My L2000 Special Edition is dying

I started to have problems with it last week. This was right after upgrading from Ubuntu Hardy to Intrepid. It started to hang during use. At first I thought it was related to the upgrade so I tried to downgrade and/or switch to a 32 bit version, but I found that I could not even get through the install w/out problems - the problems being a solid hang. Some times during the hang, I noticed that the caps lock key was flashing. Is there some sort of internal diagnostic that uses that to signal something?

I tried running memory test that comes with the Ubuntu distro (memtest86) and the machine would just shut down after a minute or two. Then I realized that the fan was not running.. I pulled the bottom of the laptop off (Lots of tiny screws!) and pulled a small family of dust bunnies out of the fan.

The fan now runs, but the laptop still hangs. It does run long enough to get a complete Ubuntu install working and I can still boot to the original XP installation. I find that XP also hangs.

I have installed a temperature monitor (in Linux) that reports CPU temperature obtained via ACPI calls. It normally runs about 32° C and jumps right up to 70 or 80° C when there is processor activity. That makes me wonder if the thermal path between the core and heat sink is broken. It seems to climb awfully fast.

I also wonder if the processor has been damaged by running too hot for too long.

I did look for a way to remove the heat sink while I had the case open, but there were no obvious screws holding it down.

Is there hope for this laptop or is it time to start harvesting parts? (If that's the case, I'm actually quite fortunate because it runs long enough for me to copy files off of it.)

I appreciate any suggestions.

thanks,
hank

 

Hi Hank

I'd suggest a few things:

1) Copy all your critical data out first. This is very important, don't worry about the CPU first.

2) Try installing the same CPU temperature monitor on another laptop with similar specs if possible. Then see if it climbs from 32 to 70 or 80 degrees as well. If it does, then maybe it is not your laptop but the monitoring software that is the problem.

3) I'd say also try to take the laptop apart to check the CPU and its connections - but that is probably very risky unless you know exactly what you're doing.

Hope this helps.

 

Download the service guide from hp.com. Click the Manuals link on the left-hand side of the downloads page for your notebook to find it. That will walk you through how to remove the heatsink. Clean off the old thermal compound with Arcticlean and replace it with Arctic Silver 5. That, combined with dust bunny eradication, should help your temp readings.

I'd run Memtest again and see if it still crashes or finds errors. If not, the next thing to test would be the HD, probably using the HD test tool in the BIOS unless you happen to have a copy of SpinRite. If Memtest does find errors try testing each SODIMM individually.

The good news is that you have an ATI chipset that doesn't cook nearly as easily as NVIDIA's did.

 

Thanks for the tips Gary and Brian.

Yes, saving data was my first priority and task and that was done before I posted.

I have downloaded the service manual from HP and found the required directions.

many thanks,
hank.

 

Guys - Thanks!

I had suspected a problem between the CPU and heat sink, you but your suggestion to proceed and pointer to the manual got me going on this.

I got some Arctic Silver 5 and a decent precision screwdriver and did the job. I found the screws loose on the heat sink and there was a piece of foil between the heat sink/thermal compound and the CPU itself. The foil and top of the CPU were marked and - I'm now certain - interfering with heat transfer. I peeled the foil off, cleaned both surfaces with acetone and applied a tiny drop of Arctic Silver spread with a straight edge.

The processor seems to be holding steady at 52°. Pumping it up to 100% (encoding 2 hours of audio - takes almost 2 minutes) pumps it up to 60°.

Also... I can't hear the fan any more. It's running really slow. I don't ever recall it being this quiet. I wonder if it ever had good contact.

Time will tell - I need to see if it stays up. But I'm optimistic that the problem is resolved.

many thanks,
hank

 

I am having the same problem. If it sits still with no activity from me or if it does anything too strenuous, it hangs and the screen turns white. Left a message ( uid: abiz) on 31Mar08 at the AMD forum here, http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=34&threadid=93673 , but didn't get enlightened response.

I know it is a temp issue as I check the temps using Speedfan and see a sharp spike before it hangs. I took it apart last March and cleaned a big dust bunny out of the fan, but that didn't stop it fully so I dropped the issue and got a tx2000z. Unfortunately, that just got stolen so I'm wrestling with the *temp*ermental SE L2000 again.