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Computer Problem
Space Ghost
Elite Ranger
in Zocalo v2.0
I have a HP DV6423om laptop with AMD Turion 64 processor, 2GB of RAM, and Vista. My problem is that it randomly freezes to the point where I have to shut the computer off by holding the power button. I reinstalled Vista and reset the computer to the factory original but it keeps happening. Any suggestions?
Comments
Overheating could also be a possible answer.
theres your problem...
Turns out the problem was similar to the "red ring of death" on the 360, and what is currently happening to a lot of PS3s. Its got to do with overheating of the nvidia GPU to the point where the soldered joints melt and release. The cooling of the GPU is sub-standard, there is a small gap between the cooler from the fan to the GPU..
The solution was reheating the GPU, either you can do it locally, or you just wrap the entire laptop in a blanket and leave it until it shuts itself off (its probably best to remove the memory and harddrive before you try his), and glue a copper coin (with conducting glue) on top of the GPU to make a better connection with the cooling system.
My computer now works like a charm.
It does not sound like you have the same problem (yet), but you should know that HP does have a heat problem on their laptops at least.
Turns out the problem was similar to the "red ring of death" on the 360, and what is currently happening to a lot of PS3s. Its got to do with overheating of the nvidia GPU to the point where the soldered joints melt and release. The cooling of the GPU is sub-standard, there is a small gap between the cooler from the fan to the GPU..
The solution was reheating the GPU, either you can do it locally, or you just wrap the entire laptop in a blanket and leave it until it shuts itself off (its probably best to remove the memory and harddrive before you try his), and glue a copper coin (with conducting glue) on top of the GPU to make a better connection with the cooling system.
My computer now works like a charm.
It does not sound like you have the same problem (yet), but you should know that HP does have a heat problem on their laptops at least.[/QUOTE]
The tech in me is screaming at the thought of "fixing" a computer like that.
Any suggestions on a good brand of laptop other than ASUS?
[QUOTE=SpiritOne;184150]theres your problem...[/QUOTE]
That's a matter of perspective. I always hear people telling me how awful Dells are too and I've had three so far... all of which are still operating for different people after I gave them up. One is over 10 years old the other is 8 and the third is 5.
HP has been junk for as long as I can remember. On top of that, they bought Compaq for their laptops, I can't even comprehend that, back in the day Compaq was worse than HP. I have only had (for myself) 1 personal laptop, and it was a Dell that ran great for 3 years, and then I gave it to my dad and he still uses it (probably 6 years old now).
I have had about 4 different laptops from work, 3 HP/Compaq's and 1 Dell. If you take into account that all 4 were very much basic laptops bought in bulk to a company the difference in quality and performance of the Dell was hands down much better than the HP/Compaqs.
I just have no respect for HP. They have never in their history made quality a major concern. They have always put the cheapest imaginable parts inside all of their PC's (desktops laptops whatever). Their customer service is a joke, but then really thats par for the course with any major computer company. Just not a fan.
[QUOTE=SpiritOne;184156]thats insane. if there are weak solder joints, why not just open it up and fix them? Heat destroys electronics. It may offer a temporary "fix", but at the cost of lowering the life expectancy of the other components.[/QUOTE]
That actually means you need to know what you're doing.
Well, HP does not recognise the problem at all, even though its widespread, and the warranty just passed, so its better to have a lower life expectancy than having it just be a piece of broken machinery..
An option i'd suggest would be giving the machine a thorough dusting with a can of compressed air and a running vacuum, possibly including disassembly just to get at the deeper components. Dust causes more problems than most people assume, as even a fine coating can significantly impede heat transfer. As suggested above, memory is a huge point of interest with that sort of failure...but being as it is a non-bluescreen error, I would tend to believe something else is happening instead.
Similarly, disconnects from the heatsinks can occur from normal wear and tear over the life of a laptop. This is, of course, an extreme definition of "normal wear and tear," but it can still apply. As an example, over-flexing a laptop while it's extremely toasty can do the job in under a second. Repairing it with the penny trick isn't terribly viable to to tight component tolerances in laptops, so I'd suspect that's out.
An option i'd suggest would be giving the machine a thorough dusting with a can of compressed air and a running vacuum, possibly including disassembly just to get at the deeper components. Dust causes more problems than most people assume, as even a fine coating can significantly impede heat transfer. [/QUOTE]
+1 for that
I PM all my computers, even my company laptop regularly. The number 1 and number 2 causes of component failure.
1 - Heat
2 - Dust, holds in the heat.
So today 5 minutes after I started playing Oblivion I got a lot of artifacts on the screen and everything stopped moving. I quickly press ctrl-alt-del and got myself to the desktop. But to my surprise the desktop was also covered in artifacts, after a few seconds nvidia drivers notified they had crashed and 3 seconds after that my computer rebooted. So I turned my computer off and restarted it, but as soon at I hit windows desktop it was covered in artifacts and then crash. So remove all overclocking on my computer and try again but still same thing. I start Ubuntu from a CD and same thing. Tried checking if anything was loose in my computer but nothing helped. So I was already thinking on what new graphics card to buy when I talked with a friend on the phone about it.
He said that I should try throwing the graphics card in the oven and I remembered reading about it also. so read on forums about it, cooked it for 7minutes on 200*C and now it works again. :)
Baking circuit boards is a common practice and can also be used to dry components after you have washed them due to some accidental spillage.
Glad it worked for you.
people. Please stop "[I]fixing[/I]" your computer related problems with heat.
just as a person who fixes electronics for a living, it just drives me nuts that someone would do that and go "Look I fixed it!"
I've learned over the years to play it safe. I've given up on spending too much time re-using everything and making things work when they don't want to. It's an uphill battle with the only outcome generally being more pain. Hack fixes may work, but the seemingly unrelated "tangent failures" occurring soon after make matters so much worse! :P
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[QUOTE=C_Mon;184464]just because it's a temp fix we shouldn't do it at all? that's really silly. Also I will say that I fixed it because it now works better than it did before so it's more fixed than destroyed.[/QUOTE]
:D
I understand what you mean Spirit, but when the options are buying a new one or paying as much as a new one intead of just heating it up for a temporary fix and get a longer lifespan, "fixing" it with heat sounds pretty awesome..
What if you damaged the pins along the bottom of the card? Now it shorts and kills the socket. Now you need a new motherboard.
Id rather buy a new video card now, than buy a new video card and a new motherboard next month. You can get a good video card for less than $100.
Considering about 3 months ago, my wifes computer did the exact same thing (video artifacts followed by video card failure), I simply got her a new video card for like $85.
Now, last month my computer freaked out from a heat related issue, but it ended up being the heat sinks on my north and southbridge chipsets came loose. I don't think cleaning the chips, applying new thermal paste and putting the heat sinks back on is an unrealistic fix. And it worked.
I just can't ever see using heat to fix a problem. Heat is the #1 cause of the destruction of electronics. Dust is #2 because it collects and insulates and creates more heat.
Sure, there might be some other issues later that destroys my mobo or something but in the end, this is more fun.
(and I don't buy new graphics cards that are under $100.)
And in Messiah's case I think the idea is even better as he would have had to buy a new laptop anyways if he wouldn't have fixed it this way.
just saying...