Overheating part 2, No battery present, and more from the OMEN 17t

[GSynergy]

I recently received my HP OMEN 17t-an100 CTO back from the HP/Quanta service center. I made note of the failure ID for the battery to the OMEN Team support over the phone, and made note of it on the service paper, however the service center did not replace the battery for an unknown reason. Upon using the laptop again a very sudden issue has appeared..... somehow Windows believes that the battery.... is gone..... and also at 255% at the very same time.

Battery "mouse-over" notification, reading 255%. Either that's just "FF"in HEX, or this laptop really isn't powered by a battery at all, but regenerative nuclear fission.

No battery is present, yet it's a non-removable battery. Hmmm... The battery can't just run away now can it?

However, this all occurs intermittently and I am not sure what is causing this to occur. Also, unplugging the power adapter yields no differing result. (I guess this laptop is powered by something other than a battery right?)

I am unsure of what is causing this as the HP PC Hardware Diagnostic for Windows reads "Logic state: OK. Charge state: NOT AVAILABLE." however under the detailed information, the line "Primary_ChargeControl: Failed" raises a little suspicion to me, however I do not know what it means.

HP Support Assistant says the battery is at 0% and also, non-existent.

Not even HP Support Assistant can help us now. We're doomed.

I have all my drivers updated, and this issue has/is persisting in both the Windows 10 1809, and Windows 10 1903 update. 

Any ideas?

(lastly, a bonus screenshot of HWiNFO64 not reading the battery either,  but a very odd abnormal maximum recorded remaining capacity a few moments before the battery disappears. Table has been marked by me, for convince.) Astonishingly the battery had read a whopping 315.18Wh before the battery had vanished. Values are greyed as HWiNFO is unable to obtain any updated information about the battery and its capacity, and voltage status.

[Photoray002]

Ill ask a Moderator if an HP Rep can contact you for further instructions on getting the laptop repaired again.

[GSynergy]

@Photoray002

Unfortunately I have already had this machine repaired twice now (Motherboard replaced twice‡, battery once)... It seems each time it returns from Quanta in California, something else seems to break down. I will be calling the OMEN team once more on Monday to discuss this issue, as well as the rattling/rumbling/grinding fan issue from the GPU side fan (that appeared as soon as I turned the machine on from the packaging). 

On the plus side, Quanta managed to fix the overheating (as of now) so I'm pleased with that. They even replaced my keyboard, as a minor cosmetic issue had been present since I purchased the laptop in MAY 2019 (leading me to believe it was used). They even CLEANED the decking and made it all squeaky clean as well, which was a big plus!

[‡ Motherboard on the second replacement was not new, but used. in the system BIOS, the "Born On" date reads 8/30/2018 which is greatly incorrect, as it should read 5/20/2019. This leads me to believe this was pulled from another machine, that was/had windows installed originally on the 30th of August 2018. Also the headphone jack port is looser that expected, however is functional. The machine has not currently exhibited signs of overheating as of yet, and running under normal conditions yields about 83°C which is a great improvement over the previous 100°C with the previous motherboard.]

[Photoray002]

So different mobo and cpu, now its not overheating. That has been my contention all this time with regards to the overheating complaints. Its not always a software/bios issue. Im not surprised if the mobo is used. Usually if an OEM does a repair/replace, its with used parts as you probably already know. It should be fine though as long as its not going over the top with heating now.

Im sorry to hear that they didn't check for power issues before they sent it out.

I did ask for this thread to be escalated. Do keep us updated on the resolve.

[GSynergy]

Yes, I was told by a staff member on the OMEN Team by phone, that HP always uses new parts, which I immediately thought was rather suspicious because they always seem to have a motherboard in stock right away... I can also tell that last week they were rushed by the "5 business day turnaround", as the repair status was "On Hold" from Monday up until Thursday when I received a notification that it had been shipped. Also, during this second time of repairs, I sent the power adapter back, just in case if it was the one causing all the issues before (and mind you, that when I received the laptop in MAY 2019, the charger was thrown in the box not even twist tied up and had scratched all over the underside), when I received the machine back on Friday, the charger looked in even worse condition. (the matte plastic on the top edges linear to the length of the power adapter is now all worn down and smooth, and the underside has MANY MANY scratches now, however none are very deep, just moderate abrasions, almost as if someone dragged it all over a slightly rough floor. However it is still functional. Also there are 2 serial number stickers on there, presumably so they knew it was mine.)

At the time of writing this, I just viewed the event log, only to be greeted with an abundance of "ACPI error 13"....

Many.... MANY ACPI errors.... (Battery count change was also logged as "Kernel-Power even 521")

BIOS is F.09 (up-to-date), and no 3rd party programs are attempting to access the EMBEDDED CONTROLLER. It is unknown to me what is causing this.....

(super fun side note: An employee at Quanta left their Microsoft account logged in on my laptop for some odd reason or another, so I did the kind and thoughtful thing, and immediately signed them out of my machine.)

[Jacky-D]

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

If you are unfamiliar with how the Community's private message capability works, you can learn about that here.
Thank you for visiting the HP Support Community.

[GSynergy]

###UPDATE ON THE CPU###

As of this afternoon, I have been able to fully test the CPU with a game. The ambient room temperature is about 74°F as of performing this test (with air moving in the room), and the cooling pan is turned ON.

Game: Forza Horizon 3

Settings: Medium-Low Custom

FPS: 30, 48, and 72. (all locked)

The results: OVERHEATING! WHOA!  100°C even,,,

Time to boil some water, right? (Table marked by me for convenience in reading.) The reason the "Current" reading says 88°C, is due to when I ALT+TAB to view the temps, the game pauses and thus the CPU load is greatly reduced.

Within no time, the CPU began to crank out heat faster than the poor fan(s) could possibly keep up with, even locked at a solid 30FPS, overheating was still greatly evident... Nearing the end of my 1hr (60 minute) test, the machine began to act very erratically (the audio began to tear/crackle/lag behind what was on the screen, and the system was intermittently locking up) , however it didn't shut itself down or go into hibernation. It had sat at 100°C near constantly under the load the game applied to the system, along with the fans maxed out. Obviously with having this motherboard replaced twice now, that must not be the absolute issue... I am beginning to speculate this little theory: The chassis of 2018 model of the HP OMEN 17t seems to be quite a bit similar to that of the 2017 model (HP OMEN 17), meaning the chassis is really designed for the Intel i7-7700HQ of the 2017 model, and not the 2018's Intel i7-8750H CPU. Because of this, the vents, fans, and other misc thermal systems are overloaded by the heat the i7-8750H produces. To add on, the (now) limping GPU fan was struggling to get up to speed, due to some sort of friction (whatever is causing the grinding sound), therefore bringing the GPU upward of 80°C. Due to all of this, a considerable surface area of the decking became hot of varying intensity, to the touch. Below is a map depicting where the hot spots are. Dark Green means WARM, normal Green mean HOT, and Yellow means the HOTTEST spot. (more detailed color key, in image description.)

Dark Green = Warm (okay to touch for a duration of time, without discomfort.); Light Green = HOT (okay to touch for a time short time, with very slight discomfort when touching.); Yellow = HOTTEST (Slight to Moderate discomfort to the touch, especially for a longer duration of time than about 25 seconds.)

[AFTER THE TEST: The laptop is no longer acting erratically after the CPU was allowed to cool, however the CPU fan is making a slight whine when its running at moderate speed. It is unknown if the approximately 60 minutes worth of 100°C temperatures caused some sort of damage to the CPU fan, and/or its assembly(ies).]

###UPDATE ON THE BATTERY###

The battery has "vanished" intermittently throughout the day today, however it did end up "finding itself" after a while.  

###YET ANOTHER UPDATE###

It seems this machine is getting slower and slower at booting into Windows for some reason. Taking a good 5 minutes to finish booting at the main boot screen, only to sit at a black screen for another 120 seconds, then to wait at the animated "Welcome" screen. Then I am presented with another black screen. That second black screen lasts about 120 seconds or more , and then I am presented with my wallpaper, and no icons on the taskbar. This entire process takes about 7 to 10 minutes to complete depending on the mood this machine feels in, even with "Fast Startup" turned on and not in a "Cold Boot" state. Why is windows taking so long to boot up? I mean, my 14 year old Compaq laptop can outrun this OMEN 17t in boot time performance. I have almost all the startup programs disabled (excluding the important processes and services)

[GSynergy]

###UPDATE JULY/23/2019###

I telephoned HP OMEN support yesterday, and will be returning the device once more for repairs. I will update this thread once again, once I receive the machine back from the service center. 

[MODERATOR NOTICE: This thread shall remain open until I (myself) mark/flag it as solved.]

[GSynergy]

###UPDATE AUGUST/3/2019###

After all that has happened, my case was escalated by a HP/Quanta service center member to a case manager. From there on a course of action has been taken where the machine that has been stricken with such misfortune, is to be decommissioned, and then sent to the HP recycling center, most likely to have it's few good parts saved for a later date, and the rest to be ultimately destroyed.... I will be sent a new replacement machine in the coming weeks. So the what seems to be the legacy of my sadly cursed and greatly defective OMEN by HP 17t-an100 will be laid to rest. 

R.I.P. poor machine, you tried your very best... You shall never be forgotten. 😞