Laptop overheating, despite having a cooling pad.

[ShaniOz]

I'm not sure if there is anything that can be done, my laptop is constantly overheating, has just fried the hard drive again and this one is only 6 months old. It's getting so hot and I'm not doing a lot with it, I don't play games on it much and I use the cooling pad constantly, but it is burning hot after only a few minutes.

I saw something about software to 'fix' it but isn't this more of a hardware problem?  I'm getting very sick of the hard drives getting fried.

[tommynguyen02]

What model Laptop do you have?  This info will help others address your issue.  6 months old and second hard drive?  If you have sent it in for warranty repair perhaps the tech forgot to plug back in fan?  You can monitor your laptop temp with free software called Speed Fan by Almico.  My laptop is 3 years old and I had to take apart my laptop to clean it up since the cooling port was clogged up with lint causing the CPU to overheat and the laptop to shut down.  Lint will collect if you leave it on the carpet, lap, bed, sofa, etc.

[Joe2Shoe]

I just replaced the HeatSink/Fan Assembly in my 1.5 year old HP Pavilion dv9000z.  The excess heat caused the lubricant in the fan's bearings to dry out prematurely.  I bought a NEW HeatSink/Fan Assembly for $29 from www.excessbuy.com (original HP replacement).  I also lubed the bearing and shaft on the new fan with a generous drop of 3-in-One Oil before installing it on the motherboard, just for insurance.

I also noticed that where the HeatSink attached to the CPU, that there was NO thermal paste there.  That's NOT GOOD!  Not having any thermal paste there does not allow the heat from the CPU to be transfered to the HeatSink correctly, thereby causing the CPU to overheat and possibly burn up!  I applied Arctic Silver Ceramic Thermal Paste to the CPU/HeatSink and installed the new (lubed) fHeatSink/Fan assembly.

Now it runs really quiet, quieter than original.

I have always used a 17" Lian-Li dual-fan laptop coolin pad, which helps.  I no longer leave the laptop on overnight or when I'm away, because I never know when the fan will go out permanently, and burn up the laptop.

[ConqHoosteen]

HP has my new tx2500z tablet right now due to overheating issues.  On a cold boot, the CPU temp would always excede 90 degrees Celcius, often hitting 98+ (over 200 degrees F).  Water boils at 100, and the highest safe temperature they list is in the 70's.  On top of all of this, the CPU usage almost never even hit 100% and it was always on a desk!  There was no chance of the fan being blocked or plugged.  HP better make some serious changes with their notebook CPU cooling, or this is my last.  I'll post again if they tell me what was wrong, because it may be related to your issue.

[Joe2Shoe]

200oF?  That's HOT!

I downloaded and installed Core Temp  http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/ a free CPU temperature gauge on my dv9000z after I replaced the Fan/Heatsink Assembly and replaced (it never had any thermal paste, as far as I could tell) the thermal paste with Arctic Silver Ceramic Thermal Paste.

My temp is normally around 110oF now, and only went up to 148oF while encoding some video files for a DVD, then it returned to 110oF afterwards.

Good luck.

Joe2shoe.

[Sticky1981]

ShaniOz,

If your laptop is getting that hot there is a problem somewhere.  Have a look at http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=Hardware&thread.id=3982 see if any of the symptoms there are familiar. 

You haven't stated the laptop model so this is just a (n educated) guess.  Certain models (see link above) are prone to overheating and causing the laptop to become inoperable.  The problem is known about and HP have been forced to extend the warranty on those models.  There is also a BIOS update which is supposed to help.  The update is to the fan algorythm which in theory should help, (I doubt it will solve anything per se).

Personnaly I would update the BIOS if thats applicable to your model.  I would also do a little research into the HP dv2000/6000/8000/9000/tx1000 video problem.  There seem to be many users on this forum who are experiencing overheating issues and need to act while they are still under warranty.  If you have one of the "covered models" make sure you are in the right country area on the HP website before you search for the specific P/N.

In my experience HP customer support is poor to say the least, and you will probably have to do a little investigation off your own back.

Good luck

[Marco_Mtz]

I have had experience with similar problems, mostly caused by dust that accumulates on the fan, I recommend buying a can of compressed air and blowing the fan without disassemble your laptop, I hope it works...

[RoyalSerpent]

Cooling has always been a big issue for non-Pro notebooks.  Per another post, HP spends as little $ as possible on the heatsink assembly.  Heck, they couldn't spare a drop of thermal grease to improve heat transfer.  First step when you encounter lock up after a period of heavy use is to check the heat sink assembly for proper operation.  The fan should spin freely.  There should be a very thin layer of thermal paste between the heatsink and chip.  Any thermal grease is better than no thermal grease.

[Thebean1]

I have an HP Touchsmart tx2z and I'm having the exact same problem. I get about an hour's worth of time in before the laptop just shuts itself down. I used to be able to hear the cooling fans working (quite loudly-and constantly), but for the past two days since I've been having this problem of the pc just completely shutting down, I haven't heard the fans at all. And ideas?

[stargazer121]

Hi

I've been having overheating problems with my HP Pavilion dv8000 which has been shutting down suddenly for the last 8 months or so - (it took me a while to work out why it was shutting down thinking I had a virus but now know why).  I find that even if sitting on a hard flat surface even, it overheats. I now have to raise the laptop to create more space underneath to help prevent it. The fan also seems to be noisy compared to other laptops and alternates from high pitch to lower pitch but still noisy. If I'm watching TV on it, it can be annoying.

I'm concerned for my two hard drives after reading that they can be burned up by this problem. My business is my laptop!

I notice the CPU being mentioned  - I'm not very technical but the green line seems to spike to maximum with not that much going on - don't know if this has any bearing on the above.

My machine is around 3 years old. What sort of cost is involved in rectifying the overheating problem before it wrecks my hard drive?

It wasn't cheap when I bought it - around £1300 so I'm not keen on replacing it - how many hours would it take for a technician to clean out or replace - and if replacing what parts are required?