Worth upgrading original HP Envy 14?

Hi all,

I have an original HP Envy 14 with 1600 x 900 display, i5 520m, 2 x 2GB 667MHz DDR3 ram, Mobility Radeon HD 5650, 500GB 5200RPM HD etc.

It has had some CPU overheating issues. The cores idle at around 60 degrees and get up to 80's with a few applications open. Any game playing, even old games gets them pretty quickly to 100 degrees and then it's not long until the laptop shuts down from overheating, while on a table with plenty of ventilation. I clean out the fans etc regularly and this doesn't help. I've even had a new and larger fan placed in over the CPU. The only thing that does help is undervolting the CPU. This isn't too much of an immediate problem as I rarely play games, however it does get physically hot on my lap which is annoying.

Should I be worried about the longevity of this laptop due to the overheating/running temps?

Would it be worthwhile to upgrade RAM and HD to a SSD? Would this increase day to day performance much? I use the laptop for work all day everyday but mostly just office and web apps, with a lot of windows open and sometimes photoshop, dreamweaver etc. If so what HD/RAM would you recommend? I'm currently in Vancouver (Canada) so prices may be a little cheaper here or in the states.

Thanks very much for any advice.

 

it sounds like the cooling system has malfunctioned. My Envy 14 1000 cto (in the US) still idles around 40 Celsius.

I'm not really sure what you can do to fix that yourself though.

Probably not worth it to upgrade the computer. If you do use a lot of stuff at the same time it couldn't hurt to get some extra ram (up to 8gb). you don't need 16 gigs unless you're running multiple virtual machines at the same time.


At the same time you may need to just get a new computer.

I mean if it's idling that high maybe there's something caught in the heat pipe, or maybe the heat sink and the like are not seated properly to the CPU, etc.

 

May try a repaste if see if it help with temps. Heat shouldn't be a reason for upgrade, but tats for me.

SSD is getting cheaper and it probably last long enough for your possible next laptop. It will boost all around performance, but it is hard to say is the money justified as it depends on individuals.

4GB is fine, you may want to monitor your mem usuage during ur most heavy workload.

 

check if mother board is damaged. it might be reporting wrong temps (since its cool on your lap).

 

How would I do this?

 

Do you have the slice battery? That tends to lower the efficiency of the cooling system when it's installed. It sounds like there's definitely something wrong if you're getting such high temps, repasting the CPU with a better and properly-applied thermal paste is worth trying.

Upgrading to an SSD and upgrading the RAM will definitely show improvements - RAM can be done on the cheap, and an SSD can be transferred into a new computer if you upgrade, not to mention the 160 GB Intel X-25M's that shipped with upgraded Envy 14's can get gotten fairly inexpensively these days and still offer some of the best performance and reliability for the Envy 14's SATA II connection.

 

No I don't have the slice battery. It sounds like repasting the CPU with a better and properly-applied thermal paste is my next step. Are there any useful guides on how to do this for the Envy 14?

So would the 160 GB Intel X-25M's be the best SSD to use? I think 160GB is the largest size these disks come in. What SSD would you recommend with a higher storage capacity?

For upgrading RAM, would any DDR3 RAM work?

Thanks everyone.

 

The intel 520 Series makes larger ssd's... I think those go up to 256.. Personally, I do think a repaste of the cpu would be worth a shot. I did that with my old desktop and it worked like a charm! And for the ram, just get ddr3 ram with the same clock speed. While higher clock ones will work, they'll have to underclock themselves. So, it would just be cheaper to pick up some ram of same speed.

 

since you are on 2x 2GB, i believe the envy is 2 sodimm so get any ddr3 2x4gb for ~$30.

If it is just a work machine 90-120gb should be enough, even 64 can stretch it but the price point is pretty close so I would suggest 120. Not sure if you can replace optical bay for 2nd HDD.

You may want to try the envy 14 owner thread here, they should know more about this machine.

 

Browsing or searching the original Envy 14 Owner's Lounge thread would probably be a good way to figure out what the original 256 GB option was - I think it was a Samsung. I feel like Intel also offered a 300 GB model of the X-25M, but I could be wrong. There are tons of other options (best off asking in the SSD subforum), but you'll get better price to performance if you stick with a SATA II interface, since it's becoming a bit outdated and thus cheaper, but that's what our Envy 14's have so a newer, faster SATA III drive would be limited by bandwidth.

The first page of the owner's lounge also has a link to the service manual which can guide you along disassembling the laptop until you reach the CPU, at which point the past you use will be a factor in figuring out how to apply properly, so you'll have to check out the manufacturer's instructions or a youtube video or something.

For RAM, I think the fastest your CPU can utilize is 1066 MHz DDR3. Anything faster can be installed, but it will run at that speed regardless of its own native speed. I'd recommend picking up a cheap 2x4 GB kit from a reliable manufacturer - it shouldn't cost too much.