HP Pavilio dv6732ee - overheating so much I can fry an egg !!

Halp !!

I have a new HP Pavilion dv6732ee with AMD Turion 64 X2, TL-60 2008MHz with 2GB RAM and a 160GB HDD ST9160821AS ATA. Use is purely office applications - Firefox and sometimes Office 2003. Running Vista Ultimate.

Recently (a day or 2 back) the notebook shuts down unexpectedly. At first I thought it was a s/w error - so I did a system restore, uninstalled some apps etc. - No luck. I then realised that the wooden table top that I keep it on was noticeably hot. The back of the notebook is unbearable hot !!

I d/l some apps (Notebook h/w control, SpeedFan, AMD PowerMonitor etc.) - sure enough the notebook heats up within a few minutes of startup.

HDD Temp : Startup (<1min) is 26deg C, within 10 mins its 56-60deg C
CPU Temp : Startup (<1 min) is 57deg C, within few mins is 85-95deg C

Also, these temps are reached using the 'Battery Max' option on the Power Saver which keeps the CPU clock to a bare min. If I try and keep it to 'Max Performance' the notebook shuts within a minute after overheating.

Strangely, I can hear the fan during startup, but not anytime later.

Now, the only way I can work for 15 mins or so, is if I keep the CPU clock to the lowest possible - which obviously affects my work and is NOT an optimal solution.

SpeedFan doesn't have my Motherboard (Quanta30D0) on the list so I cant detect or monitor the fan speeds with that.

The notebook is covered under warranty - but those guys will keep it at least for 2-3 weeks which will hurt. I wanted to be sure I've explored all the s/w solutions I can before I take it in.

Any suggestions from all you Guru's out there ??

thanks,
A

PS : Heres a SpeedFan pic of the system just before meltdown !!

 

my dv2310us reaches temps higher than that....yours would be considered 20 to 25 degrees cooler than mine....but yet again maybe thats why its defective and its getting it replaced by HP...lol

 

Lucky you - what did you tell them to get the replacement ? Under the normal warranty wouldnt they just 'repair' it ? Also I see you're replacement is an Intel C2D - which should be cooler than the Turion - how did you manage to swing that ??

 

i sent it in for repair 3 times back to back and it still came back broken....believe me its been a long struggle to get a new one

 

That cpu temp is horrible even for a typical Pavilion. Look to see if you have a BIOS update available to throttle up your fan, and then send that notebook to HP for service. Mine was bad before the update, but nothing even close to yours.

 

Seems like everyday we have more hp laptop problems lol

 

Yep. Every time we think the newest models have been corrected for the overheat problems, a new one shows up with it.

As Miner pointed out earlier, the excessive heat from the nVidia chipset is likely the real culprit on the AMD units. The cpus are warm enough as it is, and the nForce chipsets only amplify the heat.

I wished they had stuck with ATI like the previous generation models. They were much cooler (even running 130nm/90nm cpus)....

 

Even though HP has some pretty cool designs I feel like its worthless if they can't get rid of the heat building up inside

 

People should stop buying these laptops, return them in huge quantities and get the media involved.

HP will only take effective measures when they get very damaging media coverage and the threat of legal action. Otherwise, business is as usual. Business ethics at HP is not exactly in order due to very aggressive cost cutting measures applied by top level management lately, so anything that will cost HP to fix is what they will avoid at all costs.

 

I should think that the expense of dealing with all these warranty returns would get HP management's attention. No need to add lawyers to the mix.

That said, make sure you have the latest BIOS flashed in. The cooling fan should be running full blast with an 80C+ CPU temp, so if it's not then there's a hardware or BIOS defect entirely independent of what CPU and chipset are used. Or there's some bit of Windows software that's interfering with the BIOS fan management... possible, but unlikely.

 

Apparently theres several pending Class action lawsuits against HP.

Civil court litigation takes foreverrrrrrr

To OP: Seriously you have a very messed up machine. Even your HDD temps are off the charts (could be the CPU heat thats doing this though). Can you hear or feel your fan working?

 

Unfortunately, no. HP is so large, with so many layers of management that problems like these rarely get the attention of their executive management. They rely on cumulative figures and statistics. As they sell so many of these units, the proportion that fail are still insufficient for them to address seriously. HP doesn't even resolve most of these issues. They are most likely handed over to their ODM partners to investigate.

However, there isn't much that can be done for the current generation of devices. The feedback that they receive will be incorporated into the next design cycle.

 

I need to ask why even bother with AMD these days? Since Intel came out with the C2 duo processors I don't see any advantage to going with AMD other then saving a few bucks. Since Intel chips take less power and produce less heat you would think nobody would go for AMD since power/heat issues are so important in laptops. I can understand using AMD on a desktop where one can add additional cooling etc.. but laptops it makes zero sense. When I started to research laptops last summer when I was in the market it became fairly apparent that many AMD models produce too much heat and suck power.

As for excepting a bios fix that runs the fan full blast that would really suck for me. Not only would that draw even more power but it would drive me insane. The bottom line is until AMD reduces their heat on their processors their will be a high level of electronic failures in AMD systems since HEAT=Failures=short life span.

As for HP and other manufacturers using AMD its only because laptops have become such a commodity and are incredibly price driven. Currently, it sounds like it would be hard to engineer a laptop to handle the heat from current AMD chips. But the problem is unless all the manufacturers drop the AMD option they would loose market share to those that do offer it since like I said.. its all about bottom line price. AMD systems have a lower price.. bottom line. But this is one case where its not worth it IMO.

My advice is if you do own a AMD system, and it runs a little warm you would be well served to buy one of those laptop cooling pads. Because even if your within manufacture temperature limits... but its still runs a bit warm.. cooling it down with a pad may significantly increase the lifespan of your laptop.

 

my hp stays at around 55 idle...65-70 under load(CS:S)

there was a comparison one person did...the difference "a few bucks" was $270. and that was from c2d 1.66 vs amd turion x2 2.0ghz

 

A few of the reasons I prefer AMD based ones the past few years-

1) Signifigantly cheaper
2) Overclockable easily, ntune alone can let you adjust most every option albiet only to 250HTT. If you use RMClock you can control voltages at every p-state as well, I run my TL-60 at 1ghz .75v and 2.5ghz 1.025v which adds a big amount to the battery life vs stock voltage. Turions are VERY sweet overclockers and undervolters.
3) Signifigantly better integrated graphics, 6150/7150 blow away 940GML based 950 intel video unless its 945 based (next to impossible to find anything using that under $1000 and who buys integrated graphics at that price), intel hides the fact there are major speed differences between the different 950 graphics based on the chipset used, and most low end used 940GML last time I looked into it which is crap.

Both times I have shopped for a new laptop in the past 1.5 years there was just no way to justify spending $300 more for an intel based one that doesn't suck. I have no preference to either side if the price is the same, only the better deal for my money There's no question to me Intel would be the better choice >$800 but I prefer buying a cheaper one and selling it to buy a new one before the price bottoms out.

Back on topic, there's something majorly wrong with your laptop, send it in for repair ASAP! I wouldn't worry too much about the horror stories about them keeping it for weeks, they've never not had it back to me in a week even when I needed major repair such as a motherboard replacement but I've only sent in laptops to them 4 times. Upgrade the BIOS ASAP if you haven't already for sure. I would do a clean reinstall from the recovery disks before calling as well as they will probably ask you to do it or do it at the factory regardless, and it's possible it may be fixed by that.

 

I saw a HP 15.4 inch C2d at circuit city at 1.8 with 8400m gs and 320 gig HD for 800 bucks and 3 gigs of ram. Maybe your right and you can get an AMD system with the same performance for 530 dollars but I doubt it. I was also pretty surprised to see that price.. pretty good deal actually and I'd get that over a hot power sucking AMD any day. Even if I had to spend hundreds I would if I thought it would get me a cooler running system. I don't know if everyone understands how important heat is when it comes to electronic failures. If ever there is a reason to pay more its for something that keeps heat to a min. IMO the reason that people are having more failures with AMD HP systems is for heat related failures. And again, a bios fix to run the fan on high shows that Intel has a clear lead in the heat department. My system fan is not very noticeable and never to hot to hold on lap etc. In my book, thats worth every penny of 270 dollars if need be.

I understand everyones point of view and I am glad people do buy AMD since a world with only intel would be bad for consumers. Hopefully AMD's newer line coming out will be a cooler running.

 

Not anymore apparently, as HP released a new Intel BIOS with the same ingrediant from the AMD ones: "Updates the fan-control algorithm for the system to reduce the likelihood of future system issues." http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&cc=us&lang=en&os=2093&product=3650962&dlc=en

Hopefully this BIOS does not impact the Intel systems as much as it does the AMD ones.....

 

My system does not feel that warm at all.. I think I'll pass and let somebody else test that one Sounds like HP just wants to cover there butts and have everyone deal with loud fan noises. Come on, the P4 days are over, we should not have to listen to howling fans anymore.

 

Possibly. In any case, I'm hoping to see the end of these chassis' with both the new Intel & AMD platforms in June. It is time to move on......

 

The bios updates (at least the F.3D I have experience with on a dv6325) don't run the fan on high all the time at all, it just always runs the fan at really low rpm's instead of letting the processor idle at 54C+ with the fan completely shut off and cycling on and off every time it gets that extra 1C to kick it on like it did before. I actually prefer that as it meant 32C idle temps vs hovering at 54/55C and it is a steady low noise now which is much preferred to the constant starting and stopping it did before to me at least The idle fan rpms actually seem lower after the update than the lowest they went before it also. There is just no way I would call the fan loud after the update, maybe with other models it revs up faster or something but the F.3D 6000z series bios upgrade is the only one I have experience with and by no means is it anywhere near noticably loud. The 6325 I have also seems to exhaust downwards instead of out the back like the 6768se I have now does, that was a step in the right direction at least.

I do use the 12 cell battery which props it up though, makes a pretty signifigant difference in temps compared to having it flat on the v6325 and that might make it run at a higher speed more often. This guy's problems are alot more major though, sounds like bios ACPI is messed up somehow and the fan isn't coming on at all regardless of the temps it's running at.

 

I've already updated the BIOS - the latest one was Jan2008. No help whatsoever to the problem... Plus all the drivers etc are also updated. So it cant be that. Thanks for the suggestion though.

A

 

Then I suggest you send the unit in. At those temps, it would not last long anyway.

 

call HP and tell them that your laptop is running very hot and its burning your wrists......They will repair it for free.....

 

Ok I went ahead and took the plunge and updated to F.51 bios. Overall its about the same. On battery, the fan is very quiet. On power, it now will run on low all of the time.. will kick in higher with more intensive CPU but its seems to be an improvement. Before, the fan would actually stop at times and then kick on and off. Now it mostly just runs on low which probably keeps the temperature down. This bios does not annoy me anymore then the last one and it probably will help in avoiding heat related failures.