Elitebook 840 G8 crashing, weird behavior, but still functional
Dear badcaps-forum,
my father operates a used Elitebook 840 G8. It was in operation for a year, now it starts to make problems. Unfortunately out of warranty. We upgraded the RAM to 32 GB (2x 16) and a 2 TB SSD. If you think the details matter, I will get that information from him.
Now it randomly switches off. Crashes without any previous sign. Simply off. It happened already 100 times? Sometimes (1 out of 10) the fans will operate at 100 % speed after the crash for appr. 30 seconds. The laptop can, after that crash, be restarted normally. One time after the crash all keyboard LEDs were continuously on, whereas the power led flashed orange at 2 Hz. Only a hard reset (long press power button) recovered the laptop from this state.
The laptop doesn't get warm/hot. It also crashes from the diagnostic screen, so I don't think it's a Windows issue.
The crash occurs with the charger connected (both round type AC power, as well as USB-C PD charger) in a few minutes (max. 10). On battery the laptop survives MUCH longer, sometimes it doesn't crash at all until the battery is empty.
The BIOS Version is old (1.08), but under this condition I don't want to perform a BIOS update. Do you think it might be a corrupt BIOS? I don't think so. I more think about a internal issue with the power supply or a randomly occurring ground fault / short circuit.
Can I ask for your thoughts, experience with this model / motherboard? What might be steps to troubleshoot, as this happens randomly, not a continuous fault. Difficult to find? What do you think?
Unfortunately, I am not with him right now, so I can't perform measurements. I just ask for the way forward. I also have not much experience with laptop repairs, but would dig deeper to repair that notebook. I like the Elitebooks (running a G7 by myself) and don't want to give up on his device.
Thanks for your comments!
Christian
my father operates a used Elitebook 840 G8. It was in operation for a year, now it starts to make problems. Unfortunately out of warranty. We upgraded the RAM to 32 GB (2x 16) and a 2 TB SSD. If you think the details matter, I will get that information from him.
Now it randomly switches off. Crashes without any previous sign. Simply off. It happened already 100 times? Sometimes (1 out of 10) the fans will operate at 100 % speed after the crash for appr. 30 seconds. The laptop can, after that crash, be restarted normally. One time after the crash all keyboard LEDs were continuously on, whereas the power led flashed orange at 2 Hz. Only a hard reset (long press power button) recovered the laptop from this state.
The laptop doesn't get warm/hot. It also crashes from the diagnostic screen, so I don't think it's a Windows issue.
The crash occurs with the charger connected (both round type AC power, as well as USB-C PD charger) in a few minutes (max. 10). On battery the laptop survives MUCH longer, sometimes it doesn't crash at all until the battery is empty.
The BIOS Version is old (1.08), but under this condition I don't want to perform a BIOS update. Do you think it might be a corrupt BIOS? I don't think so. I more think about a internal issue with the power supply or a randomly occurring ground fault / short circuit.
Can I ask for your thoughts, experience with this model / motherboard? What might be steps to troubleshoot, as this happens randomly, not a continuous fault. Difficult to find? What do you think?
Unfortunately, I am not with him right now, so I can't perform measurements. I just ask for the way forward. I also have not much experience with laptop repairs, but would dig deeper to repair that notebook. I like the Elitebooks (running a G7 by myself) and don't want to give up on his device.
Thanks for your comments!
Christian