Dv6 3000 Series overheating causes

Hi all. Recently bought a slightly used dv6 and I'm having some some problems. Hopefully someone out there can give me a hand.

Laptop specs:

• dv6-3006tx (think it might be an australian only model)
• i5-430m
• 4gb ram
• 500gb hdd
• ATI 5650 1gb
• Intel integrated graphics
• b/g/n wifi

Problem/Symptoms
Basically it runs stupidly hot. Haven't stressed it enough to make it shutdown yet but HWmonitor shows it was getting up to around 95C+ after a minute or so of what should be pretty easy activity (have been using some 64 emulator, but it is the same for any mild cpu activity). It also idles around 55-60C.
As a result of this the fan is almost always on, and goes flat out whenever I try to do anything. Heaps of air is passing through too when it is going.
I should mention this is regardless of the graphics card selected. Also, HWmonitor reports the gpu only reaching 45C or so in the same minute which seems about right.

I have searched this and a couple other forums high and low for the last couple days, have found a few people with similar problems but no real solutions aside from heatsink efficiency measures (which I will talk about below).
I also found this link:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...1-i5-version-fans-too-loud-2.html#post6750026

where some guy says his slightly more powerful i5 in the same type of laptop runs at around 20C. So I have concluded something is very wrong and tried to fix it.

Things I have tried

Firstly, I have c ompletely pulled apart the laptop using the service manual from HP. (Does anyone think it would be worthwhile making a guide, because I have done it a few times and could probably whip one up?)
When I pulled it apart, I cleaned out the almost spotless heatsink and replaced the paste with Arctic Silver 5. Put it back together and same problem, although it is worth noting it dropped the max temp by around 5 degrees. Still, this was just an efficiency not the underlying problem.

I then thought the heatpipe may be defective. I managed to boot the laptop with the M/B out and again slightly stressed the cpu. There are separate heatpipes (or possibly they are solid? I don't know) for the graphics and the CPU.
Backing up the HWMonitor readings, graphics heatpipe was cool to the touch, but the CPU heatpipe nearly burnt me. very, very hot.

Other things I have tried:

• Updated bios chipset and any other drivers I can find to latest from HP. (even tried an old bios to see what would happen)
• tried to find some way to undervolt. anyone who has tried will know this is just not going to happen, at least for now.
• Disabled turbo boost. This lowered the peak temps a little but still, not the problem

Now, with my probably limited knowledge I reckon there are only 2 ways it could behave like this:

1. the CPU is using way too much voltage for some reason (I checked and freqs are fine).
2. Somehow really hot heatpipe+heatsink+lots of airflow does not = cool cpu. I am leaning towards this as the air flow never gets particularly warm even at 95C+. I had another DV6 3000 series a few months back with and i7 and its airflow was REALLY hot even at 60 or 70C.

Does anyone have any ideas? I have no warranty, so I think my options are either to replace the heatsink assembly or possibly the CPU.

Does anyone know details about how the voltage on these chips is regulated? Is it from the motherboard or actually on die?



Anything you know that can help I really appreciate hearing. And thanks for reading this much of a probably boring post

 

Have you tried another monitoring tool?

Try GPU-Z for the GPU and realtemp for the CPU.
If the heatsink is clean and you have applied a fresh cote of thermal past, the CPU should not overheat. I don't have any experience with core i CPUs. With Core 2 Duo max temperature (without undervolt) under full load are around 80c. I would assume that the max for core i should be in the region of 80c too.

 

:O

I have the exact same problem as you! i.e. it reaches extremely high temps (95+) not to mention it shuts down almost immediately if it reaches temps higher than that.

However unlike you, I still have warranty however I don't plan on using it..yet (I don't like other people opening my laptop ). The model of mine is DV6-3131TX (Australian model with the same specs as yours except it has a i5-460M).

I plan on opening up when I go back home tomorrow (since I'm living interstate at Uni) and apply some cooling paste (as well as upgrading the keyboard to back-lit and disconnecting the led cable to disable the annoying LED light on the lid :/).

Also, if you could produce a guide that would be great .

I'll keep you updated.

 

I haven't used imageshack before so hopefully this works:



you are right about the max temps. I happen to have an almost identical-but-i7 laptop here and 80 ish is its max, which you would kind of expect for first gen i7 and a laptop.

of course the reason i have an i5 one aswell is because the i7 was too powerful and hot for my needs
guess that hasn't worked out quite how i would have liked!

 

glad (well not glad but you know what i mean) to hear its not just me. I am a bit busy tonight but with any luck I can have a rough guide done tomorrow night or the weekend. see how my photo skills go i guess.

I am planning to pull it apart again just to check the heatsink for any obvious damage anyway.

 

Update:

Okay, I've disassembled my notebook and reapplied (alot) of thermal paste on the cpu and gpu however while I did notice a slight (2-4'c) decrease in temperature it still over heats pretty badly (to the point it shuts down when stress testing the CPU).

I'm not quite sure but 'maybe' it has to do with the software? As I remember when I first bought this unit (while using HP's W7 image), the temps were quite good i.e. in the 30s-40s when idle and around 60-70 when stressed.

@heineken016. Are you using HP's W7 image or did you do a clean install of W7? As I think it might be to do with that.

 

mine runs really hot as well, aussie model too, running a clean install of w7 but never took notice of temps when it was on the HP Image.

 

hey, I am just using the standard HP image. That gives me an idea, I should try linux or something to see whether I get the same issues. or clean w7.

one other thing, 'alot' of thermal paste is not a good thing. Its obviously not gonna fix whatever we have going on but if you ever pull it apart again google some guide to it. and if you already know this, please ignore haha.

fyi too I made a start on a disassembly guide, probably half way but I havent linked images in much before so it was taking a while. this week sometime hopefully. although you seemed to have gotten it apart OK so you probably aren't fussed.

 

just to make sure, you made sure your heatsink was clear of lint etc when you pulled it apart?

 

Gateway MX8711 laptop overheating - faulty heat pipe? - Badcaps Forums


just having a read through that link, I'm starting to think that it is probably a shot heatpipe. I really wish there was a way to check the voltage of the cpu to make sure though....

anyway, i have basically cool airflow even at extreme temps, and the copper pipe takes a while to heat up when I checked it. as in, starts at the cpu block and gradually (say 1 or 2 min) the heat moves along the heatpipe.

makes me think the heat is being conducted along the copper rather the standard heatpipe action (wiki it)