Scary Problem with Compaq v2000 - Shuts Off Abrupt

Serious problem with this rather good laptop...

Bought a Compaq v2030US 2 days ago.
1.4Ghz Centrino, 512MB RAM, 60GB HDD, Windows XP Home, etc

When I'm playing a game Doom3 (barely playable), Need for Speed Underground 2 or Halo, whichever, suddenly, the laptop just "shuts off". It doesn't power cycle, shut down or hibernate or standby - it simply dies - like the power went off and the laptop went dead.

Although erratic, this is reproducible, happens each time I play any game. Can happen during a race, or when I click on a 'Continute' button, or when I press the Tab key to bring up a map - basically a non-deterministic trigger, but it happens without fail - can happen 30 seconds into the game, 5 minutes into a game, whenever. But I've never gone more than 5 minutes into a game because the machine usually dies before that.

Point to Note: When I press the power button after the 'death', the laptop boots nicely and Windows starts. Then I notice that the screen resolution is somehow always changed to the resolution that the game probably used (like 800X600). By default the laptop uses 1280X768.

I distinctly think this has something to do with the slow/glitchy "Intel Extreme Graphics 2" or it may be because just My piece is defective.

Please help me out with this, I need to know if this can be fixed, or if I should exchange the piece or what. The laptop is really sweet, trust me, a good buy guys, but this glitch scares the hell out of me. Thanks guys.

-Ajay

 

First off, I'm amazed that the integrated graphics will even open Doom III. It's not even close to good for gaming, I wonder why you even bother. Aside from updating drivers for your video card, I'm not sure there's much to be done. Have you ruled out a possible heat issue? What you describe is symptomatic of an over heating episode.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

I had the same prob with HP ze1230. With 1230 overheating GPU would lock the system whereasoverheating CPU would shut it down without warning like in your case. This porblem persisted for a couple of years and did not evolve in anything major (and occured once every few days).

It appears that you have a "critical temperature" (80oC n th 1230 case) setup for your CPU and once CPU hits it, system kills the power in the instant to save the CPU. But it could be a new problem too.

 

The problem is OVERHEATING of the CPU. (not graphics)
I would set my V2000 on the couch (blocking the fan intake) and after a few minutes of just sitting there the temp would climb to 80 degrees celsius and then it would shut off.
I fixed it by applying arctic silver to the cpu (which is no easy task, because you have to take apart almost the entere notebook to get to the cpu)...
Problem is HP/Compaq has weak cooling in place on the unit with no thermal compound....once i added the arctic silver compound, my CPU temp wouldnt rise to 80 degrees anymore, and therefore my system doesnt abruptly shutdown anymore.
-Scott

 

I have the heating problem too. The notebook would shut off during virus scan or while watching dvd. I contacted HP support and they are taking it back for repair.

-Prashant

 

It has to be the heat. This laptop is in no way shape or form designed to play games like Doom 3, why are you even trying? You should've bought a different laptop if you wanted to play these games.

 

If he wants to play doom3, leave him alone! maybe he doesnt have a desktop or something..

 

NO thermal compound?! That had to have been a screwup by whoever assembled it, there's no way HP would have designed it that way. Though blocking the intake vent is Bad no matter how well the notebook is put together...

But yes, once in a while HP does mess up and applying Arctic Silver 5 can do wonders. This is easy with the zv5000 and R3000 series notebooks but a royal pain on just about anything else.

So long as you don't block the air intake Doom3 should run just fine, if a little slow.

 

its barley playable with my 200M, I cant imagine with the extreme crapics 2!!

 

Ah, I wasn't paying attention. I was thinking V2000z when his message clearly says V2000 Centrino. Yeah, Doom3 must be horrid on that thing. I'm surprised it doesn't error on start with "Are you kidding me?!"

 

haha, if only!