<---- template headericclude ----->
Death of a Laptop
FedoraForum.org - Fedora Support Forums and Community

View Poll Results: Whats a guy to do?

Voters
10. You may not vote on this poll
  • Hang my head, curse the darkness, and walk away sans laptop -- kicking rocks and slinging snot.

    2 20.00%
  • Re-scale my needs, and look for the blue light special at Walmart.

    1 10.00%
  • Order the custom Toshiba, and hope the rapture comes before the bill does.

    4 40.00%
  • Nuke the VISA card into a smoking hole with the Samsung series 9

    4 40.00%
  • Wring my hands untill the smoke alarm pronounces the HP clinically dead.

    3 30.00%
Multiple Choice Poll.
Page 1 of 9 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 123
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Paris, TX
    Posts
    24,194
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Question Death of a Laptop

    Evening, guys.

    This one is a bit of a bummer. Long story short, I'm more than a little concerned about the health and wellbeing, and the furture, of my personal laptop. And, depending on what I learn about that, what are your opinions regarding the replacement I am considering.

    SITUATION/411:
    In a word, overheating.

    At idle, I'm seeing 130~170F on both cores of the CPU, and 140~180+ on the GPU. Under load, you could fry eggs on the chips, and the fan goes totally turbo.

    SIZE-UP:
    Make & Model= HP dv9904ca (factory refurb)
    CPU= AMD Turion9tm0 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60
    HDD= (2) 160 gigabyte Samsung SATA drives
    RAM= 3 (2.9) GiB
    NIC= MCP67 nVidia
    Wireless= BCM4321
    Video= GeForce 7150M
    Display= Seiko/Epson 1440x900
    Operating system version= Multiple versions of Linux
    Running Kernel=

    MITIGATING FACTORS:
    It runs about 20% hotter on the factory installed Vista (32 bit) than it does on F11~F14 64 bit, or MINT-10 64 bit.
    With either choice, when shutting down or restarting, it's hot enough that it frequently needs to set for between five and ten minutes before it will restart.

    This particular model, along with some dv6 and dell models ( with that video chip) have a rather distressing history of chip failure by way of the chips getting hot enough to lift away from the motherboard.

    Videos of the "repair" procedure are available on youtube. Personally, I don't consider a "reflow" to be a fix. It restores temporary function, true ... but the original problem persists unmitigated. After studying the manuals, and a cursory look at the issue, I suspect this is a plain old design flaw. Too much chip heat, a single inadequate heat pipe to transfer the thermal energy to an inadequate sink/radiator, and not enough airflow over the cooling fins.

    INITIAL OPERATIONS PLAN:
    1) Disassemble the laptop and re-compound the heatsinks. (Just in case this is contributing to the issue.)
    2) Assess any possible "home remedies" which might work to assist heat transfer or dissipation.
    3) Research replacements


    NEEDED RESOURCES:
    The considered opinions and experience of you guys.
    Possible links to solutions I have not found yet.


    QTBAs:
    1) Does anyone else have similar experiences with this series of HP laptops?
    2) Are these kinds of temperatures something people and machines just accept as a matter of normalcy?
    3) Does anyone know of any particular show-stoppers in the Sony Vaio VPCF1390X CTO series?


    That, my friends, is the conundrum of the day.

    Thanks for the help!



    .

  2. #2
    Evil_Bert is offline Retired Again - Administrator
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    .
    Posts
    3,725
    Mentioned
    3 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    I regularly re-apply compound to my 'heatsinked' chips in desktops - I aim for annually, but it often slips right. Despite the advertising that compound doesn't degrade, I usually get a few percent temp reduction after the burn in period (the corresponding temperature rise afterwards is too slow to notice). Arctic Cooling MX-2 or MX-3 seem to be the latest and greatest - I used MX-2 for the last lot.

    I suppose it's too obvious to ask, but the fans and associated airways are squeaky clean?

    Never had to do it myself, but I know a Sysadmin who used to have to "re-flow" BGA connections quite a lot, so that solution might help. As seems to be the case here, it was aimed at improving connection reliability that was affected by heat. This Sysadmin used a modest weight on top of the chip while overclocking to generate enough heat - no heat gun.

    Have you tried one of those laptop cooling pads with built-in fans? I used to stick extra high rubber stoppers under my laptops to raise them and improve airflow.

    Good luck.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Paris, TX
    Posts
    24,194
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    As clean as I can get them with a toothpick, and 120psi air nozzle. (The toothpick holds the fan blades while blowing out the system.) I've mounted a lot taller rubber feet in the rear to increase airflow. I'm looking at a cooler w/3 fans (moveable). But I wonder if I'm just postponing the inevitable.

  4. #4
    Evil_Bert is offline Retired Again - Administrator
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    .
    Posts
    3,725
    Mentioned
    3 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan
    But I wonder if I'm just postponing the inevitable.
    I couldn't say, as I don't have experience with those models. But I have one laptop that's about to turn 10 years old in September - it's been lovingly looked after, but I suppose didn't really run that hot in the first place.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Paris, TX
    Posts
    24,194
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    My little business box dv4217cl has been that way. Up until F15 and Gnome 3, it was about bulletproof. But it's not a high-end performer, either. Photo and graphics work isn't it's forte.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    57
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    Just had a particularly nasty heat issue in a Dell. There was a swath of dust like a sheet of felt. Try blowing air against the normal flow and see if you can knock anything loose.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Paris, TX
    Posts
    24,194
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    Thanks for the suggestion! I already do that, and at those kinds of pressure/flow rates, there's not much of any kind of dust or lint or critter hair left behind.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Paris, TX
    Posts
    24,194
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    Hmmmm.

    *Shameless bump!*

    Once again:

    QTBAs:
    1) Does anyone else have similar experiences with this series of HP laptops?
    2) Are these kinds of temperatures something people and machines just accept as a matter of normalcy?
    3) Does anyone know of any particular show-stoppers in the Sony Vaio VPCF1390X CTO series?

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Colton, NY; Junction of Heaven & Earth (also Routes 56 & 68).
    Age
    78
    Posts
    24,889
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    Please read the Posting Rules about bumping threads. You may bump only after 24 hours and if you list the details on what you've done to attempt to solve the problem. I know that you're "new" to the Forum and to Fedora, so I'm being a bit gentle here......oh wait.....never mind!!!!
    Linux & Beer - That TOTALLY Computes!
    Registered Linux User #362651


    Don't use any of my solutions on working computers or near small children.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Tallahassee, FL
    Posts
    133
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    Dan --

    First, sorry I didn't read this thread earlier, I was busy completely dorking a Dell PE2650 server; it went from "working fine, running CentOS 5.6" to "won't even complete POST and boot"; all I had to do was attempt to disable the DRAC port, using the on-screen menu during POST. ...but, that's another story for another thread.

    I've done some preliminary work on a similar laptop (a DV6, I think...) and have read/watched the 'reflow' fixes...one in particular, if you can locate it, shows a guy that added a big slab of copper sheeting to the already-present cooling apparatus in the laptop... and reports that the GPU (which, by all accounts, is the real problem child) runs 15C or so cooler than before his modification. I'd happily point you to the page and/or tell you how I fared with the repair/modification myself, but the client found a new laptop on sale at some big box store while I was still assessing/evaluating the repair to their HP laptop. I needn't mention that, especially in this economy, they weren't too willing to spend a couple hundred dollars to pay for my labor to perform the repair, after having just spent $600 or so to replace the failed/failing laptop.

    I would suggest that you try some homebrew modification to the cooling architecture in there, as it certainly cannot hurt.... but, in the meantime, it might be a good time/chance/excuse to upgrade that laptop.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Paris, TX
    Posts
    24,194
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Colton, NY; Junction of Heaven & Earth (also Routes 56 & 68).
    Age
    78
    Posts
    24,889
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    Oh, and did you see this? Might have some bearing http://higleyflow.com/hp.html
    Linux & Beer - That TOTALLY Computes!
    Registered Linux User #362651


    Don't use any of my solutions on working computers or near small children.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Paris, TX
    Posts
    24,194
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    Quote Originally Posted by briand
    ... I needn't mention that, especially in this economy, they weren't too willing to spend a couple hundred dollars to pay for my labor to perform the repair, after having just spent $600 or so to replace the failed/failing laptop.

    I would suggest that you try some homebrew modification to the cooling architecture in there, as it certainly cannot hurt.... but, in the meantime, it might be a good time/chance/excuse to upgrade that laptop.
    That's kind of the road I was headed down myself. I really don't want to toss good money after bad.

    Which also applies perchance the Sony turns out to be an equally obnoxious offender. Thence I would gnash teeth, rend clothing, beat inanimate objects and shout unprintable epitaphs.

  14. #14
    PabloTwo's Avatar
    PabloTwo is offline "Fedora User" T-Shirt Winner
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Seville, FL
    Posts
    8,903
    Mentioned
    39 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan
    ....a single inadequate heat pipe...
    If that heat pipe has "sprung a leak" and lost it's internal "mojo", it's now pretty much totally useless, which could account for the overly high temperatures. I have no idea how you would go about testing that though.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    London Postbox (the red one)
    Age
    58
    Posts
    3,868
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Re: A bit of a quandry:

    Blowing air will not clean it properly, hair melts and sticks etc..
    Check the fan properly, plastic fans get brittle with heat and in time and tend to lose fins etc, also just because it sounds like its spinning like mad, doesnt mean it is, and may be rattling around and running at slower speed.

    Amds tend to this on Laptops.......

Page 1 of 9 123 ... LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. The death of a browser
    By JN4OldSchool in forum Wibble
    Replies: 74
    Last Post: 30th December 2007, 09:44 PM
  2. Laptop Death Rattle
    By YellowWeasel in forum Using Fedora
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 16th August 2007, 02:40 PM
  3. DOSBox = DEATH!!!
    By byroniac in forum Using Fedora
    Replies: 19
    Last Post: 24th June 2006, 05:21 PM
  4. Mplayer is going to be the death of me
    By carlwill in forum Using Fedora
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 13th November 2004, 05:08 PM
  5. Smiley of Death
    By Álvaro Reguly in forum Security and Privacy
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 28th August 2004, 09:53 PM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
[[template footer(Guest)]]