Eliminating fan noise on a DV8000

[mangravy]

When my fan kicks on, not only does it sound loud but there is another sound, like writing to the hard drive type sound.  Trust me I know enough to know that its not writing to the hard drive.  Anyway, anybody else have this sound.  Is the fan dying?  Also, i'm looking into the bottom vent and their is a piece of black plastic just behind the vent.  Wtf is that all about?  How is the air suppost to move around that thing?  Can you remove it? The sound is driving me crazy and the drive type ticking sound is driving me crazy.  I have to wear earplugs so I don't have to listen to it.  Help!!!  I just started using the multi monitor function and I guess it's really taxing the system or video card and getting hotter faster.

[DAMiller]

mine started to do the same thing now this fix is not for the faint at heart, but it will work and on any laptop. after a few years of normal use the paste used on the heatsink will start to break down so what you need to do is to completely tear down your laptop to get to the processor and heatsink. once there remove all lint and dirt from the fins, clean off all of the old thermal paste from both the heatsink and processor and then reapply a small amount of new paste reassemble your laptop and you will be good as new once again

[movingon12 · Accepted solution]

My dv8000 does the same as you mentioned. fan goes mad after only being on 5min and then starts to make grinding noises. Well it got so bad in the end i did decided to strip it down and yes it is def not for the faint hearted.  When you strip it down the fan is the very last piece you get to . After 1hour and finally undoing the 4 fan screws that connect it to the motherboard it just fell off .The paste had just dryed up like was said in a pre post . Also i took the cover off the fan and inside it had loads of fluff inside blocking the copper fins .  I cleaned it all, got new paste for the cpu and some thermal adhesive tape that is needed to connect the cooler to the nvidea chip and another chip. Put it all back together and was amazed at the new found silence even after the computer being on for hours and playing games ect.    I found a manual online showing how to take it apart  But you still should make a good note of what screws go where.  As it was easy to put a screw in to hold the motherboard down. then when you go to put the last few casing screws in, you can't because there is already a screw in there deep inside the computer that you should not have put in .( hope that makes sence). Total time for repair 3 hours and a trip to computer shop. But  So quite now . ;-) . Thanks all . your posts where a great help and i would have bined it or sold it on ebay for spares if i had not found it.

[nerthie21]

Any chance you would be able to point me in the direction of the teardown directions you found for this unit?  Been searching for a while and having some trouble locating one.  Also have this model sitting here needing the fan looked at.  Starts making awful whirling/moaning sounds after it's been running a while.  First thought was possibly hard drive totally going, but after testing that out thouroughly I narrowed it down to the fan.

Any help would be appreciated.  Just hoping I don't need to order the whole new heatsink/fan setup.

[DAMiller]

you can email me at [text removed for privacy] will walk you thru it

[Stoneykins]

Just started having this same Issue - And yea thought it was one of the Hard Drives at first.

Found this thread, (THANK YOU)

Will give the Breakdown / new paste a try. - Once I print off the Breakdown Manual pages.

BTW: I found the Breakdown info/manual

It's Here : Manual

[MongooseST3]

Movingon12 where can I get the manual you describe? Also where can I get a repalcement fan. I have a suspicion that these cheap fans go after many hours of use, so their replacement is inevitable. I will try the cleaning method you describe but if that fails I want a back up plan to replace

[asaintraint]

Hi,

Can u tell us what is "the paste", and how do you apply it on the processor?

thanks a lot.

The noise from the fan in my DV8000 is driving me nuts!

[teacher65]

I got an idea, throw away your HP and go buy a computer that works. My fan noise has been irritating me for some time and my internet has stopped working. I called and talked to Peggy and she refused to let me talk with a manager to get the help I needed (supposedly it was under some type of recall).

So stay away from HP on your next purchase and the noise problem goes away. As a teacher I have warned hundreds of students of this and other problems with HP.

Bottom line, to eliminate the noise is to  eliminate your HP computer and buy another brand. 

[va_engineer]

so I have an HP dv8000 bought refurbished in 2007.  It was still going strong until this fall when I began to have issues with low battery life and the AC transformer/charger - where the plug in tip was shorting out and I had to hold it at a certain angle for it to work.

then I bought a new ac transformer/plug and a double life batter (extra high so laptop sits up off of desk a little more- which is better for keeping it cool).

anyway it was doing better, etc. but still running hot with lot's of fan run time and noticibly audible fan.

at some point it just went dark on a restart/startup and it would not boot up - would not load windows.  all the little blue lights came on - but it just never followed through to boot up and nothhing would come up on the screen.

after a lot of research I found out about the Nvidia video chip overheating issue - where it actually gets hot enough to cause the multitude of solder connections to the motherboard to fail and voila - no video at all.

well google hp pavillion dv_____(pick your number) "reflow" and you'll find out how you can break down (take apart/dissassemble) your laptop all the way down to the motherboard and apply high heat to the nvidia chip and it 'reflows' the solder connections and solves the problem.

I followed this procedure almost exactly (I happened to have that same wagner heat gun from home depot). AND IT WORKED.  http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1531323

(there are links on youtube where technicians/shops offer for you to send in your laptop and have the disassembly done and reflow done for like $75).  evidently this is a huge and common HP DV laptop problem.

Also - in the process of completely dissassembling my hp dv laptop dv8000 - I found the heat sink and cooling fan COMPLETELY BLOCKED BY LINT, DUST, HAIR, AND CRUD!  So if you're just having overheatig issues - tear down your machine and clear/clean the heatsink fins and fan and you'll be preventing your video card from eventually failing - due to the failure of the solder joints to the motherboard.

Also - apply thermal paste to the cpu, nvidia chip, and other chip that the heat sink touches (paste mentioned above) and I've seen Arctic Silver mentioned as the best.  This realy helps thermally connect the chips and CPU to the heat sink copper elements and fins so the heat is drawn out of these chips and into the fins - and then when air is blown through by the fan - the heat is removed. (once the fan is unblocked).

Also - I  made little copper shims - squres from bendable copper pipe pieces that I cut and then opened up and then flattened and then cut into squares.  I made the new Nvidia chip copper shim out of a very thin rectangular (1"x2"?) piece of copper that I folded in half fairly tightly - but with a slight gap in the fold.  i lightly sanded both sides so it was smooth.  i put thermal paste on top and bottom and inside the fold - then put it on top of the nvidia chip - and reattached the heat sink/fan assembly back down to the motherboard.  the folded copper gives the shim some 'height' and helps hold it against the chip on the bottom and the heat sink copper on the top and gives it some 'flexibility' so it stays in contact but also has some give since laptops get moved, jostled, bumped, etc.

I removed the crappy silicone impregnated heat 'tape' pieces on the back of the heat sink  - as this material is clearly an insulator - not a heat conductor like copper.   i think the silicone impregnation wears away -and let's face it it cannot conduct the heat up and away from the chips like being in contact with copper.

Then after the heat gun reflow on the nvidia chip - and quick testing by plugging in the display/power button switch/motherboard - like magic! - I put it all back together (go to youtube to find numerous videos of technicians breaking down hp dv laptops for guidance), keep track of screws, and take tons of photos to refer to when you go to put it back together as you have to remove - hard drives, wireless card, keyboard, display screen, dvd drive, modem, usb, at. al - and it's alot of stuff.  but it's kind've fun, and like a big puzzle and not that hard.  careful with all the components - get rid of static, watch out for cmos battery, etc. - but it's pretty robust in there - watch the videos - those guys really manhandle a lot of the 'innards' and it all seems fine.

After I had it all back together - boom - it booted up no problems.  AND IT IS RUNNING VERY QUIET AND VERY COOL NOW - NO LAPTOP COOLING PAD - JUST THE STOCK FAN - AND NOW CLEAN HEATSINK AND NEW AND IMPROVED COPPER SHIMS TO CONDUCT HEAT FROM THE CHIPS AND GPU AND CPU INTO THE HEAT SINK!  I have to keep checking b/c it seems like the fan isn't running much (since it's running so quiet and sometimes not at all - never on a high setting it seems)  - and there are almost no warm spots anywhere on the laptop - certainly not from the CPU and GPU areas that used to be very hot.  I could actually use it on my lap if I wanted to. 

then I searched around for a way to detect the temperatures inside my laptop and quantify what appeared to be a very cool laptop - and there is this cool program called Speedfan I found online.  http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

speedfan 4.7 shows my nvidia chip core temp at 49-53 degrees C, and hard drives and CPU in the 30's and 40's degrees C.  Nice and cool!

My dv8000 is running faster and better - and I will probably keep it for another 5 years after this fix.

Thanks to other links and posters - and I'm sharing to help the next person with their dv.