PC Crashes and GPU stops showing up in task manager

[BioForce90]

My friend recently bought a nice pc, and gave me his old HP Omen 17 an012dx. The first thing I did was replace the 2.5" HDD with a confirmed working 2.5" SSD. I tested it with Battlefield 2042, and it worked fine, although my external monitor had an issue with the screen going black for a few seconds, but honestly that wasn't too much of an issue for me. What was an issue, on the other hand, is how one day I noticed a PCI error in device manager. I then opened up subnautica, and after a few minutes of playing, without the external monitor connected, the laptop screen turned black, and inputs stopped working. I had to hard restart my pc, and when I did, the GPU stopped showing up in task manager. Also, Steam stopped loading the library properly, and in order to fix all of this, I had to reinstall windows. However, everytime I play any game, the laptop breaks all over again. I have noticed the PC getting extremely hot before crashes as well. I have tried a power reset, reinstalling every driver, attempted to underclock the pc, but cannot manage to access that in BIOS, and dont even know how to access the GPU in the laptop to see if it is a thermal issue. MSI Afterburner is also not letting me change any settings. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

What I recommend you do is this:

Factory reset the notebook with the recovery media you make with the HP cloud recovery tool.

Use the HP cloud recovery tool which you can use to create a bootable USB recovery drive that will reinstall Windows, the drivers and the software that originally came with your notebook.

Here is an info link for how to use the utility...You will need a 32 GB USB flash drive to create the recovery media with.

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool in Windows 11 and 10 | HP® Customer Support

If you have to use the tool on another PC, you will need to enter your notebook's product number in the tool's search window.

Your notebook's product number is:  1KV90UA#ABA

See how it works with the original factory image.

If you still have issues, most likely the GPU has degraded over time, and that might explain the overheating problem.

But if it is a driver problem, factory resetting the notebook will give you a baseline to start from where everything should work fine.

[BioForce90]

I will be buying a 32 gb flash drive today to do this. My question after this is that is there a way for me to replace the thermal paste/padding on the GPU, and is there a chance that this could be a bios/bios issue and flashing it could solve this? Also, I was wondering why my MSI afterburner changes do not apply. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Chapter 6 of the service manual has the procedure to remove and replace the heat sink.

NB_MSG_Marlins_1_1_931983-002 (hp.com)

There is no specific instructions in the manual for reapplying the thermal paste other than to ensure the contact surfaces are thoroughly cleaned first.

I would not be able to provide any assistance with such a project never having done it myself.

I wouldn't know if updating the BIOS would resolve any problems.

I recommend you read the release notes for all of the available BIOS updates to see if any of them are relevant to the graphics or overall performance of the notebook.

Driver - OMEN by HP - 17-an012dx | HP® Customer Support

Version: F.24 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides enhanced security. NOTE: HP strongly recommends transitioning promptly to this updated BIOS version which supersedes all previous releases.

Version: F.23 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides enhanced security. NOTE: HP strongly recommends transitioning promptly to this updated BIOS version which supersedes all previous releases.

Version: F.22 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides improved security of UEFI code. NOTE: HP strongly recommends transitioning promptly to this updated BIOS version which supersedes all previous releases.

Version: F.20 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides enhanced security. NOTE: HP strongly recommends transitioning promptly to this updated BIOS version which supersedes all previous releases.

Version: F.19 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides enhanced security. NOTE: HP strongly recommends promptly transitioning to this updated BIOS version which supersedes all previous releases.

Version: F.18 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides enhanced security. NOTE: HP strongly recommends promptly transitioning to this updated BIOS version which supersedes all previous releases.

Version: F.17 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides improved system stability.
- Provides enhanced security. NOTE: HP strongly recommends transitioning promptly to this updated BIOS version which supersedes all previous releases.

Version: F.15 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides enhanced security.
NOTE: HP strongly recommends transitioning promptly to this updated BIOS version which supersedes all previous releases.

Version: F.13 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides improved the battery health when the system is connected to an AC adapter.

Version: F.10 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides improved system stability.
- Provides improved security of UEFI code.

NOTE: HP strongly recommends transitioning promptly to this updated BIOS version which supersedes all previous releases.

Version: F.07 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides improved system stability.

Version: F.06 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides improved system stability.

Version: F.05 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides improved security of UEFI code. NOTE: HP strongly recommends promptly transitioning to this updated BIOS version which supersedes all previous releases.
- Reduces the duration of the Power On Self Test (POST) when the system is being powered on.

Version: F.04 Rev.A

Fixed in this release: - Provides the initial BIOS release.