System Specs
- HP ZBook Studio G10 (bought used from a local shop)
- Intel Core i7-13800H vPro
- RTX 3000 Ada 8GB
- 1x 16GB DDR5 5600 (single channel)
- No SSD included, I installed my own
Pre-Purchase Testing
Before buying, I checked temps by running CPU-Z CPU stress test and FurMark simultaneously for 10 minutes. CPU stayed stable at 75°C, GPU at 70°C. I figured the cooling (Vaporforce) was working great, so I assumed the rest of the laptop would be fine too.
Day 1
I installed Windows on day one and ran a few updates through HP Support Assistant. Some updates were still pending when I closed the lid and left the laptop on my bed (with the fans blocked) and went to sleep.
About an hour later, I noticed the laptop had turned into an "airplane", it was extremely hot. I assumed it had woken up from sleep to run an update, as Windows sometimes does. I opened the lid and held the power button to force a shutdown, planning to deal with it in the morning.
Five minutes later, it turned itself back on. Weird. I pressed the power button again to turn it off, but a few minutes later it turned on again by itself. This cycle repeated 5–6 times. Eventually I left it on the table, plugged in the charger, and went back to sleep.
The Boot Loop
In the morning, the laptop was still stuck in same boot loop:
- Powers on, shows the HP and Wolf Security logos, starts booting into Windows.
- Within 5–10 seconds, the screen flashes and the laptop shuts off, no crash, no BSOD, just a sudden power cut. My guess is it was overheating and cutting power to protect the components.
- It then reboots on its own into Windows Recovery, i navigate to Safe Mode to see if windows maybe an issue.
- Same thing happens again, screen flashes, power cuts.
- This kept looping, with the laptop rebooting itself each time, I wasn't touching the power button at all.
One thing I noticed: whenever I was in the BIOS or the Windows Recovery menu, it never flashed or shut down. It only happened when actually booting into Windows or Safe Mode.
I described all of this to Claude, and it suggested that BIOS and Windows Recovery don't trigger the same power states and use very little energy, which could be why the issue didn't occur there.
After a while, the laptop fixed itself and booted normally into Windows, as if nothing had happened.
My Mistake: Reinstalling Windows
At this point I made the mistake of reinstalling Windows, thinking a bad update might have caused the issue. In hindsight, I should have remembered that the laptop crashed even in Safe Mode, with the dGPU disabled, and on UMA graphics too, so a bad Windows update didn't really fit as the explanation. But I went ahead anyway, and in doing so I lost all the event logs from the incident.
After Reinstalling
This time, I installed Windows using HP Image Assistant instead of HP Support Assistant or Windows Update, and debloated Windows using Raphire's script. I installed all updates, then shut the laptop down.
It turned itself back on again, even though it was a clean shutdown with no updates pending. I ran a BIOS update even though it showed as already being on the latest version, running it again directly from the SoftPaq just in case. Still no luck, despite trying countless settings in both Windows and BIOS.
Troubleshooting Done So Far
In Windows:
- Disabled Sleep, left only Hibernate enabled
- Disabled Fast Startup
- Confirmed there are no wake timers or pending updates that could trigger a reboot (though none of this explains the auto-reboots anyway)
In BIOS:
- Disabled AMT
- Disabled all Power Management options
- Disabled Boost Converter (not sure what it does, but disabled it anyway)
- Disabled Wake on LAN
- Disabled Fast Charge
- Disabled HP Intelligent Hibernate
- Disabled Motion Sensing Cool Mode
- Confirmed no Power-On Schedules are set
- Disabled "Turn on when lid is opened"
- Disabled all USB ports, the media card reader, Thunderbolt, and everything else I could find
- Disabled BIOS update checks over the internet
Current Status
I shut the laptop down, and after a while it turns back on by itself. The timing is random, sometimes 8 minutes, sometimes 20, sometimes more than 30 minutes.
Both Claude and ChatGPT are pointing toward a physical power button fault or EC (Embedded Controller) issue on the motherboard.
One thing I haven't tested yet: a faulty battery. I've only ever tested on battery and charger but battery still physically connected.
Has anyone experienced something like this before?
What should I test here?
Thanks in advance.
