery died. Now this I will fully admit to being my own fault as someone wasn't very good about letting the battery run the computer completely once in a while. So while the battery works, I have roughly a five to ten minute charge.

I digress. Undaunted and unable to shell out money for a new battery, I went on AC power. And so it served me well. Unfortunately, one day this past March it decided to go hair trigger on me.I call it that as my computer has become one of the most finicky things I've ever encountered.

I would say at least 70% of the time I have no major problems, but the other 30% is a trial in itself. I will have the AC cord in, LED light is on, little lightningbolt and power symbols quite there. Then.... It will shut down. No warning. No low battery or AC or something, Now initially I was afraid it had been overheating, but after unplugging everything and letting it sit there for the day, I still encountered the same problem. It will begin to start up then shut down abruptly. This can happen at anytime from the loading screen to the log in screen, hell I've even had it happen when I was on the computer for a good hour or two (Thank god for Firefox's restore session).

The only way I've figured out how to prevent it from happening is keeping the AC plugged in a certain angle and using my hand and/or tape to keep it there.

While normally I can live with 80% functionality, the problem seems to be becoming more and more frequent and this worries me. I'm hoping it's just the AC cord as I don't particularly fancy getting a new laptop as it was a graduation gift and is supposed to last me until I graduate from my university.

Suggestions are quite appreciated.

hi there welcome to dal the computer forum

i think you have answered your own question

please try another power lead as this seems to be where the problem lays


hope this helps