The "heating" issue on the new Pavillion HPs

Ok, I'd like an honest opinion from people since I've been hearing from some that the heating issue on the new HP Pavilion Models is over-exaggeration and others have had bad stories about it.

How bad really is this heating issue?

I've had a dv2000 HP Pavilion and I fell on a faulty Hard Drive so the left palm rest area got very very warm, to the point that the laptop would shut itself down from the failsafe mechanism in the BIOS due to the heat produced. Since then, I've been using a combination of lifting the back of the laptop, a notebook cooler and an icepack on the left palm rest every now and then to cool it lol(too cheap to bother replacing the HDD). Note that I already undervolted the CPU to alleviate excess heat.

So is this heating issue nearly as bad as I seem to think it is? It can't be worse than what I just described lol XD but is it anything bad or is just annoying for most people? Maybe it's also a difference between the dv5t and dv5z models(or dv7 or dv4 whatever >_>)?

 

You said you have a faulty hdd... i don't think anyone is having problems as bad as that. No shutdowns due to overheats so far I think... really it's only possibly if the vents were blocked and heat was collecting, like on a bed.

 

im pretty sure the computer would only turn off if the CPU temp goes over because the hard drive doesn't have such access to turning off the power.

 

Well obviously I know it can't be as bad as that, hence the "it can't be worse than what I just described lol XD" sentence from my previous post lol

Of course I'm not expecting anything nearly as story, but I mostly gave that to compare(and perhaps dull down some people who seem to be making this issue so big lol XD).

But it seems you say it's possible that the laptop could shutdown due to the failsafe if the fan is blocked, which means the temperature must be relatively high already(seeing as the fan removes roughly 10 degrees or so from the core temperature from my personal experience).

Well seeing as they're all squeezed into one tight space in my case(I had a 14.1" laptop), I'm guessing the heat produced by the HDD would eventually come affect the core. I mean, only the left palm rest was getting hot and the HDD is located there.

 

Yeah, I used to have the same computer with the same problem as you Forever Melody. I now have a dell studio, and I can leave it on all night on a bed without any really high temps or anything.

 

I have a DV5T with a 9600M GT DDR2 video card along with an Intel P7350 (2.0Ghz) CPU.

Currently I have been surfing on this computer with Aero enabled (not that is matters much) in 22c ambient temperature on a table and the laptop isn't what I would even consider warm. I suppose you would have to consider it warm, but it is barely warm.

I gamed for about 2 hours last night, and it also didn't get very warm on the casing. The exhaust air did get warm, but that is to be expected with aprox 80 watts of heat being dissipated.

So far, from my experience, the statements made on these forums have been grossly over exaggerated or I just am lucky with mine.

To put matters into perspective. My Acer 14.1" 3680 ran about the same temperature and that had a Celeron 530 (1.73, single core) and GMA 950 for graphics. Ran flawless for the last 1.5 years I have had it and is now being used by my mother.

 

Forever Melody,
The heating issue only depends on what you do with your pc. I have an Intel T9400 (2.53 Ghz) and Nvidia 9600m GT. I use my computer for two things...work-related and multimedia-related things...

The first thing I did was make sure the "always on" option for the fan was enabled in the BIOS. That keeps the fan on all the time but at a very low and quiet speed.

When surfing the internet and doing work on Microsoft Office Word, the only thing that gets warm is the left side of the palm rest due to the hard drive, but barely warm. Everything else stays pretty cool.

When playing games, the system gets pretty warm especially the left palm rest. To fix that, I bought a notebook cooler and it has worked quite well.

 

QFT, i've been trying to dispel the exaggerations for last week or so.

 

Then maybe you should take a look at my temps. Though I live in Vietnam so err... Normal temperature is like 30C (Yeah it's alot hotter than what you guys live in, talk about hell). Even so trolling around here for a while I feel like my temps are way too high, because I do use a cooling pad (blows upwards) which itself lifts the computer up 10cm. The No 1 is idle and No 2 is light gaming Crysis (I just started it for taking temps, anyway if I play for an hour the GPU will be almost 90 and HDD can reach about 51). Should it really be this hot? I just bought the computer for a month, I haven't run into something bajor but err... I dunno those numbers scares me seriously.

EDIT: Something the pics don't show is that my CPU's are P8600.

 

One thing I hate about this is where they put the wifi card. They put it right under the hard drive. On top of that they put both under the left palm rest. Ridiculous decision.

But great notebook over all. Top notch quality in my opinion.

 

With 30* ambient temp, those readings you posted are reasonable. The GPU can easily take 90*C during gaming; the HDD should preferably stay below 45 during idle but 51 during gaming is fine. I've had a few HPs so far and they all turn off when the HDD goes beyond 56-57*C so if you get something like 54-55*C, save your work. RAM can help with HDD temp. I used to turn off virtual memory in XP with 1.5 GB of RAM, which reduces the temperature; not sure for Vista, though - at least 3gb I guess.
About the CPU, what is the notebook model? Anything above 50 for idle is unacceptable, to my mind.

 

Eek. I forgot xD. It's a DV5T. As I read somewhere, shouldn't the Penryn series run much cooler?

 

Ok so it's really mostly either an exaggeration on some people's part or it's the few unlucky ones who complain really loud lol XD(ah well, they're always the oes who talk the loudest anyways ).

Is there any difference between the dv5t and dv5z models? Although I've heard stories from both notebooks, I've also seemingly been hearing that the AMD cores are heating up a lot, even for simple tasks.

 

Well, ambient temperature does play a huge role with conventional cooling. If ambient temperatures at 8c higher, the best case scenario is running 8c hotter on all the components, the worse case scenario is several more than 8c.

But, regardless, I think what I am trying to dispell is that the temperature of the silicon itself, and the casing are two different things. Does the 9600M GT get hot? Of course it does. If you were to touch the chip (You can't for those who are not technically inclined) it would be hot. But you are not touching the chip, much less the inside of it where the thermal diode would sit. But keep in mind this is during gaming. If you were to touch it idle, it would merely be warm to the touch.

The casing it a different matter entirely. The only part that becomes noticably higher than room temperature is to the left of the touch pad, where the Hard Drive sits. Even the top side in the uppper left doesn't get warm to the touch, only where that hard drive is and the underside where the exhaust is coming out.

The only design mistake/compromise that I have seen with the DV5T is that the intake of air is on the bottom. Now, cool air sinks, warm air rises, right? The only problem is that the space to grab the air is so small that it is restricted and would need a fan with a lot of static pressure, otherwise fan performance is reduced and thus dissipating the heat is reduced.

 

Let me add to the 'Heating issue' I too have a HP Pavillion dv 2000 (dv2132ea) and I have already lost one hard drive due to overheating................ I have replaced it and STILL experiencing up to 60 degrees.....last hot touch pad, hair dryers cold air into the vents, almost no software installed, raised from table, air conditioning on in room strong, tried it all and still rocking up to meltdown.....
Use HDD temperature monitor which is useful, but frankly I cant see any solution now............My IT manager in my company has even cleaned fans, configured for best use etc buit to no avail .Forever Melody you are not alone.........I will def look to replace as soon as funds allow. Deeply disappointed with product and my wife wants her hairdryer back....................

 

^^ Use a notebook cooler.

Those temps, especially ACPI + CPU are too high; way too high imo but I don't know if this is normal for the dv5t or not (likely could be). What cooler are you using? (Get a better cooler perhaps - Zalman, Cryo, etc., or new thermal paste).

 

My dv4z stays pretty cool except for the area under the left palm rest. As someone said, I guess that's where the WiFi and HDD are both located. It gets a little uncomfortable on my leg after about 15-30 minutes. I have the standard G Wi-Fi and a factory-installed 250 GB HDD.

It's definitely not as bad as other laptops I've used (early MacBook Pro, HP nc8430) but it's annoying nonetheless. Also, the fan is always on and noticeably loud so I'm guessing the AMD Puma setup naturally runs hot.

 

If you read my post those are temps with a notebook cooler . so anyone else thinks my CPU is too hot? just so I know what I am saying if I were to talk to the service guys .

 

Well for one thing you haven't mentioned what cooler you are using. Pretty much the only coolers that will reasonably lower temps for dv5t are coolpal, zalman, and cryo. Also are you alligning the cooler correctly with laptop, as you may have read, the back vent is most important, and with zalman you have to move the comp down about 3 inches.

Also, undervolting reduces temps more then cooler, I lowered by temps by about 10C with just undervolting.

Lastly, Crysis will push your comp to upper heating limits, its probably if not the most taxing game, then def top 5 on the system, and to expect temps under 80 for cpu, 90 for gpu, and under ~52 HDD is unresonable. That being said, your ss shows that you are probably higher by like 5C of what you should be, and that could be due to vent blockage by cooler, or you can undervolt.

 

I have a dv5z with the Turion ZM-80 processor. On high performance mode, IM, web browsing, and music can push the core temps to 60-62 degrees, but the same tasks will keep it in the low 50s on power saver. I haven't undervolted (RMclock doesn't work for this series) but this is with the butt of my computer raised about 4 centimeters by a hardbound book. The left palmrest is noticably warm, but not uncomfortable.

Games will really push it and make even the keyboard very warm to the touch, but I have never had heat-related shutdowns or crashes.

 

Ah well true, that does play a role, but I'm sure there must be a line to be drawn somewhere. In the case of my faulty hardware, the ambient temperature was roughly 10 degrees celsius(we were trying to be cheap and not turn on heating that winter lol XD) and the laptop was still warm enough to unfreeze my hands after them being exposed at -40 and have enough juice to crash the computer after XD

Anyways, I'll probably try and keep the room temperatures as low as that for my future laptops.

Well my inquiry was mostly about the casing seeing as if the casing gets noticeably/annoyingly warm, then the hardware under it must be considerably hot in order to produce that amount of heat. My main concern is if the heat produced by the dv5 models become problematic. Maybe not as extreme as my laptop, but as in they reduce performance or something of the like.

I've always wondered about the design advantage of the positioning of the fan, if it was better to have it on the side or in the back actually lol

 

My dv5z idles at 58C with a Bytecc cooler. (Ambient temp is 82F, about 27C.)

I definitely think it's running too hot but I haven't found a way to undervolt it in Linux yet. When I get a big compile job going it can hit 80C easily. The critical shutdown temperature for these AMD processors is 100C. It makes me worry a bit, yes. So far no heat-related crashes though.

 

Since they don't have much variety for coolers I got some no name with 3 fans which blows upwards (they don't have those that you guys reccomend here in Vietnam). Though yesterday I found a guy who sells a Coolermaster which covers almost the same area as the NC-2000 but it is a cooler that sucks air downwards, should I get that instead? My desktop CPU never goes beyond 50 so errr... I idle temp at 60 kind of freaks me out. And nothing is blocking the vents since it is lifted 10 cm above the table. (I did read Chang's post throughly afterall (rep's flying xD).

About the underclocking having the same CPU and model as Chang99 (DV5T, P8600) had I could not even undervolt to 1.000 without BSOD, have I done something seriously wrong? He could do 0.9625 and I cant even drop it to 1.000v, can't be that much difference can it?

EDIT : I just realized I own the Coolermaster Notepal (I bought 2 but after testing the Notepal it was less effective than the no name so I put it away to almost forget it), still no difference with it. Any other solution guys?

 

Temps on my Dell Studio on a soft surface (bed) for a couple hours doing web surfing/media player/homework is at 109 degrees F with 80 F ambient temperatures. NO cooler.

 

My dv7t with a P8600 processor idles around 30 C (86 F) and it peaks at about 60 C (140 F) after playing games for awhile- one core gets up to about 64 and the other to about 58 C.

I have an NC2000 cooler and the ambient temp is about 75 F.

 

Looks like the ambient temp plays a big role. Looking at mine and Highlandsun our temps are pretty much similar (even though we don't have same CPU's or manufacturer), while my ambient temp might be hotter (curse the Vietnamese noon's and afternoon times, really killes ya). So either both have defective CPU's or the hot weather is a killer .

 

Yeah, the hot weather definitely plays a part. Now that we're headed into autumn/winter I'm not going to worry as much...

 

Gents,
Anyone have or know of any issues besides the norm on the dv51160us?
I am looking into getting this pc. Currently i have a dv6324us and the wireless card went downt he drain or stopped working.


http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=307431

 

Ambient temperature does play a significant role in the temperatures of the notebook, therefore it would be useful for people who post their temps to also mention the ambient temperatures at which they measure them. Something that might seem horrendously warm for some, might be explained that the person who measured them was in a country +10 degrees warmer than yours lol

Maybe those who are making a big fuss happen to have warmer ambient temperatures so their temps seem higher.

 

Check to see if you can pull the fans out and turn them around to blow air instead of suck air. On most coolers this is relatively trivial. If you can do that then you might want to try that coolermaster.

The idle temps that a lot of people have here would certainly bother me enough to return the product for a refund. I guess I got lucky that way. My only issue is with that left palmrest area that seems to be a design issue for all HPs. Why they couldn't put the Wifi-card someplace else is beyond me, but I have tried 2 different HDs in the primary slot and both run 6c hotter than my secondary drive does because of that Wifi-card. Turn off Wifi and the temp slowly drops.

Some people are running dangerously close to HDD temp shutdowns. I can't remember but I think WD drives start acting goofy in the high 50's, and Seagate drives in the mid 50's. Most HPs use WD drives as far as I can tell.

 

I work for a Laptop Repair company and have seen a lot of motherboards damaged because of heating issues. Certain makers of Laptops design the boards to be fine as long as the fan and the cooling unit is perfectly clean, but as soon as dust contaminates the coolers both the airflow and the heat conductivity of the cooler surface deteriorate. Make sure the maker of your laptop dimensions the cooling aspects of your Laptop generously.

 

okee here's th3e funny thing...

i got a DV7 with Dual harddrives..

me left palmwrest indeed gets warm.. so i opened it up to have a look ... and you knwo what i saw... both of my harddrives are on the right from the touchpad... and on the left there a 2 of those green chips things.. with plastic folie of it.. does someone know what this is??

Jeremy

 

I suspect that's what happened to my Sony Vaio...


No problems with my dv5, I just keep the vents clear, raise it up on dvd covers when gaming (until I get a proper cooler) and it's fine.