Bad AC Adapter? - HP

[pikaia]

Hey everyone.

I've tried another 'general tech' board, but after 3 days no input so I thought I'd try my friends here.

I'm helping a friend with her HP ZV5000. She was getting some random shutdowns and I offered to take a look at it. After picking it up the first thing I noticed was how gnarled and bad the AC cord looked. It honestly looks as if its been fried once or twice.

But at the time I assumed it was an overheating issue and went to work to solve that. I cleaned all the vents and removed the piles of useless junk she had running in the background and took Norton and McAfee off (She had both on... jeez). And it seemed to be running fine, until it shutdown on me. I packed it up, went home and started again. This time it shutdown at the login window... which was my first indication this is NOT (at least directly) heat related. So I decided to update the drivers, got everything running smoothly there and rebooted. Again an odd, not so hot shutdown. I pulled out a Linux Live CD out, to see if it was a Windows problem but during the load it shutdown.

So my attention was brought back to the power cord. Is this a probable cause to this issue? If so, what kinds of permanent damage could there be? Is there anything I'm overlooking? It runs a P4 so it runs warm, but no hotter than my 600X or my gateway. And the fan on this thing is immense.

I'm planning on picking up a new ac adapter, but didn't want to bother if the MOBO is going to be shot.

Thanks.

[aaa]

Try testing it only on battery, if the battery isn't dead/extremely short.

Also, I'd think a frayed power cord would usually act up only when moved. If you can repeat the shutdowns just by poking the cord in a certain way then it is the problem.

Also, is the fan actually spinning?