dv2000z Heating Woes

I purchased the dv2000z last summer (and wrote the review for it), and I must say that so far the experience has been slightly underwhelming. The battery has a lacklustre life span, for one. And then lately I've been plagued by the problem of having my CPU run at 800 mhz per core, even when I set the AMD controller to the higher settings.

Well, I've just recently discovered with the help of RightMark CPU Clock that the reason for that was because whenever the laptop ran at the maximum clock speed of 1600 mhz per core and had to run a demanding task (like recompiling a DVD or running Hearts of Iron 2), its temperature would quickly soar to around 90 degrees C. To prevent it reaching the meltdown level of 100, the CPU apparently undervolts itself into the 800 mhz mode until it cools down into the lower 80s. Once there, it returns to 1600, and thus runs its little carousel over and over.

Here's a picture of the devilish cycle: . For those not in the know, the third row from the top is the most relevant. The 8.0 refers to the clock speed maximum (1600 per core; when it's 800, it is at 4, and the yellow bars are all the way down.) The 1.075 refers to the voltage. The fact that the bars on both measures are all the way up (or almost all the way up for the voltage) means that the CPU is running at maximum capacity, obviously. The little line graph to the right shows graphically the cycle. When both lines reach the top, it's at 1600 mhz; when they drop, the CPU is taking cooling measures.

So, I'm just wondering if anyone could offer me suggestions on how to cool the lappy down enough to make it run constantly at 1600 mhz without reaching exorbitant temperatures. I'm aware there's a "cooling" guide to be found here. I also noticed, however, that within that guide someone says that a CPU under duress will have the same temperature regardless of whether it has a cooling pad. Is this true? I would certainly like to know such things before I blow ~$30 on a fancy apparatus that will be as useful to me as teeth to an anus.

Thanks in advance, ya'll.

 

I'd guess that the heatsink was not installed correctly at the factory, assuming you've checked the usual things like a blocked fan intake. That's happened before. There's no way that CPU should hit 90C under normal environmental conditions. Unfortunately, HP has made it extremely difficult to get to the heatsink so unless you're very comfortable with notebook repairs you'll need HP to deal with it.

 

Yeah, I'm still under warranty so at least I'm going to get a free diagnosis of it. As far as the fan is concerned, I can't really do anything with it. The notebook chassis doesn't give you any access to it from outside, and if I crack it open, my warranty goes flying out the window.

 

By the way, could this also be the reason for my battery having such a small lifespan? Does the temperature (and presumably efficiency) of the CPU affect the battery?

 

Well, if the processor clocks back to the full 1.6 GHz when it cools down to the low 80's, then it will definatly affect battery life. If your under warranty, the best start to getting it fixed, will be to give HP a call, and ask them to take it in. It is highly likely that the heatsink has not been mounted properly, like brianstretch has said.

 

One final question:

Since I'm new to sending stuff in for reparations, what's the standard way of going about it? Will they be going into my hard drive? Should I back up all of my data? Should I erase all of it? I presume that at least I should back up and securely erase all my private information, but what about general stuff like software and music?

 

Definately backup and then delete any personal information including music, software etc... They usually put the system back to factory state ater service. You could put the system back to factory state using the restore disc but since you have overheating issues...it might not be a good idea.

 

So backup and full format, then? Ay, how I hate reinstalling Windows over and over.