Hard drive overheating

So I just purchased a DV4t a month ago. Only recently maybe this past week have I noticed that my hard drive is overheating because my left palm is getting really hot. I have no idea what would cause this? What are some causes of an overheating hard drive, and what can I do to keep the temperature down?

 

follow this link:
link

 

Download HWMonitor and check your temps.

 

(1) Are you sure your hard disk is under your left palm rest? Flip your notebook over (off, of course ) and see where the hard disk screws are. There should be a small icon (looks like disk platters) in the plastic near the screws.

(2) Have you blown the dustbunnies out of your DV4t? Believe me, these dustbunnies build up quickly.

(3) Try elevating your notebook just a little bit, giving more airspace under the notebook. The DV4T sucks air in from the bottom, and blows it out the back. If you give more room for it to suck air from the bottom, you'll get better air circulation. Maybe about 1/2 inch air gap? (A couple of paperback books under the rear corners?

 

hdt, I also have thd dv4t. The hard drive is located under the left plam rest area. I also really hate the heat. I can't type for a long time.

It is unclear what is causing this heat.

It seems like the hard drive is not overheating itself. Some other components near the hard drive might be contributing to the heat.

 

Notebook hard drives don't consume a lot of power (maybe 5 W during startup). Likely there's a GPU or CPU nearby (20-30W). If you have dustbunnies clogging the fan, your GPU/CPU will begin to heat up more.

Turn off the laptop, close the lid, turn it over, and blow out the dust. I had a Dell that had caked dust inside, & would auto-shutdown after 1-2 hrs of use after it was a year old. Spraying with an air duster helped a lot.

Good luck!

 

I've blown out the dust, yes its the hard drive, its already elevated on a notebook cooling pad.... i dont see why its overheating now and not before....

 

Excessive load on the drive would be my guess.

 

speedfan is a good temperature monitoring tool http://www.download.com/SpeedFan/3000-2094_4-10067444.html at the moment my processor is running at 67C my GPU at 93C and my hard drive at 45C it is the GPU that runs hot mine has a limit of 130C and the AMD processor of 95C.

 

As the other posters have suggested, run HWMonitor (or other monitoring utility). If your disk supports a SMART temperature sensor, see what it says. Also, download and run a HD test/scan utility. A lot of people here seem to use HDTune. The important thing is to get a baseline on the disk. If the disk is suddenly beginning to get hot, back up your data NOW!. (I assume you already made a disk recovery CD/DVD set).

Modern laptop hard disks run maybe 5W at startup/spin-up, but operate at less than 2W during routine operation (even if you're defragmenting the disk). But the hard disks very much follow the so-called "bathtub" curve for reliability, so if something is going to go wrong with it, within one month makes more sense than after 6 months.

If the hard disk utility that you run shows some of the SMART data going unhappy (unlikely, but possible), call HP, and arrange warranty service. My personal preference (if it's the hard disk and not something else) is to have them ship a hard disk, and you install yourself (that's if they don't insist on your sending the unit to a service center).


Good luck!

 

YOUR HARD DRIVE IS FINE.

It isn't overheating and you shouldn't base that on the fact that the left palm rest is getting hot, considering the hard drive isn't even located under the left palm rest.

The hard drive is located under your backspace and enter key on the top right area of the notebook when the screen is facing you.

The left side of the notebook when the screen is facing you contains the CPU, Chipset and, GPU if you have one. Those contribute to the palm rest getting warm which is normal in HPs.

 

BamAlmighty, I think you're not talking about the dv4t. It sounds like you're talking about the dv5t.

The hard drive is located under the left palm rest area in the dv4t.

hdt, it is not dust or something else. It must be either the hard drive itself or other componenets near the hard drive. The hard drive temperature is not really super high. Without my notebook cooler, it is usually 46~52 degrees Celsius. Of course, it is much warmer or hotter than most notebook hard drives. But, still... it is safe from data losses.

However, even 46 degrees Celsius is a painful temperature for typing. My left hand sweats... I think HP's choice of the material used for the palm rest area was stupid! I can't type for a long time! Considering it is just winter, it will be painful in the summer.

I contacted HP several times. They said the temperature range was normal (or okay). They also said they had never got any report about high hard drive temperatures. Of course, that is a lie... Or, the person I talked to was ignorant of this issue.