DV5 1211em

[erico]

Well with any BIOS upgrade there is actually an inherent risk.  Here is the caveat --> Never turn off your laptop during the phase when the BIOS ROM file has been erased or being written to... 

 Whoopsy!! That would make a paperweight or what is called a "brick" (in the IT world) out of your expensive laptop or other device(i.e. router or managed switch).

So... armed with that info you can upgrade BIOS without worrying.

[Billy786]

lol, yep i'm aware that the pc should not be turned off during this process. So provided it stays on, downgrading should be ok right.

billy

[erico]

Great..

I have actually know people who didn't realize that. What amazing paperweights laptops make.

Downgrading can be done. I don't expect you will have a need to do that. Don't forget to set the Date and Time in the BIOS and check it in Windows. Otherwise some programs will refuse to work.

[Billy786]

I've decided to take your advice and keep the newer version, i rather my notebook be slightly louder but last longer.

Thank you soo much for your help matey, much appreciated!

Billy

[Greyfoot]

I have the same issue with my dv5 1211em, the cpu temp would go up as high as 85 celsius-I am monitoring it with 2 different softwares-and the harddrive is running around 52-57(!!!) celsius daily maximum.I know it is not normal and I do have the latest BIOS(currently F.34)installed.I regularly cleaning the vents so there isn't any dust issue.I bought it about 4months ago in a PC-World alright and decided to take it back-see what can they come up with.They sent it over to the UK(I am from Ireland) and I was told that everything is just fine giving no explanation at all(there was some unreadable lines written on the receipt-me and the guy in the shop could only read 'cleaned vents(I CLEANED THEM!!), added sthing(which we were unable to read)'.I checked my hd sentinel software and during the 3weeks they only turned on the laptop once and their max measured hd temp was 32 celsius(which is more or less the idle temp so I highly doubt that they have done anything with it apart from-cleaning vents, power on, everythings fine then turn it off).

Just to be clear I am not here to state that HP has bad customer support(though they weren't able to tell me anything but to please update your bios and everything will be fine-well NO!!!Nothing has changed no matter what!)but to share my experience with the HP pavilion dv5 1211em.

It is a shame because this little laptop has very very good specs but because of the overheating issue it is virtually useless.

Oh yes I forgot to tell you!Nothing has changed since then.Todays max cpu core temp was 82celsius, hd max temp was 57(!!!)celsius...