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HP Recommended
HP 15r-030wm Notebook
Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)

So I've had my laptop a while now. I bought it from walmart in 2015 around November-December. I barely used it since I got it for school. I did download Sims 4, never had a problem. Yesterday, my laptop kept shutting down, it said it was too hot. I moved it to the kitchen table, but that didn't help. I don't hear a fan turn on, ever.

 

My warranty was already up, so I decided to take it apart myself(I'm very good at this and have been doing this a lot with PCs and Laptops.). Upon taking the keyboard, Optical Drive, Hard Drive, WLAN port out, I realized there's no fan even installed. I looked under the motherboard, but it's not there and from the pictures on my manual, it's supposed to be under the CAPs lock, Tab, Shift button area.

 

So here's my question, was there supposed to be a fan installed? I'm assuming yes, because all computers need a fan in order to cool down. If there was a fan, where is it? I bought it brand new, and I've been the only one touching it. It was a floor model used at walmart, could that be the problem? I don't know what to do and I am very confused. Any advice at all would be very helpful.

3 REPLIES 3
HP Recommended

Here is where your thinking is off:

 

I'm assuming yes, because all computers need a fan in order to cool down.

 

That laptop is one of the "doorbuster" Wal-Mart laptops with a "Bay Trail" processor. The Bay Trail is a descendant of the Intel Atom processor used in netbooks. 

 

It uses much less power than a full blown Intel Core or Pentium Dual processor and can be passively cooled, i.e. no fan which means the battery can last even longer. 

 

As you can imagine they are not the most robust thing in the world so longevity is suspect but they are cheap to begin with. There is a heatsink so being the technician you can remove the heatsink and try some new Arctic Silver cooling compound. Also check the hard drive as a failing hard drive can cause the processor to run hard and also the hard drive itself can heat up. Also check the battery. As batteries get old they also start heating up more. 

 

HP Recommended

Thank you. I have programs on my laptop that regularly check on everything. I haven't seen anything wrong with the HD or the battery upon dismantling it. It's not the battery or even the HD that gets hot, it's the bottom of the laptop and sometimes the touchpad. I love this laptop, I think it's amazing. I love all HP products really, and they're my choice of PCs. But I was just concerned about this because it got really hot. I couldn't touch the laptop. It wouldn't turn back on either, it popped up with a message about it overheating and it would resume normal activity after it cooled down.

 

Also, I'm really good with electronics, and I want them to last a long time. Especially when I've spent good money on them. So, as far as the battery is concerned, there should be nothing wrong with it anyway because I don't leave it plugged in, charging, 24/7. That destroys the battery and sometimes everything else.

HP Recommended

Leaving it plugged in will not in and of itself cause a problem. That is a myth. But charge and discharge cycles will age the lithium cells and they will get more and more resistant to the flow of electricity and will start to get hotter. You can run the battery diagnostic from UEFI (F2 as you power up) or the HP Support Assistant and it will tell you how many cycles on the battery. Over 300 means the battery is getting some wear. Also if the heat is really coming from the CPU part of the motherboard about all you can do is the thermal compound replacement I mentioned. 

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