Just aquired an old laptop. Trouble shooting help...

I just acquired a HP DV6451 but it has some problems. When I press power I can hear the fans running and the DVD drive spin up but about 10 seconds later it does a short electronic chirp and shuts down. It then turns itself back on and does it all over again. The screen never comes on and I can't get it to load into safe mode.

There are Best Buy stickers on the hard drive so it has been worked on before. Is this a bad hard drive or something else?

I've built a couple desk tops back in the day but never really had to trouble shoot them. Any help would be appreciated.

It's rare that a hard drive shorts out a laptop in that way. Normally, it would just not turn on, but the fact that it reboots after that 10 second period, insinuates something else.
Some of the old HP laptops had a little trick for situations like that.
You'd take the battery out, disconnect the charger and hold the power button for at least 30 seconds, then try to boot it up.
BTW: That symptom is also what you might get if the battery is nearly dead and not getting any charge from the power adapter, so it starts to boot then runs out of power and then tries again.
When you have the unit turned off and the charger plugged in, are there any lights that come on, to indicate that it is charging?

Quote from RockySosua : It's rare that a hard drive shorts out a laptop in that way. Normally, it would just not turn on, but the fact that it reboots after that 10 second period, insinuates something else. Some of the old HP laptops had a little trick for situations like that. You'd take the battery out, disconnect the charger and hold the power button for at least 30 seconds, then try to boot it up. BTW: That symptom is also what you might get if the battery is nearly dead and not getting any charge from the power adapter, so it starts to boot then runs out of power and then tries again. When you have the unit turned off and the charger plugged in, are there any lights that come on, to indicate that it is charging?

Yes, when the charger is plugged in the blue charging indicator does come on. I will try the battery trick you mentioned.

Quote from -Shadow : Yes, when the charger is plugged in the blue charging indicator does come on. I will try the battery trick you mentioned.

No go on the battery trick.

My guess its heating issue (GPU), my compaq f500 did same thing.
YT of f500 trying to boot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a...page#t=82s

Google search the model number and heating issue. Youtube as well. see if anyone else has captured the same results.

Quote from 001100 : My guess its heating issue (GPU), my compaq f500 did same thing. YT of f500 trying to boot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a...page#t=82s Google search the model number and heating issue. Youtube as well. see if anyone else has captured the same results.

It would be easy to know. If the fan is working, it's not going to be a heating issue, and if it isn't working, then you hit the nail on the head.
It's been my experience that it would take more than 10 seconds for the CPU temp sensor to cause a shutdown, but that generation of HP laptop, was known for being hot runners, so you never know. It's certainly worth checking if the fan comes on.

Try an external monitor see if it does anything and try to boot from a cd/dvd/usb stick with something like ubcd or hirens.

Try re-seating the memory.

I'm willing to bet it has a nVidia 8600/8800 M GPU that overheated and needs to be reflowed. It's a known issue with Dells, HPs, Sonys, Toshibas..etc that had nVidia 8600/8800 GPUs.
You can either reflow the GPU or replace the motherboard.
My old HP dv6780se had that issue. I reflowed it, but it sounds the fan is always spin on high. I got about 3 years use of it, but paid $1200 for it. Actually still works now, but I don't use it. Probably give it to someone who needs a laptop.

Main reason I don't buy nVidia products is because of this bad experience.

Quote from KoopaTroopa : I'm willing to bet it has a nVidia 8600/8800 M GPU that overheated and needs to be reflowed. It's a known issue with Dells, HPs, Sonys, Toshibas..etc that had nVidia 8600/8800 GPUs. You can either reflow the GPU or replace the motherboard. My old HP dv6780se had that issue. I reflowed it, but it sounds the fan is always spin on high. I got about 3 years use of it, but paid $1200 for it. Actually still works now, but I don't use it. Probably give it to someone who needs a laptop. Main reason I don't buy nVidia products is because of this bad experience.

It has a NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 (UMA). Specs [hp.com]

I was given a dead Dell XPS 1330 which was notorious for having the poorly soldered nVidia graphics, but the one I got actually only had integrated Intel graphics. I replaced the whole motherboard with another Intel IGP mobo and the laptop has worked great ever since.

Quote from dhc014 : It has a NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 (UMA)...

Yep, the Compaq f500 that I have also has Nvidia GeForce Go 6150

Quote from dhc014 : Try re-seating the memory.

Are you referring to just taking both sticks of memory out and re-inserting them.

Quote from KoopaTroopa : I'm willing to bet it has a nVidia 8600/8800 M GPU that overheated and needs to be reflowed. It's a known issue with Dells, HPs, Sonys, Toshibas..etc that had nVidia 8600/8800 GPUs. You can either reflow the GPU or replace the motherboard. My old HP dv6780se had that issue. I reflowed it, but it sounds the fan is always spin on high. I got about 3 years use of it, but paid $1200 for it. Actually still works now, but I don't use it. Probably give it to someone who needs a laptop. Main reason I don't buy nVidia products is because of this bad experience.

Reflowed is a term i am not familar with. What is that?

Quote from -Shadow : Reflowed is a term i am not familar with. What is that?

You can find youtube videos on how to do it.
Basically, you're heating the GPU enough to make the solder flow, just a bit, just enough for it to reconnect and work for another while.

I should have mentioned that you need not bother doing it, as it doesn't apply to your machine. A laptop that needs the reflowing done, does not turn off in 10 seconds. It just turns on without giving an image.

Quote from -Shadow : Are you referring to just taking both sticks of memory out and re-inserting them.

yes, you should also try them one at a time in each slot.

Quote : Reflowed is a term i am not familar with. What is that?

Reflow [wikipedia.org] refers to a soldering process. In this case it would require a reflow oven, hot air rework station, or bga station. People sometimes are able to do it using modified toaster ovens and far cheaper hot air guns but it isn't always a piece of cake even with some of the better tools. A great deal of care is required as many of the components on the board at this point probably can't handle the heat. Other problems are more likely.

Try an external monitor and reseating the ram before you do anything crazy.