HP DV6-3033tx Heating problem

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kdc69

27 posts

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#76739 5-Feb-2011 18:04

Hi all,
so i dont really know much about laptops but i have an HP dv6-3033tx. Have been playing CoD4 lately and it keeps overheating. This shuts down my laptop. Never used to happen, have had it for around 7 months. I realise this is not the ideal gaming machine but it should not do this. Vents and fans are not blocked. I have looked online and cant find much.

Can someone please point me in the right direction?

also have looked all over the HP site and they dont list my laptop. Why might this be?

Please help me i am pretty hopeless with this tech stuff.

Cheers in advance.

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#435719 5-Feb-2011 19:06

Are you sure the vents and fan don't have dust blocking the air flow?

I have a dv6 and find it very reliable. Are you playing on battery or mains?

IIRC the default for battery is passive cooling (first step down processor then start fans), while on mains is active (start fans). What's the configuration you have?

Are you running the latest drivers (is this an ATI or NVIDIA GPU)? Mine is ATI and I am using the ATI reference drivers instead of the HP - ATI drivers are updated every month, and the HP ones may be updated once every few years...

tardtasticx

3075 posts

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#435727 5-Feb-2011 19:43

My friend had an HP DV6 series laptop. His graphics card completely fried itself after having the same symptoms you have now. He had those problems for a few months then one day it just wouldn't show anything on the screen, made it effectively useless. Be careful and best of luck. Make sure your graphics drivers are all up to date and keep vents and fans clear

lxsw20

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#435733 5-Feb-2011 19:55

Its still under warranty, why not log a call.

kdc69

27 posts

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#435740 5-Feb-2011 20:12

freitasm: Are you sure the vents and fan don't have dust blocking the air flow?

I have a dv6 and find it very reliable. Are you playing on battery or mains?

IIRC the default for battery is passive cooling (first step down processor then start fans), while on mains is active (start fans). What's the configuration you have?

Are you running the latest drivers (is this an ATI or NVIDIA GPU)? Mine is ATI and I am using the ATI reference drivers instead of the HP - ATI drivers are updated every month, and the HP ones may be updated once every few years...

have been playing on battery but maybe will switch to mains?

also just opened it up and no dust anywhere so unsure what it could be.

i have ati. how do i update these manually?

thanks for your help

gzt

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#435750 5-Feb-2011 21:21

kdc69: [...] Never used to happen, have had it for around 7 months. [...]

7 months ago it was much, much colder. A few extra degrees of ambient temp - very significant reduction in cooling.

Like you say, this should not happen. Still under warranty or even not if purchased from a retailer, take it back. Get your money back. Under consumer guarantees act, this is not fit for the purpose it was sold for. They'll resist, but that's what they have to do.

If that is not an option, some mild to serious hacking is required to cool things down. Post up some photos of the external and internal case layout ; )

Is it a controlled shutdown, a spontaneous reboot, or something different?

gzt

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#435751 5-Feb-2011 21:23

ATI drivers here: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

kdc69

27 posts

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#435753 5-Feb-2011 21:35

gzt:
kdc69: [...] Never used to happen, have had it for around 7 months. [...]

7 months ago it was much, much colder. A few extra degrees of ambient temp - very significant reduction in cooling.

Like you say, this should not happen. Still under warranty or even not if purchased from a retailer, take it back. Get your money back. Under consumer guarantees act, this is not fit for the purpose it was sold for. They'll resist, but that's what they have to do.

If that is not an option, some mild to serious hacking is required to cool things down. Post up some photos of the external and internal case layout ; )

Is it a controlled shutdown, a spontaneous reboot, or something different?

it is a controlled shudown. so i guess thats a good thing? also still under warranty so will take it back for sure. get them to look at it. just ran CoD for the 4th time today and again it shutdown from an overheating warning. also came up with a direct x warning when i rebooted. any idea why?

am afraid that its going to all start crashing soon.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

tardtasticx

3075 posts

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#435754 5-Feb-2011 21:39

kdc69:
gzt:
kdc69: [...] Never used to happen, have had it for around 7 months. [...]

[...]

it is a controlled shudown. so i guess thats a good thing? also still under warranty so will take it back for sure. get them to look at it. just ran CoD for the 4th time today and again it shutdown from an overheating warning. also came up with a direct x warning when i rebooted. any idea why?

am afraid that its going to all start crashing soon.

Do a complete backup now just in case. Better safe than sorry. I was super lucky, backed up my HDD about a week or so before it randomly went a** up.

kdc69

27 posts

Geek

#435756 5-Feb-2011 21:44

tardtasticx:
kdc69:
gzt:
kdc69: [...] Never used to happen, have had it for around 7 months. [...]

[...]

it is a controlled shudown. so i guess thats a good thing? also still under warranty so will take it back for sure. get them to look at it. just ran CoD for the 4th time today and again it shutdown from an overheating warning. also came up with a direct x warning when i rebooted. any idea why?

am afraid that its going to all start crashing soon.

Do a complete backup now just in case. Better safe than sorry. I was super lucky, backed up my HDD about a week or so before it randomly went a** up.

will updating my drivers through device manager be sufficient in determining whether i have the most up to date drivers?

tardtasticx

3075 posts

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#435761 5-Feb-2011 22:07

kdc69:
tardtasticx:
kdc69:
gzt:
kdc69: [...] Never used to happen, have had it for around 7 months. [...]

[...]

it is a controlled shudown. so i guess thats a good thing? also still under warranty so will take it back for sure. get them to look at it. just ran CoD for the 4th time today and again it shutdown from an overheating warning. also came up with a direct x warning when i rebooted. any idea why?

am afraid that its going to all start crashing soon.

Do a complete backup now just in case. Better safe than sorry. I was super lucky, backed up my HDD about a week or so before it randomly went a** up.

will updating my drivers through device manager be sufficient in determining whether i have the most up to date drivers?

Probably not. Those would check with the microsoft driver servers I think. Best get them from ATI's website (thats your graphics card type right?)

gzt

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#435763 5-Feb-2011 22:08

kdc69: it is a controlled shudown. so i guess thats a good thing?

A good thing. This indicates a temperature monitor is getting to maximum, then software shuts down your machine for safety. This max temperature value could be set in bios but is most likely set in monitoring software running on your machine. If you can find it there should be a log there.

Lots of freeware available to monitor & log sensor temperatures if the existing log does not give good information.

also still under warranty so will take it back for sure. get them to look at it.

Run a thermometer in your room so you can find out the environment ambient temperature when the fault happens and provide this information so the repair guys can reproduce the fault conditions exactly. If they try to reproduce the fault in a standard air conditioned office environment = waste of time.

just ran CoD for the 4th time today and again it shutdown from an overheating warning. also came up with a direct x warning when i rebooted. any idea why?

what was the directx warning message exactly?

b0untypure1

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#435812 6-Feb-2011 09:38

try a laptop cooling pad, they do wonders