Very hot air coming from left side of Pavilion g6 notebook

[Paolino66]

I am concerned about the amount of heat coming out of my notebook, which is an HP Pavilion g6-1d11dx  (system id 169B).

Have there been any overheating issues with this model?

If so, is there a recommended solution?

My RAM went bad, and I just replaced it. I'm wondering if the failure was caused by excessive heat in the notebook.

Thanks!

[T4M]

How old is your laptop?

Its probably just needs cleaning.

[Paolino66]

No, it is clean.  There is no dust. I was just inside it, to install new memory, and did not see any dust there either.

The outside vent had some dust previously, but I got rid of it.

[Great-Deku-Tree]

Hey @Paolino66 ,

Welcome to the HP Forums!

I'd bet my last dollar the heat killed your RAM.

Keep in mind the service door you open to get to the RAM is not going to give you clear sight of the heatsink and fan that need to be cleaned to resolve heat issues.

For a full guide to disassembly see here: HP Pavilion G6 Notebook PC - Maintenance and Service Guide. The steps you need are on page 73. You don't want to actually remove the heatsink or fan if you do not have new thermal paste to apply to the CPU and GPU, but opening it to that point will give you clear access to properly clean out the fan in your notebook much more than just blowing air into the vents.

You can see some more basic steps to reduce heat here: Reducing Heat Inside the PC to Prevent Overheating.

Hopefully this helps!

[Paolino66]

So HP has made it incredibly difficult to clean dust out of a laptop. It is too bad there is not another door to open near the fan housing. Maybe that should be considered in future designs.

This reminds me of why people loved the 57 Chevy.  Besides its good looks, the engine compartment had plenty of room to work in, and it was easy to get at everything.

I find it very easy to open up a desktop computer and clean out dust. It takes a few minutes of my time. Why do I need to stand on my head and read "War and Peace" in order to clean out a laptop (no offense to Tolstoy)?

HP, please redesign your laptops with easier maintenance in mind!

[Great-Deku-Tree]

Hey Paolino66,

I can understand why you might be frustrated. However a notebook is nothing like a desktop in design. Desktops are specifically designed to be stationary products with easy access for hardware replacement, whereas a notebook is specifically designed to be compact and mobile. To design a notebook that would provide easy access to components like a desktop means carrying around a laptop 10x the size of what you have now. 

As I'm sure you will see after disassembly, adding a door to the fan is quite literally impossible. The keyboard takes up the majority of the space above the heatsink and fan, and the motherboard is behind the fan. Adding a door behind the motherboard would mean adding a hinge on the motherboard with a drop door design, effectively breaking the backboard connections. The connections to the socket and north/south bridge controllers run through the fiberglass/resin/silicon backboard so this is not possible. Notebooks are not meant to be taken apart and because they are sealed tighter than a desktop PC and they typically do not need to be cleaned or services to this extent if regular maintenance is provided. 

I would suggest blowing out the vents every few months to prevent getting a large build up of dust or debris in the notebook. Other factors such as the environment will have a large part in how frequently this must be done. A dry environment means a lot of dry dust, meaning blowing out the notebook vents regularly is usually enough. A person with house pets would experience much more dander or hair that typically requires a more thorough cleaning. A person in a humid environment will experience a slightly more "sticky" film on the fan blades that would require a more in depth cleaning.

This is not an HP design flaw, or anything meant specifically to make your life harder. This is a global design used by nearly every notebook manufacturer and is what is necessary to meet the needs of consumers.

As a technical support provider I know exactly how you feel. As an experienced service provider even I loathe taking apart notebooks and I'm quite certain the look on my face when someone drops a notebook in my lap saying it won't turn on reflects how you feel exactly. 

If you're not comfortable servicing the notebook yourself I would suggest contacting HP Phone Support to inquire about your service options. Please call our technical support at 800-474-6836. If you live outside the US/Canada Region, please click the following link to get the support number for your region: Phone Assist Worldwide.

Thanks. 🙂

[Paolino66]

How would I measure the temperature?  I can get a reading by using defraggler (a freeware utility). Is this reliable? Is there a program from HP that would give me a temperature reading? What temperature is too high?

P.S. Thank you for your information. However, you said "The steps you need are on page 73."  It looks like I would also have to follow what is on pages 50 through 73, which also refers me back to do a lot of the stuff in pages 40 through 49. This procedure seems totally unrealistic for an ordinary mortal to undertake. I'm not willing to try it.

P.P.S.  There has got to be a way to design this better. Maybe not a modification of the current design, but a completely NEW design where the cooling system is designed for easy maintenance. Having to follow 30 pages of very detailed procedures is not easy maintenance.

Perhaps at the air intake there should be a filter that could be cleaned or changed periodically. Also, the computer itself could check the operating tempurature once an hour, and issue a warning if it goes above a certain temperature, to clean or change the filter, and re-check the temperature.

I know a filter could cause some problems if it gets clogged up, but at least you can be proactive at keeping it clean, without having to take the laptop apart from stem to stern to get at a fan that is deep in the bowels of the system.

[Great-Deku-Tree · Accepted solution]

Hey Paolino66,

The only real way to test the temperature with 100% accuracy is in the system BIOS. The problem with this is that the BIOS hardly uses any resources and doesnt generate much heat so your not getting a reading on the temperatures while the notebook is actually in use. Most BIOS settings are programmed to shut down the notebook if the temperatures hit 100 degrees Celsius. This is commonly referred to as the TJMAX. Safe temperatures would be anything below 85 degrees Celsius. If you're just doing light browsing, text editing you temperatures shouldnt go over 30-60 degrees, but things like gaming can cause additional heat  emitting from the GPU and RAM and increase the overall temperature of your notebook. 

Monitoring the temperatures: This is where the third party applications come into play. Personally, I use CPU-Z, and Speccy. Usually these programs are designed to read the temperatures from the BIOS directly and are pretty accurate. I've never had a false report with any third party application so I would assume Defraggler would be just as accurate.

Service: Yes the steps are their own little labyrinth and can be very overwhelming. I directed you to page 73 because thats where you will find the links to each of the pages you need to go to to remove the hardware properly. There is a lot of backtracking and jumping around, but the bonus is the PDF format supports linking pages within the document itself, so its pretty easy to stay on track.

I'm sure down the road we will see more changes to design that make things easier for servicing notebooks but for now it is what it is. The computer keeps track of your temperatures every few seconds and is designed to shut down when temperatures hit the TJMAX to prevent damage to the product. I'm in total agreement with you regarding changes being made to make service easier, but sadly I don't have that kind of relationship with the product engineers that allows me to make suggestions regarding this. If you wish, you can always use the customer feedback feature of the HP website to provide your insight directly to HP where it will be forwarded to the appropriate channels. You can find the contact page here: Connect with HP.

Hopefully this helps. 🙂