HP Pavilion zd8000 PC Notebook Problem

There is NO Majic cure for this issue period.. Its related to the BGA RAM in the Video circuit and a Sphere release or bad Connection. Weve repaired a ton of these and I foresee Litigation regarding these models down the road. (Google ZD7000 Video issue).. This is pretty much the same problem with a few more added problems. Contact Scott Kamber at www.kamberedelson.com or direct to skamber@kamberedelson.com Hes a personal friend And Ive advised him on the issue. HP Had numerous pages of Posts on their own forums regarding these problems and they deleted them entirely.. (Which is fine as I saved them to disk)..
If anybody can get anything done he can. Trust me...
www.ikenfixit.com

The solution is to send the computer back to HP under their one charge fits all repairs plan. £249 plus VAT, not forgetting postage.
My 18 month old HP zd8044a, suffered the same problem, suddenley decided would not run on anything other than the basic windows video driver. New ATI drivers had no effect other than white screen. Formating, cursing, reloading everything twice, all had no effect.
For the cost of repairing, I can get a new equivilant laptop, but it won't be a HP!!

This is an ongoing problem with the zd8000 and zd7000 notebook. I have the same problem like many other zd8000 and zd7000 owners and all of us are trying to get hp to fix this free of charge. help out and call hp customer service like others and let them know of you problem.and by the way it your video card that is going because of the over heating problem this laptop has.

Hello people! I have a solution for the resolution probleme, Please read.

As all of us, I have the SAME probleme with the graphics.

After having my computer crashed and out of warranty, (and after been requested from HP for 450 EUR as flat rate price for replacement of my broken parts), I started investigating.

At http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00291986.pdf I have found the HP Pavilion zd8000 Notebook PC - Maintenance and Service Guide (here to full zd8000 manuals http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/manualCategory?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1137817)

Well, with this manual I opened my broken computer. After remove the last part, the motherboad, I seen that my heat sink module was full of dirty! This caused my fans to work all the time and, probably, this fried my graphic card.

Try it for youself. You will be able to see that the dust is the main cause of the probleme. After cleaning the heat sink, the fans stop while I am working! Increible.

Well my ATI is fried. But I can tell everyone I am NOW in my notebook with a resolution of 1440x900.

The "solution" is as follows (hey, don't believe you will have hardware acceleration anymore! This solution gives you native resolution, true colors, but nothing else! Forgive games etc.):

You need to have the OLD ATI DRIVER and the graphic card should be enabled. If you have the new one your computer will not work after step 3 and will get freezed. The old driver is in the DVD provieded with the computer, containing all the drivers.

1) Boot your computer. Press F8 before windows logo, and turn it up in VGA mode.

Wow! Computer is on and monitor is working in 640x480 resolution (but Windows has disabled ATI in order to turn up in VGA, is this because you are able to see something).

2) Enter to Screen Propieties (at Control Panel) -> Configuration -> Advanced Options -> Probleme Resolutions (I am spanish, I have translated the descriptions, but it may vary slightly).

3) Hardware Acceleration: Put the slide bar to "Nothing". With this you will give to Windows all the graphic tasks. Now press aply.

4)The screen will become black. (Oh no! Again!). Start pressing fn + f4 in order to "switch" between displays. This will refresh a bit the screen (don't ask me why...)

Finally press fn + f4 (the keys that switch the monitors) a lot of times, fastly. This may crash your computer. (Don't worry, is part of the plan).

5) Reboot again in VGA as in step 1.

6) Go back to hardware acceleration as we did in step 2. Wow, hardware acceleration is still in nothing! ATI won't "run anymore".

7) We are near the end. Press "cancel" and get back to Screen propieties, where you will be able to change the resolution.

8) Put the resolution to the max (1440x900), with true colors.

9) Press Aply. The screen will go black (again).

10) Press fn + f4, one time and wait. The screen will flick.

Repeat step 10 until the screen displays normally.

If sometimes you turn up your computer and the screen is black, repeat step 10) until the screen displays normally.

As I said, now I am writing this from my crashed zd8000 with 1440x900 (the normal) resolution and with my fried ATI.

Same problem, after splash screen it goes black.

1. Hit fn+f4 enough times to bring up the "VPU Recover was unable to ..." screen (this may take a number of attempts, sometimes holding power button down to reboot computer if necessary).

2. Answered NO to restart message. Right click on empty screen area, select "Properties", then select the "Settings" tab.

3. Set Screen resolution to "1440 by 900 pixels" and Color quality to "Highest (32bit)". Select "Advanced" and then the "Troubleshoot" tab.

4. Adjust the "Hardware acceleration" to one position left of "FULL" and then click "OK" and "OK" again.

That should give maximum use with a broken video system.

TO AVOID STEPS 1-4 EACH TIME THE COMPUTER IS STARTED, put it into hibernation between uses by pressing the power button momentarily.

I have the same problem. Did some research online...apparently when Windows is loading you should press function+f4. Did that (compulsively) it actually worked, but had to try it a million times. Its to switch between external - internal monitor...I dont get it as I only have one monitor.

Also, once I get the VPU recover error everything will work perfectly until I reboot. Then good luck. Just keep pressing function+f4 youll eventually get somewhere. Do some research online this problem, as mentionned before, is way too common. Im now depressed because there does not seem to be a cure. People have had their whole motherboards replaced - still same problem. SIGH. Definitly making complaint to HP!!!

I have found a solution to the HP pavilion zd8000 video card burnout concern. I guarantee it works and I now have a (almost) fully functional laptop again. If you are able to get to the basic VGA screen by using the safe mode to disable the ATI driver, here is your answer.
Go to the openSUSE Linux website, download and install version 10.3. The video drivers in this version will wake up the video card but not the 3D acceleration part of the chip (the part that is burned out). You will be amazed at how bright the screen looks, just like it did when you first made the mistake of purchasing this computer. You can’t use Goggle earth or any programs that require the 3D chip, but you will have a running computer again. I have tried several other versions of Linux and the installation fails on Fedora, Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Mandrake. If you find another that works, please let us know. Don’t throw this boat anchor away, use openSUSE Linux.

Gravman, I had the exact same problem with my laptop and warranty. The p/n on the warranty card didn't match the p/n on the unit. It took 2 weeks to fix the warranty mess and then it has been about 5 weeks now and I still haven't gotten my notebook back.

HP buyers please check your warranty card vs. the label on your unit as they don't necessarily match!!!! You will have to go through h-ll to get this corrected.

My Graphics card is still fine, but it shuts down quite regularly. It started this at about 21 months and became more frequent up to Jan 2nd (24 months) when it just wouldn't run. I formated and reinstalled everything and it was good for about 7 weeks then started crashing again. Some of this is the media player software as when I create a DVD it crashes 50% of the time. If it has been turned off for a few hours then it is more reliable. I have found the following to help: 1) prop up the computer so there is lots of space underneath it; and, 2) leave the battery out and it will run a little cooler. I am going to pull it apart and clean it as it is visibly dirty when I look inside it...weekend project.

Download the maintenace and service guide pdf from the HP site.
Buy some thermal paste.
Open the laptop remove the heat sink module, clean it and the fans too.
Clean the processor and reassemble with new thermal paste.

I did it this morning, it took me about 3 hours.
Average Temp before 70à 75 celcius, afterwards 50 à 54.

The laptop was 2 years old

Updated solution from HP us - the price to get an out of warranty -extended warranty is down to $119us - This is considerably cheaper than the $300 -$700 cost of a motherboard.
1-800-474-6836 (us)- This is a 1 yr warranty covering hardware & software
An extra extended warranty is available for $149 which also covers accidental damage, dropping, drowning, ect.

Well it's now a few weeks later and I've had the computer repaired, which meant a new motherboard because it is all integrated with the video card which is the thing which failed. This entailed a diagnostic fee plus part from HP and all up cost just under AU$650 which is a lot but less than a new computer if all went well. Anyway, after testing the repaired laptop the repairers told me there is an "imminent hard drive failure" meaning that the hard drive is due to go whenever.. if I'm lucky a long while but maybe tomorrow. My computer is operationally back to normal but it's responsively slow to commands and a bit noisier than I remember. When the next problem happens I've decided to send it to the cemetery and buy a new one. End result, this is an expensive lesson in owning a laptop. I think I'll buy a cheaper one next time as it appears they are overall more problematic than a desktop unit and nearly always more expensive to repair.

I've recently experienced this with my ZD7230US. It would start with vertical lines on the splash screen, then it went blank with a screen full of broken vertical white lines on a black screen. It just stopped from thereon and won't start.

I had to hold on the the power button and restart at 'safe mode' (over sized icons), then scan my computer with Ad-aware, if I'm lucky, the screen will go back to its 1440X900 when the scan is finished and after a reboot.

The problem repeats the next day.
I had a feeling that the video card is gone, or maybe the whole motherboard since its all together in one piece.

Sh!t, I just bought the thing a little over two years ago.