Laptop problems, your opinion...

[Ferocity]

Hello guys,

as this has to do with my laptop problems I would like to get your opinion on it, I will try to post enough info. This is also a kinda help and support topic and asking for opinions and some advice...ignore the english grammer, i'm croatian :rolleyes:.

I got a Hp laptop( won't go much into the config since I think it's generaly not needed since i don't have it by myself atm), specifically the 6830s model, core 2 duo @2,26GHz, 4GB RAM, win7 ult x64.

Have it for almost 3 years now. Like half a a year ago I noticed it started to heat more than it usually does, I am (was) really satisfied with it. Had good performance, never overheated turned off randomly even in the most complex situation, very stable, kept it clean from all kinds of unecesary programs, really simple but still under various optimization and control. I woulnd't notice it differently than at one point my frame rate in League of legends started droping randomly. Example i got like always 60 frames and at random intervals the frames could drop to something like 10, stay that way for like half a minute and then come back to 60 without any intervention. I didnt' install something new, no processes running background that could cause it, checked literally everything since I thought its software related. Was up to date with all drivers, as I said no processes taking cpu or memory usage. In one moment I even had to reinstal windows and it didn't help. (believe me I checked everything, think I am a enough expeirenced user with this crap and know what i'm doing).

I could eliminate software issues so I wanted to maybe open my laptop to check for some dust, change the termal paste etc. since I thought that could help me because I noticed overheating during game times, and recently the laptop would sometimes turn off automatically due to this. But i never opened a laptop before and because its still under a 3 year warranty I told my old man that if some guys at the authorized hp resseler and service here in Rijeka could maybe take a look into it (he even knows some of them personally).

Why not ofc, yesterday I was still doing all kinds of stuff on my laptop and it was working really great and stable, no problems at all while doing something in windows, only in game I noticed problems what I was not sure of what the problem could be, but ussual for the last half a year.

I gave the laptop to repair today, and during the day my dad gets a call from one guy and he says that he hard drive died...not some overheating etc..i was like wtf...I never considered this option, everything worked fine, it was really working great as I say, only druing games you could fell the random frame laggs, no other errors, I checked everything in event viewer before the repair for other errorsthan the overheating turn off (id 41 i think)...nothing, nada. And he's saying dramatically that he will attempt to save some data from loss since its all going to hell probably since hes barely reading data. When my dad got the call I was beside him and I really couldnt believe it, it working really good, and I give it one day to them and all of sudden I may lose some very important data since I got one thing there that I worked for like almost 3 months regularly...the sad part is I had a backup but cleared that content from my backup usb since I needed to transfer some movie and there wasnt enough space for both...lol.

What do you think of this, im personally no computer expert, but am in a long touch with them, and always get a solution for software and os related problems. I mean this scenario is not impossible, but im really suspicious, I did a memory and hdd test via my bios(latest version etc) like 3 days ago and everything was fine, looked at s.m.a.r.t...no indication whatsoever. And I just give my laptop to this guy (my dad told me he worked in the usa for like 10 years, got divorced etc, got back to croatia, and he is a top expert, my dad isn't pc noob either) the next day I find out that just out of bright sky my hard is dieing and hes tring to save something...and we need a hdd replacement... ofc I asked my dad to tell him that if that happens that I want my old hdd back and I will try to recover it...no chance cuz by their policy they need to save the old/borken device cuz they gave me a replacement.

So what do you think of this, the laptop issues alltho you can just speculate by my story, and what do you think of the surprising broken hdd etc?

Anyway, one of the best sites i know.

nsane ftw! ^_^

[mara-]

Well, looks strange, but it's possible. I also had one issue with HDD, but symptoms were different. Windows just started to do tasks really, really slow. Every step required 3-5 minutes waiting. First what I tried is reinstalling Windows, but I got error at 1% of installation. My warranty expired, so without econsultation I went and bought new HDD. And HDD was the issue. Luckily it wasn't my storage drive. But, I still wanted to recover some of files, so I connected broken drive and I restored all I wanted in full speed. It looks like just some part of HDD was broken.

Anyway, HDD could be overheating and causing lags in game when some new data was needed. To bad you didn't check the temperature in some programs. That guys could scan your drive and found some bad sector which usually indicates HDD failure. But, whenever I had problems with bad blocks, EventViewer would display errors.

Cheers ;)

[Ferocity]

I was checking my temp, it was around 60 ^oC after the laptop stayed idle for like 30 min., while in game it regularly was around 80, and 80+ .

And yea, no event viewer errors regarding hard drive as I said.

Someone else?

[mara-]

Which temps you checked, HDD, CPU, GPU?

Cheers ;)

[toyo]

I had a few HDDs die on me (one of them died slowly, but the others died in an instant). I could retrieve the data from all of them and cloned it on another new HDD. It happens more often than you think. Some errors (like the last one I had) can be corrected through Spinrite/HDD Regenerator etc. and the HDD will function again as new.

[LeetPirate]

I was checking my temp, it was around 60 ^oC after the laptop stayed idle for like 30 min., while in game it regularly was around 80, and 80+ .

And yea, no event viewer errors regarding hard drive as I said.

Someone else?

60C is way too high for idle temperature. In my experience, hp has the most over heating issues than any other brand and the heat causes other problems such as motherboard failure or reduced hard drive lifespan. There are many forum topics all over the web concerning hp laptops that have the multimedia lights always on and they give problems to start up and shut down. All due to overheating that leads to a faulty motherboard. Sometimes the voltage regulator module gives out and the laptop stops coming on, happens to many hp laptops yet the company never fixes the problem because they want the machines to die after a few years so that you will buy a new one.

I advise replacing the thermal paste with Arctic Cooling MX2 or MX3 or MX4. Don't use silver paste on a laptop because those are electrically conductive and can cause other problems since most laptop cpu do not come with the metal covering.

[Ferocity]

Which temps you checked, HDD, CPU, GPU?

Cheers ;)

I just checked with speedfan the temp that is displayed in the tray icon..not sure which one was what :P

[HX1]

Well one thing I do think is odd.. is that unless you have killed or removed the Task from Windows 7.. There is a diagnostic element for HD's in which you will get a popup notification...that you need to backup your data... Vista and 7 both have these...

Second... go get your laptop back...pay him for the diagnostic.. buy a replacement, new HD.. if you want to stay with the laptop you have.. bring it home and use a boot disk to get your data off of it yourself.. especially if it is important... move it to an EHD or something.. take the old one out and stick the new one in.. You will more than likely have to have a Windows 7 Installation Disk as the ones from the Factory or HP will usually not reinstall to a fresh drive.. they will only continually recover or restore to the same drive which includes the extra files and data that make it an OEM HP product... once you replace the HD all of it will be gone.. and the other disks will no longer work..

If you can afford a new system at this point, I would look into something other than HP... and a few others I would stay away from.. but really it could just be time for this one...

There are a lot of things that could have went wrong with the drive too.. and what they are calling a dead HD could be something else entirely.. there could be issues in the MFT, Bad Sectors as mentioned above... even an infection... very many problems.. may of them could be addressed by trying Hiren's Boot CD.. possibly even wiping the drive... The thing is.. this early on, having an issue of this sort, may foreshadow the events to come for the rest of the laptop as well... and I would be looking at getting another one.. Then again you may repair it yourself.. keep your data in tact.. and it may work for another 7-10 years...who knows.. personally I would not put it up to chance and get something reliable.. if possible without so many problems...

Warranty work if its under warranty at this point.. could help but you will lose everything on your drive.. so I recommend the above for several reasons..

Like Leet said above very high temp.. I have one fan in mine and I start getting edgy when it starts to come up on 55-60..( 51 right now, HD 37 ) even to the point of putting a fan on it.. and like everyone has said the heat could very well be making the HD unstable.. My laptop now.. had heat shielding on the inside of the case.. and had not just one intake for cold-air covered completely up... but also had a vent/intake above the RAM module 80% covered.. I fixed these issues and the system cooled faster ad the temps stayed lower... I also prop up my laptop in the back about 2 -3 inches.. I get good air flow and nothing is blocked nor the vents or heat sink covered or inhibited trapping air.. Some of these things could be something to consider.. HP usually has several fans on their laptops.. and IMO should not run as hot as they do...

Anyway at the very least.. get it back and do the work yourself..and save you data.. :) It will be running without warranty and HP OEM OS from here on out.. so you may not have certain features... but it could be for the best... Also one more thing.. You should check your power settings...and also see if you can enhance the cooling fans in some way.. or if these settings may have anything to do with it..

[AlienForce1]

I may lose some very important data since I got one thing there that I worked for like almost 3 months regularly...the sad part is I had a backup but cleared that content from my backup usb since I needed to transfer some movie and there wasnt enough space for both...lol

You can try to recover your back-up (from USB, even if it was deleted) - there are a lot of good programs , some of them free - for ex. `Recuva` http://www.nsanedown.com/?request=7235019 , or `Data Recovery Wizard Professional` http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizardpro/

[niharjhatn]

I agree with what Leet Pirate said - try and do it yourself.

Laptops are so cheap these days (i7 sandbridge laptop for 1k...are you kidding me!!!) that you should think about spending significant amounts of money repairing vs attempting yourself and buying a new laptop.

Not much help, sorry, but I ran into laptop issues a couple of years ago, and it was easier to just save up a bit more and buy a new one.

[Ferocity]

Thank you for all the replies, I will inform you what happened. But i won't get a new laptop if replacing the hdd would work, really don't need it atm. I won't spend any money for the repair, or even my dad. Opening it up by myself while I still got the waranty wasn't a option since I could screw up everything while attempting to clean it since I haven't got experience with openeing laptops.

[grouchysmurf]

I am sorry to read about your laptop. I can relate to what you have described.

There are so many variables, so I will try to keep this short.

When a repair tech gets a hold of a repair order like yours, they will want to investigate a little bit,

to give them a starting point. Many times they will simply use a quick benchmark test to start off with,

it will give them decent information as to where the trouble may be. Sometimes, a system could be close to

the edge of..er..fubar, and the benchmark test itself will cause the system to break down.

After reading about your heat observations, it is possible that your system was close to having a hardware meltdown,

and it did. I do think it was a hardware issue, and not a repair tech issue. The tech probably never got the chance to debug

it beyond the initial bench test.

Now, I am a little old school when it comes to laptops, and cooling has always been an issue.

As computing loads get greater and greater, and cpu's both main and video run hotter and hotter,

alot of heat is produced. And the battery pack is a HUGE heat producer as well.

I know that laptops are meant to be portable, so the following suggestion is annoying, but valid

never the less.....

You can find cooling trays on the market. Very common accessory for laptops. I suggest to everyone that uses a laptop

as a main choice rather than a portable choice to get one. They do help in keeping the body of the system cooler, and therefore the inside temp lower.

Most are designed to help keep the small vents from being blocked as well...(don't laugh, I have watched many people using laptops

sitting on blankets, or curled up on the easy chair, and blocking the vent holes.)

Well, that is about as short as I could make that. I am sorry your machine dumped out.

It is possible to recover a damaged HDD, but the process is rather long, and can be expensive.

Edit: There are recovery programs out there, but they usually depend on a ..working HDD. If yours is not spinning up properly, the quick fix software will do you no good.

[elohelomg]

I was wondering what you guys thought of this fix

[Dark Lord]

Hey! guyz what about GIGABYTE laptops? Do they have heating issues??

Because i am going to bye Gigabyte P2532 N laptop

Please i would like to hear does the Gigabyte laptops are good or bad and whether its worth to buy

Regards

Dark Lord

[Ferocity]

Will probably hear today about my laptop, till then can you reply what laptops proven or are in your opinion very good, durable, don't make much probs etc. This is my first laptop but i am very satisfied with it, never made any problems, until now ofc.

Got some new info that they manged to save the data..so it all will be fine ^_^

Gonna have a fun time installing everything again.

[toyo]

It's very possible they have cloned the HDD. If this is the situation, there's no need to reinstall the apps.

[Ferocity]

Just got my laptop back, seems they put a new HDD in after all :P. Anyway...working great atm, still didn't test games etc, temperature.

The genius forgot to connect the wireless adapter cable to the laptop motherboard...duh :D

[toyo]

So you lost all your data?

[Ferocity]

So you lost all your data?

Nah, got all my data back. It's fine ^_^

[Ferocity]

Ok, just wanted to report that i installed almost everything i need. Just tried out some LOL and i don't have that annoying frame lagg :D