Overheating Problem on Pavillion dv7-1270ca

[dothp]

I ALSO have the same overheating problem on my DV7.   Seems like cleaning the dust from the fan to heat sink worked for you.  Can you send me the youtube as the link is not working?

I did notice some comments about raising the laptop up so the air can circulate better.  This makes sense so I now put an object to the right bottom to middle so that more air can circulate.  But I would like to clean the dust. 

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[animenick345]

Here is what happened with my HP DV7 7047 cl. It has a manufacturers defect in it, that I fixed myself. I bought mine at SAMS CLUB in the summer of 2012. It is a i7 beats edition DV7 notebook, I'm guessing the same thing is happening with HP's line of DV6 and DV7 laptops. Mine has a nvidia GPU in it, but they also come with ati radeon GPU's. It isn't surprising they are taking them off the market right now.

If your laptop has 2 vents, and the one in the back is not blowing air through it then your laptop possibly has the same problem mine had, and you need to take it to replace the inner fan piece which was designed for only one vent. The way it works is both of these vents are made out of aluminum and are separately connected to the CPU and GPU. The one to the side is your GPU one. The aluminum vent in the back cools your CPU. If your CPU isn't getting any ventilation then your laptop wont last long and could possibly start a fire. Here is how I fixed mine by myself. And how you can fix yours too.

Before taking it apart call HP Support and ask them if you can open it up to "clean it". They will give you permission so it doesn't void the HP warranty.

My laptop would reach between 70c, 80c, 90c, even 100c and would get extremely hot, but wouldn't overheat. And I was concerned because my laptop is only 3 months old. It would get very hot. So I decided to take it apart and see what was going on inside. I followed the instructions on HP's website, they have online guides and manuals for taking your laptop apart and putting it back together. If you need instructions on finding your manual for your laptop then email me at animenick345@live.com. Doing this fixed my laptop entirely. It never gets hot now, it runs faster and can play games at their maximum settings. The CPU will stay only at 60c, 65c at its tops. It's like magic.

Here is how you can surgically correct your faulty laptop fan. You're going to make an opening in the fan, cutting a bit of plastic off, so that the other vent to your CPU can get ventilation, if worst comes to worst, you can jot down the name of the fan on the sticker and go to HP's website and order a new piece to replace it for like 50 bucks.

What you need is...
A small screwdriver
A tiny screwdriver
And (optional) some thermal compound to replace your cooked old compound. Mine was like chalk, I replaced it and it helped cool down my laptop by like 10c. You can get thermal compound at Radio Shack, and the silver stuff is the best.

First open it up carefully, take your time, and take out the motherboard. Its the big chip with the fan connected to it and the aluminum vents.

Next, If you're planning on replacing your thermal compound, then unscrew the bolts on the heat sinks and take the big metal pieces off the chip, place your motherboard chip to the side. Now take the piece with your heat sinks, fan and vents connected to it, and turn it around.

Next unscrew the 4 or 5 tiny bolts behind the fan. So you can take the inner fan piece out. Notice its shape, does it have an opening for your other vent? If not, then make one. Cut an opening in the plastic, the size of the other vent. I used a knife carefully angled to cut the plastic off. Once I cut it, I just bent it off the bottom to take it off. Place the fan back into its frame and screw in the tiny bolts.

Now replace your thermal compound. You can use a Q tip with the cotton off of it, to scrape off the old gunk - then clean it with a slightly wet Q tip. You can use a little rubbing alcohol but you shouldn't need much. Next put a drop of the new compound on the heat sinks and the chip. Using some plastic wrap on your finger even it carefully on top of the little silver parts where the old stuff was.

Now you're good to put it all back together. Gently place the heat sinks on the chip and don't move them while you screw the heat sinks back into the chip.

Carefully put the laptop back together and you're done.

Here's a picture of my fan, and how I fixed mine. I didn't bother to take the piece out when I took the picture cause those tiny bolts are a PAIN to take out with a knife when you don't have a tiny screwdriver.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/269/1001711d.jpg/

[achotello]

I bought my HP Pavilion dv7 last  December, 2011.  I experienced overheating problems and fan running in its maximum. What I did was I open the back cover of my laptop and removed the fine screens intalled in the ventillations. The fine   screens are  installed near the processor and just below the hard disks.  Now, my laptop is working well.  no more overheating problem.  

[dalg]

I also have a Pavillion dv7 that I purchased in October, 2010.  It had been overheating for at least a year!!  Until about two months ago my laptop was still working but would often overheat.  I purchased several different cooling fans to place under my laptop...no luck it would still overheat.  I would hear a snap and the screen would go black.   I haven't been able to turn it back on and had to take it into BestBuy so they could back up my files.  HP stated that I probably needed a new motherboard.

Looks like a number of you are having the same problem...seems like we're all f#%*ed!!

[Steven_AL]

Try turning off FAN ALWAYS ON in the bios... it has worked for me...

[achotello]

I wonder why HP company is not doing any action about this problem.  They should be the  one to answer to all these problems.  WAKE UP HP company!

[Steven_AL]

Try setting the max power settings under power options to 90 or 99 - this will turn off turbo boost tho, it also works.

[valuepost]

Redant, thank you - the spray duster + vacuum cleaner method has significantly helped the overheating dv7 problem. Did not need to disassemble the laptop.

[Gregthehandsome]

The computer's position makes no difference. I tried putting mine on two pieces of wood to allow better air circulation.  No change.  This is soooo bad that I'm putting ice packs on the computer.....and I have to change the ice packs about once an hour.  I'm not even a heavy user. I start playing a podcast and go about my business.  HP needs to issue a recall.  Forget the inconvenience of your computer shutting down. Is HP waiting for a fire?

[Gregthehandsome]

You must be kidding!!!!!  You posted this as a solution?!  I'm sitting here with an ice pack on my computer, I'm reading comments from other users with the same problem...and what? You're telling me to clean the air intakes? What is wrong with you?!