3DNN

I am trying to figure out what is wrong with my laptop. I was using it not too long ago and noticed it was pumping out some very hot air. Not abnormal to heavy usage but I was just surfing the net with firefox and chatting with someone on AIM. My PC then gave me a "this program has... blah" with firefox and the BSODed on me. I tried to turn it back on and nothing. I waited awhile and it finally came on after doing a hard reset. But only for a little while before it did the exact same thing with firefox and BSODed. So today after listening to my dad brag about his new laptop he got during a black friday sale I figured I would do what I could to get it to work. I got it into the BIOS but then the screen got garbled and it locked up. Wouldn't power back on. I tried the normal memory swap, battery/no battery (direct AC), etc... But nothing. So I did what anyone who feels there is no chance left would do. I took it apart. I'm not afraid of computers and that makes me dangerous when it comes to stuff like this. But I figured processor. Thats my first direction to look in for the symptoms I'm getting.

So I get to the processor and find the heatsink is REALLY easy to remove. Normally a factory processor will have some form of "stick to it" be it goo or termal tape. In this case its tape but the seal is broken. I am wondering if when I sent it back to be worked on if for some reason HP took the heatsink off during testing. And this was just a little while ago. It could also be the heat mucked it up a bit. But anyways it looks bad.



Thats the CPU core. It looks rough doesn't it. Almost like the top layer was broken off. Maybe it got too hot I don't know. It also looks like some of the chip is also burnt around the edges but I don't know if thats just part of the manufacturing process or what.



And thats the heatsink. Where you can see the rest of the CPU stuck to the top of it. Once again there was no "seal" when I removed this. It just came off without any resistance. But you can see where there once was a seal.

Full size images of these two are located here - CPU/Heatsink images

I don't know if I should just try and buy a new CPU or not. It's an AMD Athlon 2800+ XP Mobile and I'm sure there are some out there. I read that you can install a 3000+ processor into this system as well but that isn't much of an issue for me. I just want to know if you all think its the processor too or am I just wasting my time and soon to be money?

-PK

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NM, that looks crappy tho , the cpu isnt SMD ?

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Opera best browser made by mankind! Linux 2.6.27.7-9-x86_64 SUSE LINUX 11.1KDE: 4.1.3

Well I cleaned up the CPU and the heatsink. Applied some silver thermal paste to it and am using the laptop right now. I just hope it remains running. I will be putting it through a stress test for awhile by surfing the net, running skype, AIM, Vongo, AVG, and spybot. Hopefully I won't get an error this time around but who knows.

-PK

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To answering your question about SMD or not it is not. Its a modified ZIF socket but wasn't too hard to replace. First I was thinking there was no way for me to get it installed. But some careful manipulation allowed me to install it back the way it was. And well it seems to be working for now. Runs MUCH cooler too with proper thermal paste. I hope this fixes the problem. But to be honest. I don't know why I got a failure. I used the laptop pretty heavy since I got it back and not a single sign of a problem occured. Then all of the sudden. Maybe opening it up and cleaning it out a bit (not very dirty either) fixed the problem too. Could have been as simple as a small bit of conductive metal sitting somewhere on the motherboard. But really at this point I'm just guessing.

-PK

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Hrm. Well while using the PC I noticed it getting VERY hot again. But not at the CPU. This time it is the HDD. And I mean hot. I wonder if the hard drive is getting so hot its causing problems with the memory which is installed smack over top the hard drive. Either way I gotta figure out how to fix this problem. HDD seems to work fine outside of the temps. Oh and yes I had another failure. But at least this time it didn't lock me out.

-PK

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that doesnt sound to good , maybe a short somewhere ? Heat is never good , esp in laptops .

Have you tried and google'd to see if that is happening often for those HD's inside HP laptops ?

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Opera best browser made by mankind! Linux 2.6.27.7-9-x86_64 SUSE LINUX 11.1KDE: 4.1.3

Hi there,

That you feel hot air coming out of the machine is a -good- thing. It means that it's not staying inside the machine. The better the heat transfer between the CPU and the heat sink is, the hotter the air that comes out will be. In other words, proper thermal compound will make the expelled air hotter, not cooler. That is because the heat generated by the chip gets more efficiently transferred to the air.

How old is the machine? Maybe the fan is dying. If the fan slows down, you would get less but hotter air. That would also happen if the fan is getting clogged up.

Have you checked the CPU usage in Task Manager? Maybe there's a problem with Windows that's causing a process to use more CPU time than usual.

Roger

The air is hot when the system is getting stressed. And the fan is moving plenty of air. But now the heat is coming from the HDD and memory location. The system is just over 2 years old and the task manager doesn't show any foul play going on. I've run virus scans and spyware scans. My next option is to re-install windows but I really don't see how thats going to help. The last time it crashed on me was after about 5-10 minutes of use and the entire system was barely warm to the touch (HDD, CPU, Memory, etc were all normal temps).

I have no idea whats going on.

-PK

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What kind of crashing are we talking about? Would it be possible that updating the BIOS might help with your problems? If there's no rhyme or reason for the current issues, it might be something to look at. When I bought my Alienware, it was crashing left and right for no good reason. Updated the BIOS and BOOM! Good as new.

BTW, as good as the hardware is, I would never buy an Alienware again. The company does not do a good job of supporting their product. My review can be seen over at epinions.com for those who are curious. I have the same username over there.

I didn't check to see if the BIOS had been updated when I sent it out for server but in all reality what would cause a system to work fine one day and then just fail in ever way. I was thinking maybe it was a bad ground or a short and perhaps while having the computer in my lap I would just move the wrong way and that would cause a failure. So I set the laptop on a table and turned it on. This time it locked up in windows. Just froze. Two times I turned it on that occured. Strange considering before I wasn't getting lock ups but more total crashes. I would get a BSOD and then the system would shut off. I would try to turn it back on. You would see all the power lights turn on and the HDD spin up but then nothing. No display to speak of. I would then hold down the power button and shut it off again. Then try one more time. Nothing. Press the reset button under the laptop and I would sometimes get it to work that way. But then... same thing Failure again. Just a straight crash. Now that it is freezing in windows makes me wonder if it is software. Not enough time for heat to even become a factor. Hell I bet I could put the damn thing in the fridge and get the same problems.

-PK

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PK I started to have a simular problem when I have a power supply that was weak. I do not have a clue if a labtop could have an issue like that, with one of the power rails getting weak. When one of my rails got weak it caused my video card, hard drive and ram to over heat.

It's an idea but I doubt thats the problem. Even when I run on the battery I get the same problem. The PSU is located in the puck that plugs into the wall. I still haven't installed a new OS on there yet so that is my next project. But I won't get to that until maybe Monday. Right now I am concentrating on getting this Frag Fest off without a problem.

-PK

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I'd try to re-seat the DIMMs if you haven't already. Take them out and clean the contacts on both sides with some kind of organic solvent. You can also try to clean the socket. When you put the DIMMs back in, wiggle them around a bit to make sure you get a good connection.

How's everything work in safe mode?

I can't even get the thing to turn on now. I'll try safe mode but I don't think it will make a difference considering it crashed in the BIOS.

-PK

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