v2000z "overheating"?

I have a perturbing problem with my new v2000z. I was playing NFS: most Wanted (which runs fantastically at 800x600, medium graphics), and my computer just shut down. Now, I would have thought this were an overheating problem, especially since the computer was quite hot right then. So I left it off, elevated it, and turned on my ceiling fan full blast. But now, over an hour later, my room is frigid, as are all the surfaces on the computer,a nd it'll boot and run Windows tasks just fine. But after about 5 minutes of anything 3D, it shuts off again, despite being cool to the touch all over. So I ran MobileMeter and played some UT2004...MM reports temperatures of up to 90 degrees C! But this is impossible; the computer's fan is spewing cold air and the whole bottom fo the machine is quite cool. Then it'll drop back down to about 46 degrees for a while before randomly jolting up into the 70s or 80s again for a few seconds. This one has me puzzled...seems like either Windows is screwing up, or (hope-beyond-hope this isn't the case) the ACPI temp. monitor is broken. I'll just leave it off over night and try again in the morning and see if that helps, but any idea what it could be otherwise would be great.

 

Running games puts the CPU to the max all the time so here's where undervolting helps the most. If you haven't done so, undervolt!
Other than that, what about Prime95 or Super Pi? Try them to see if it is the CPU that is overheating.
It'll be harder if the GPU or the HDD overheat. I had problems with the HDD when burning several DVDs and then (or before that) moving large amounts of info through the Ethernet cable (15-20GB). Basically, my HDD (80Gb, 5400)would reach 55-56 degrees and the laptop turns off...

What BIOS version do you have?

 

Hmm, the undervolting seems to have helped - it got through SuperPI to 4 million and all of 3DMark05 without issue. Under SuperPI and 3DMark, temps never got above 65-68 degrees, and my idle temps dropped ~10 degrees from before. 1.2 volts @ 2.0GHz seems stable. I wouldn't have ever thought PowerNow!'s voltage management was that bad.

I'm using BIOS F.23 by the way.

 

I'd guess that the CPU heatsink is not making full contact with the CPU. They don't make it easy to get to the CPU anymore so... a call to HP support may be in order. The fact that the fan is "spewing cold air" makes me suspect this. The air should always be at least warm when the fan turns on.

 

If you're not worried about voiding the warranty, I'd pop open the notebook and add some artic silver or other liquid based thermal compound to replace whatever is being used now. This seems to help with overheating if at first you were using a "thermal pad" or something similiar. Also your heatsink may need to be reseated and cleaned up to make good contact.

 

Lowlymarine,

I am having a similar problem with my dv4000. Anything 3D will cause the computer to shutdown/reboot. I've seen temperature spikes up to 80 C. I have a Pentium M 2.13 GHz running at 1.356V.

I removed the CPU heatsink (very easy to get to in the dv4000), and apparently HP uses an indium foil pad in my model. This should theoretically be better than any thermal paste, including silver pastes. I'm going to experiment with a dab of silicone paste without removing the pad (which hopefully I can wipe off clean if I need to claim this under warranty) and see if the temps change.

I will also try undervolting if the thermal paste does not have a beneficial result.