HP Probook 4530s has very high temps when playing games, slow hard drive transfer rates

[bigweed]

Hi all

My details are:

HP Probook 4530s

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

As soon as I bought the laptop, I formatted the hard drive and then installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I then installed drivers from the HP support website for this laptop, but using the drivers for Windows 7 Professional x64, as there dont seem to be any listed for Windows 7 Ultimate. Also, the RAM was increased to 8GB by store from where it was bought.

I have noticed two big problems with the hard drive. The first is that when playing Counter Strike Source, the temperatures for the CPU cores reach 70C and so does the temperature of the Radeon 7470M. I havent got any other games to test this out on, but would imagine it would be the same for them too? Not sure why a really old game like CS would tax the laptop so much? Because I wanted the laptop to run as fast as possible, from within the Catalyst Control Centre I changed the Switchable Graphics Control Method setting to manual, and then changed the Switchable Graphics setting to High Performance GPU.

The second problem is that the hard drive transfers are happening very slowly. I have only been copying files from one location in the internal hard drive to another, but the speeds I am getting are about 500b/s to 400KB/s - no thats not a typo, 500 bytes per second. I havent tested this using an external disk, but that may be even slower? As a test, while writing this post, I copied a folder containing 2,600 items and 15MB in size in total, to one level up in its directory in the C drive. The speed it was doing the copying at was on average 360KB/s. I cant believe this is how fast hard drives are supposed to run. Or am I wrong?

Anyway, thats my issues, hopefully someone can help!

Many thanks

Naz

[bigweed]

Oh, forgot to add, the hard drive is a Toshiba MK6476GSX. It has write caching enabled, and the driver is a Microsoft driver, version 6.1.7600.16385.

The graphics cards are:

Intel - Intel HD Graphics 3000, driver 8.910.0.0 (from Device Manager), driver 8.15.10.2509 (from Intel Graphics & Media Control Panel)

AMD - AMD Radeon HD 7470M, driver 8.91-111013a132348C (from Catalst Control Centre), driver 8.910.0.0 (from Device Manager)

[bigweed]

And forgot to mention one other thing. When I play Counter Strike, as well as the temps being really high, the game itself starts to stutter and freeze.

Thanks

Naz

[SSDdrive]

Hello,

The temperatures for a laptop are typical. The hard drive transfer rates are another issue altogether. Please repost in this section "Need help! Hard drive transfer rates etc. . .'  We have some good techs.

If it were a rattler. . . .

[bigweed]

But the temps must be causing the game stuttering and high CPU core usage? As each time the temps go high, game stutters very badly, and CPU core usage is about 80%.

[SSDdrive]

Hello,

I know it would seem like it should be so, but it isn't. You have a middle-tier GPU. I deal with GPU's and gaming performance. What you have is a graphic driver issue and what you need to do is update the CCC and graphic drivers. Here is a performance link to your GPU:

  http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7470M.67752.0.html 

And here is a link to the new CCC and drivers for Switchable Graphics, please, this is not just for the HD 5650 card, read down to the fifth window where you will have two choices:

  http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Lockups-Freezes-Hangs/HD-5650-has-new-Catalyst-Control-Center-... 

I don't deal with Hard Drive performance issues, just enough to keep mine on top, though this is also very important when it comes to gaming. You should post that issue separately, as there are some very good techs here who deal with those issues daily and will help get yours running the way it should be.

Don't forget to make restore points; they're your safety net!

If it were a rattler. . . .

[bigweed]

Hi and thanks for that. I am trying to uninstall the current CCC, but it doesnt appear in Uninstall Programs. Any ideas how to uninstall it? Cheers

[SSDdrive]

Hello,

          It should read: AMD Catalyst Install Manager;. this needs to be uninstalled; it is the CCC. Then restart the laptop and install the new CCC.and your laptop should be ready to rock!

If it were a rattler. . . .

[bigweed]

Hi, thanks for that. I did as you said, uninstalled the existing CCC install, and installed the CCC from that link above. However, when I try to run the CCC, I get  a message saying:

Catalyst Control Centre cannot be started. There are currently no settings that can be configured using Catalyst Control Center

Any ideas what I can do about that? I also sometimes get a second message, saying something like 'Open the Display Manager' Not sure what that is though.

Can you help please?

Thanks

Naz

[SSDdrive]

Okay, and, 'Hello again,'

Here is the deal: because your laptop is not a laptop but considered a Business Notebook, it cannot run the most current graphic drivers available from AMD; my bad! I seriously apologize for the misguidance, but because of this nicheing, I have done the following research into the most recent AMD Graphic Package that will work with your Business Notebook. The following link to the 8.84 CCC and drivers will set things right:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=32... 

The only other options to installing the most current graphic drivers from Ati/Amd for your Business Notebook is to search the internet with inquiries into a moded bios for the HP Probook 4530s. I'm sure that someone out there has already done this mod. Don't forget to uninstall the new CCC and restart before installing the new Probook graphic package. Also on that HP link, after downloading the package, you can test the Hard Drive in the left column! Just click Troubleshoot a Problem/Hard Drive, and it will scan for issues. These options are only available to Business Notebooks.

 Let me know about the temps!

If it were a rattler. . . .