Laptop turns itself off (overheating?) while gaming

[Proton]

Agian, as I said, I have the EXACT SAME MACHINE, with EXACT SAME ISSUE... .  ITS OVERHEATING... so check your fan for dust, but if your situation is like mine, then it will not be the fan thats clogged up, your Mother board and cpu will be replaced by HP, they just replaced my MB, CPU, Heat sinks, and Fan 3 days ago, the machine is running fine now. 

Get cpu temp monitoring software like "Everest ultimate editio" and use a app like "SressMyPc" or "Prime95" to put your pc under load, and check your temp climb.. its not supposed to go over 85'C AT ALL (On this specific machine) this is what my temp now reaches on core 1 and core 2 at max temp, where it had reached 105'C before the repair...

hop this helps.. keep us posted please. cheers

[Proton]

Oh yes, and BTW, I sorted the issue with the games still crashing, I downloaded the latest video drivers directly from Nvidia Wesite and did a CLEAN INSTALL.. that sorted the problem. 🙂

[bsloan9858]

When you are playing games or using any resource hungry software, be sure the Laptop gets plenty air flow; use it on a flat hard surface VS sitting it on a pillow. This model of laptop doesn't have very good internal flow chambers as it is.

[Ikarus]

After suffering for quite a long time with overheating on my HP Elitebook 8540w, I have effectively resolved the issue.

The trick is to open up the laptop using the clear and detailed instructions from the HP EliteBook Mobile Workstation
Maintenance and Service Guide (Google for it), remove the fan and clean the fan + the area where the fan is mounted. Most importantly, clean up the vents *on* the laptop at left edge corner thru which the fan exhausts the hot air. In my case the fan had a good amount of dust that needed to be cleaned up, however, I believe the crud/dust/fibers on exhaust *vents* was singularly responsible for the overheating issue.

CPU temperature has come down considerably, by at least 15 Celsius when system is under load (as measured with "Core Temp") . Earlier, I was plaqued by thermal shutdowns when the pesky McAfee Antivirus decided to do a system scan (and I do not have the option of stopping or removing the crudware due to corporate policy).

Hope this helps somebody similarly fed up with thermal shutdowns.

[_iCQ_]

I am suffering from a heating problem too with my 8760w (quadro3000m gfx). It happens mostly when i using the graphics chip... it goes to 110c temp and then crashes or just starting to act strange.

I did not have these problems when i bought the maschine about 1 year ago. I did run the same software in the same setup. Something has changed... sure there is some dust here and there.

Another thing that has changed is the graphics card drivers. I will have to do a test with the older original drivers that came with the laptop.

For the rest thanks for all the tips, also i will do a cleanup job and report back here. 

P.s. why did they change the MB and all? I asume the hardware in my book is not damaged... just the setup and the dust must be the problem. Else i be going nuts to loose this nifty laptop... my warranty is already out i believe.

[dan314]

running mail, excel, powerpoint

the laptop shuts down and remains there.

I suspect thermal problem. how can i read the cpu temperature?

[Raykonsul]

My 8540 gets really hot to the touch when the AC Adapter is plug in.

[TigaLagi]

Thanks to Ikarus and Proton for their tips.

I also suspected heat issues on my HP 8440. It randomly would turn itself off, not even a controlled Windows shutdown. Tested it using the recommended software (now called AIDA64) and my CPU was reaching temperatures of 85C +.

Even though my laptop was still under 3 yr warranty I decided to clean it myself. Didn't want to go through the hassle of taking it to HP and waiting a number of days with a risk that HP would reformat the HDD.

Opened the laptop up as per HP EliteBook Mobile Workstation Maintenance (excellent step for step on how to remove fan). This pdf manual is highly recommended because it tells you exactly which screws to undo. This was actually very easy if you have 'watchmaker' screwdrivers (better still if you have a Torx T8) and a pair of tweezers.

Took me an hour or so to open up and clean up the fan exhaust grill which was clogged up with fluff on the inside. If you don't have a compressed air use contact cleaner and/or old tooth brush.

You don't need to remove the heat sink to clean up the fan. I don't recommend it either because it requires you to get special heat sink thermal paste when putting it back together.

Reconnect all the wires and boot before closing up. Make sure buttons, lights and kbd are working.

Using the CPU stress testing software the temperature now stays around  70C.

Problem of random shutdown due to overheating seems to have been solved.

PS I have also stuck four chair anti scratch/slip felt/rubber pads on the bottom to raise the laptop a bit more for better circulation. The original HP rubber feet had come off which doesn’t help heat dispersion either.

[drake1957]

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@elitebookuser wrote:

Hello,

whenever I play a game for a while (e.g. Portal), at some point my HP Elitebook 8540p suddenly turns itself off. I believe this is some sort of overheating protection, however my laptop shouldn't be overheating in the first place, should it?

The notebook is less than a year old.

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[_iCQ_]

Guys, i am so happy i solved my heating problem and sorry to post it here so late. At first i could not believe this way happening to this excelent HP product. But now i understand... It is not even a real design flaw!

What did i do? I took a vacum cleaner and sucked all the dust out of the back and side and bottom of the vents. Problem solved! I should have known as i have had tons of clients with laptops that die to such problems (low cost things from acer, dell etc) almost all heating related combined with visits to warm countries.