compaq v2404us heating problem

I just got this laptop as a deal from compusa. It works great, however, there's a heating problem at the left side of the base surface. When i put my hands on the base for typing, I feel very hot on the left side. I guess this is the place where HDD is. Are there any other guys have the same feelings? is it normal or not? Thanks in advance.

 

Make sure that you are always using the laptop on a flat, solid surface (table), and also make sure that you are not blocking any air vents....other than that, I don't know what else to recommend.

 

Yes I get warmth from that area. But it does not get hot even after hours of usage.

 

Definitely, the laptop is placed on flat, solid surface. I'm just worndering whether it's a problem of laptop itself. Are there other guys have met same phenomenon?

 

Yes, It's kind of warm, But it still doesn't made me feel good. Are there other guys have same phenomenon?

 

The operating temperatures are often pretty high, especially if you don't have a Pentium M (do you?)... If its not crashing, are you sure it is really "overheating"?

 

Yes, it's not pentium M. it's a AMD turion(ML-30). Firstly i thought the heat is caused by HDD. Then I found the fan is just at the reverse side of the place that i feel warm. I just want to make sure it's not a defect. Thanks

 

The heat comes from the HDD. Check your temps with MobileMeter. My HDD is usually at 43-47C and I can feel the laptop being warm but not hot.

 

I added an additional 512mb of ram and it helped a bit on the temp since the HD was not being accessed frequently by windowsxp. some HD's are a bit cooler than others.

 

I have your exact same computer and got it at the same sale as you.

Right now my laptop is at my work and its in a room with the window open. So its is pretty cool in here. The HD temp is 42c, I've never seen it that low.

But at home!!!! It's more like 52-55c 24/7. Heck just at work a little while ago I was editing some files and doing a virus scan and my notebook got up to 50+c.

This notebook for sure has some sort of heat issue. But I';m not sure exactly what it is.

Idle my CPU is about 54c, on max load with Prime95 running its more like 69c. But the second prime95 stops, its back down to about 54c.

 

These numbers do seem kind of hot to me. This laptop has the Turion processor, correct? I have an HP zv6000 with the Athlon 64 3500+ processor, which is a desktop processor and it is much cooler than this. Using Mobilemeter my laptop idles at 31c and the hard drive (which is 4200rpm) idles at 35c. Upon heavy usage such as gaming or some such I have seen it get as high as 55c but that is all and it cools back down very rapidly.

 

So you also feels hot on the leftside of touchpad. I check the hdd temp is around 41C, however, another detector shows 51c
even in idle. i have to check this detector and disccuss later

 

The zv6000 cooling fan never shuts down. The fan on the Turion laptops only turns on when the CPU gets sufficiently hot (55C or 60C) and shuts down at 50C.

 

Yeah it's a little warm on the left hand side. But it's okay, it keeps me warm

Left hand side is the cpu+hdd, so.... :/


But yeah I duno wtf are up with our temps.

 

My zv6000 fan only turns on when it heats to about 50c. Other than that it is never on. I hardly ever hear the fan, only when I am playing a game.

 

With V2000z cpu fan starts only at 58c and stop at 50c. And we can not compare Mobile Turion vs Athlon64, and heatsink design is different as Turion is designed to work at higher temps.

 

I've read somewhere in notebookanalysis.com that the zv6000 has 2 fans. One is always on. and the 2nd fan only comes on when system becomes hot. I used to have a zv6130us but don't have it anymore, so I can't check this anymore.

Having one fan always on certainly helps the zv6000 series... so we can't compare it with v2000z which has 1 fan that only turns on when cpu is mid-high 50s.

I'm sure it will be a different story if the Turions have a fan that's always on.

 

BTW I just removed the two sticks of 256MB that I had in my system and replaced them with a single stick of 1024MB. Now my temps are way down, more like 41-51.

My guess is that the more memory means less caching to the hard disk. That and possibly that since one stick uses up fewer watts than two, that the overall heat generated by the system is less.

But I'm more inclined to believe that it I because of the less disk caching.

You may want to give this a try and see if it helps.

 

So my question is - does the extra heat produced by the Turions on the v2000z cause any problems in the laptop? Does it shorten the life of the laptop? Is it better to go with a Sempron if 64 bit is not needed? Or is sempron just as hot?

 

The Turion doesn't get that hot, and the only reason the temperature gets as high as it does is because HP has configured the BIOS to shut down the fan when the temperature gets below 50C (higher than that on some of the newer BIOS revisions). Pentium M's do the same thing. Sempron's will take a little longer to heat up but their fan behavior is the same. I'd stick with the Turion.

Having 1-2 GB of RAM is a good idea though. I have 2GB and turned off virtual memory. RAM is cheap.

 

DDR2 @ $75 is cheap, DDR @ $120 isnt so cheap.

 

Only part that gets hot in this series is HDD. CPU heat is not a problem at all.

BTW, I am just curious, did you finally bought a laptop? if so what is your pick?

 

Chinna - yea i bought a V4000t online a month ago - i LOVE it - Pen M, runs cool, 80 gb 5400 rpm, x600, 512 ram for only 1,044! - THE ONLY DOWNFALL is that it is simply too big for me! (im a student so this 6.5 lbs plus books and a purse is just too much!) So now im considering just going back to the v2000 - but i like Pen M's over Turions, b/c they have much less heat perform beautiflly. So im wondering if i should get a sempron if its cooler... (the v2000's with the Pen M dont have Prod Ports, card readers and is only intel 900)

 

I know, 6.5 pounds is too heavy for school use. If 64bit is not that important then why don't you look at ASUS 13.3" Pentium M laptop W6A? it is really light, very rigid, excellent screen, and very cool running. PC Club has ASUS W6A based laptop
http://www.pcclub.com/product_system_details.cfm?itemno=ENP42004

I personally saw it local PC Club store and it is really verygood.
It is only 4.3 pounds, 13.3 Wide Bright Screen, very regid chassis, very professional looking and running very cool too.

I think that model will be most suitable for a school use.

 

chinna - how is your v2000z - does it run very hot - are you overall happy with it?

 

No, it does not run hot at all. Fan never comes on when running on battery.

Only this that gets warmer is HDD, typicaly around 48C and if I kept playing MP3 for hour or so, it gets to 51-52C.

I have used Dell 600M, Toshiba P10-s429, and various dell Latitude series and to be frank this is is coolest running of all. But only thing that is warmer is HDD.

Ofcourse I have not used my V2000z in summer yet, so I have to see.

 

ok guys, im getting rid of this v4000t - i love it but its just too big... fedex is on its way and afterwards i'll get the v2000z with a warrenty 3 yr so it will back up my worries of any heat issues... I guess i'll have to lose the pen m/x600 in order to get a lighter notebook! sux that i got such a good deal on the v4000t it was only 1000! with a free printer! dang..... well hopefully when i get the turion one it wont be too hot and i'll do this underclocking thing.

 

just curious how this pen m heat compares to your v2000 Chinna - my mobil meter reads -top to bottom - first temp is 44 degree, second temp is 48 degrees, and HDD temp is 35 degrees... whats the top two temps for and how does it compare to yours/??

 

The V2000z bios setup/hardware is entirely different, it only gives CPU and HDD temp. Typically CPU temp hovers around 50-55C, and HDD 45-50C. Fan only comes on when temp hits 58C. But that is CPU temp, and bottom does not even feel warm. Only area that gets warm is left palm rest area because of HDD below.

It is the case with many small laptops, and especially true to all DV1000/L2000/V2000/V2000z series.

BTW do not think of getting 12-cell battery, it add 0.7 pounds weight and making it 6.1 pound laptop. And even 0.5 pound feel lot heavier in laptops. I envy my brothers Averatec 3250 which is only 4.2 pounds.

If you want P-M only and do not want to spend too much, then DV1000 is also a good choice, it is not that expensive and feels more upscale and solid than V2000/L2000 series.