Overheating gaming laptop not designed for games

[Rick__B]

Mine did the exact same thing and I sent it in.  They reformatted my hard drive, causing me to reinstall everything.  A waste of a good day.  Then, I played a game.  Bam, the computer shuts down.....  I will never buy a HP laptop again.  I think we should get together and form a class action lawsuit based on false advertising.  It is wrong when a customer service representative says an "Entertainment Notebook" is not made to play games on.  There should be warnings alongside the specs when computers are being sold that state that the computer can play games, but it may overheat and shut down.  I'm sure enough overheating will also damage the system. 

HP is NOT your friend.  My computer gets so hot that it is not comfortable putting my palms on the system when typing.  Controlling characters with the A,S,D,W keys is painful on the fingertips.  RUN AWAY, don't buy HP notebooks for games.

[goaldith]

If I may offer a suggestion. With older games being played on newer hardware, they may run so fast, and it will run as fast as the CPU and GPU will let it, meaning it will still stress your processors, and cause heating issues. The best way to control that is to use something to limit your max FPS on games. I have that issue with my homebuild desktop sometimes.

[arct1cw1nd]

I'm 16, but I probably know more about computers than most of HP's technicians.

I have a custom-built dv7, and one of the main things i noticed about hp's laptop (sadly, after getting it) is the lack of cooling.

Simply put, the design of the case sucks.

there is only one fan, which is weak to begin with, and fails to draw air out of the core parts, which are in the middle of the laptop.

one of the most effective builds i've seen is that there are TWO intake vents in the front of the laptop, and TWO exhaust vents in the back of the laptop.

this way all the core parts in the middle are equally reached by air.

as for the class-action lawsuit, i agree.

you cannot advertise a laptop as gaming, then tell your customers that it can't play games.

i downloaded temperature software monitors too, and my cpu, though not overheating, runs well above acceptable temps while gaming.

the games i play aren't even graphic-intensive; my photoshopping requires more cpu and gpu power.

needless to say, i am EXTREMELY disappointed as the stupidity of HP's designers and technicians. 

as a whole, their support team and dev team fail.

I was not allowed to return the laptop because saying that the "system design sucked" was not sufficient enough, nor was the fact that it couldn't support what it had been advertised to do.

class action lawsuit? sign me up.

[viviana52289]

I agree! Fully. I was super disappointed after purchasing this laptop, too.

And they only giving you a 21 day window for return, most places that GUARANTEE they are good at what they do give 90 days... 30 is the absolute minimum, I have never seen a 21 day window of opportunity on returns anywhere but on the HP website.

Also, needless to say... I am almost positive it is thanks to the poor heating problem that my HP Dv7t-4100 is currently in the repair shop right now (still under warantee thank god!).... Basically I don't know what's wrong with it but the guy on the phone said he thinks the motherboard fried. (he didn't say it fried, he said it was probably a problem with the motherboard, but how else do you explain a perfectly good working motherboard not working one day!)

Anyways.... I payed a lot of money for this laptop that was advertised as one of the best gaming laptops, and had really good specs too, then not even a month after I started getting blue screens of death A LOT... Now its a year and 3 months later and I was getting a ton of blue screens DAILY, for the past 1/2 year+... and now (1 yr. 4 mo.) its dead at HPs repair factory

Need mind you, when I brang up the heat problem on the phone the guy was very QUICK to tell me that that wasn't the problem and that it must be the hard drive (which it wasn't-- cuz they sent a new one and that ended with the same results) .... I didn't think anything of the fact that the representative kept stirring away from the heating problem I kept bringing up on the phone at the time, but after reading this it makes sense to me now... :/

Also, just a warning... touching the heated metal laptop DOES burn you... It hurt me a lot to touch it, and I didn't think anything of it, but after constant use and time gone by -- one day at campus I noticed my hand was red and burned badly... I started using gloves when playing on my laptop from that point, but that didn't help much either, it burned right through them and adgitated my burn more (because it was just that hot)... I am still able to play if I use a Razer Naga because that mouse is set up like a keyboard in my hand without having to touch the computer... but I cant type to people much on the game while its running or the heat will hurt my hands... Without the Razer Naga, I am unable to game on that computer whatsoever, or I will only continue to burn through the skin on my hand <.<'

[arct1cw1nd]

what i did (since my warantee is now over) is that i drilled holes all under the laptop in the case.

sure, it's not pretty, but honestly, it cools a lot better now that air can escape faster and more freely.

you want to take the bottom of the case off first though.

i used this site:

http://www.insidemylaptop.com/disassemble-hp-pavilion-dv7-notebook/

and it helped me take it apart safely.

[Reddogzz]

Did anyone actually {Content Removed: legal discussion} about this because I actually got a minor burn from my laptop and HP agreed to look at the laptop, after much convincing, then they sent it back to me and said it was fine. The day I got the laptop back it auto shut off while I was playing a bejeweled demo, because it reached over 99 degrees C. They had me speak to an individual about the burn, and she accused me of "trying to cheat HP", after I asked her to downgrade my computer to a model that would not burn me. I was talking to a friend who works at a local newspaper and he might be interested in writing an article on it.  The reason they don't recall this is because every time they have to admit to making a mistake it goes on the news and they loose credibility, but the flipside is if too many models do this like in our case, {Content Removed: legal discussion}. 

Thank-you,

[klauzser]

What do you expect? HP laptops heat up a lot. especially on the area where you usually lean your hands on.

[arct1cw1nd]

i just bought a cooling system  

now it's like 10 degrees cooler so it's ok 

[Patferr]

I used to buy HP exclusively, up until the machines I was buying (from Best Buy) would run hot. I paid almost $1500 for a high end computer that gets so hot, it causes blisters if you touch it long enough. Every HP I bought would overheat, they just can't seem to solve their heat problems, so if you want a gaming machine, avoid HP like the plague. They won't help you, they will blame a faulty fan or tell you to stick it up in the air and plug it into an external keyboard, and mouse and monitor, but why do that? You can buy a desktop if you wanted to do that. So, I have been buying ASUS laptops that are really good at dispersing heat, and now trying to buy an Alienware (from Dell, but I hate DELL, they are overpriced computers, yet people and companies seem to buy them all the time, I can't figure out why.) But anyway, I was going to try an Alienware or a Sager gaming system that is much better designed than anything HP has. If you want to surf the net and check your email, then buy HP, otherwise, anything computer intensive, buy from a company that actually cares about you and your needs. Many people are streaming movies on their computers, and this will cause it to overheat as well. It's shame that HP treated you like this. Lesson learned I hope.