HP ZBook 15 Troubleshooting

You cannot search for wireless networks or the wireless connection terminates.

The Wi-Fi radio may be turned off. Press the wi-fi button on the top right of the keyboard to toggle the radio on and off. The wi-fi button looks like a radio tower and is next to the speaker mute button. The wireless strength bars on the bottom right corner of the screen will no longer have a red "X" on them.

Wireless connectivity may drop out or not work at all with a broken wireless card. Purchase the appropriate replacement card then follow this guide to install it.

The charge does not last as long as it used to.

Rechargeable batteries have a finite lifespan and lose their ability to hold a charge as they age. An old battery may malfunction or not hold enough charge to be useful, and requires replacing. Purchase a replacement battery and install it with this guide.

The laptop will not charge when plugged into the charger.

If the battery will no longer hold a charge, the laptop will not turn on without external power. Remove the battery using this guide and plug in the power adapter. The laptop should turn on normally. If the battery is defective, you may consider installing a replacement.

Ensure your wall outlet is functional and plug the computer’s power cord into the outlet. If the light on the power adapter does not illuminate, the adapter is broken and the computer will not receive power. If the light turns on, plug the cord into the laptop’s power jack and check to see if the charging light appears on the computer. If the cord wiggles while plugged into the computer and the charging light only comes on in one position, the power jack inside the laptop may need to be replaced.

Sometimes the system board will prevent the computer from turning on normally. Cases will vary, but normally you will see indicator lights come on and hear the fan spin with nothing appearing on the screen. If this happens, try testing your screen using the troubleshooting guides below. If no lights or noises are observed, read the troubleshooting guide above about checking the power adapter and battery. The system board may be presumed to be dead if both the screen and the power supply are working properly.

The laptop is hotter underneath than usual or shuts off randomly.

Dust may be clogging the ventilation system on the laptop. Purchase compressed air and spray carefully into the intake and exhaust vents of the computer.

Sometimes the fan may stop spinning completely and will no longer blow air over the heatsink. To fix this, order a replacement fan and follow this guide.

The laptop is running much slower than it usually does or weird pop-ups appear.

If random windows pop up or there are more ads than usual when browsing the internet, you may have a virus. This slows down your computer because these malicious programs will run continuously in the background, utilizing unnecessary system resources and decreasing overall speed. Go to bleepingcomputer.com for free tools and guides for removing viruses, or consider going to a local computer repair shop.

RAM is your computer's memory; it remembers what is open on your screen at any given time. If you don't have available RAM and open a new program, the computer has nowhere to put new data so it frees space by moving information that hasn't been accessed in a while to the hard drive. This drastically slows down your computer. You can see how much RAM you are using in the Task Manager, which can be accessed by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC. If overreaching your RAM limit is a constant problem, buy larger RAM modules and use the guide here to upgrade.

Windows pops up with a message saying "Low Disk Space."

You will need to upgrade your hard drive to a larger size or buy an external hard drive to transfer files to in order to clear space from the current drive. Replacing a hard drive requires cloning your data or installing a fresh copy of Windows, so sometimes purchasing an external hard drive is a better option. Click here to be directed to the Hard Drive Replacement Guide.

Some or all keys on the keyboard are not working properly.

Purchase a new keyboard and follow this guide to replace the keyboard on the device.

The indicator lights are illuminated on the bottom right corner of the laptop but the screen is blank.

The screen may be disabled if it was recently used with an external monitor. Hold the FN and F4 keys down simultaneously to toggle back to your laptop’s display. If nothing appears, consider doing a screen replacement.

Nothing appears on your laptop’s screen, but you may still hear the fan start to spin or see indication lights showing that the computer is powered up. Ensure that only the screen is broken by connecting to an external monitor. Plug the external display into either the HDMI or DVI port on the laptop and press FN and F4 simultaneously on the keyboard. If you can't get your display to appear on the external monitor, there may be other problems with your computer, such as a malfunctioning video card. If the display appears on the external monitor, your laptop screen needs to be replaced. Follow the Screen Replacement Guide.

The computer either loops in a never-ending cycle or is stuck on the HP logo screen.

Sometimes the computer will not load Windows because it is trying to boot from another device plugged into your computer that is not meant to be booted from. Remove all USB flash drives and eject any media from the optical drive and try again.

The computer may not find the files it needs to boot because the hard drive is malfunctioning. Clicking noises may be heard, or the laptop will be stuck on a screen with HP’s logo while the computer waits for the drive to respond. Replace your hard drive using these instructions and bring it into a shop for data recovery.