I'm currently working on an HP dv6-3298en laptop ([spec sheet](http
/support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-Pavilion-dv6-Entertainment-Notebook-PC-series/5081518/model/5037372/document/c02673628/)) and am having trouble diagnosing a problem.
The laptop came to me with severe overheating issues, which the owner presumed were the cause of constant forced restarts, to the point of making the laptop unusable.
There was major dust buildup in the fan enclosure, which caused the fan to be completely isolated from the cooling element and exhaust vent. This quite frankly disgraceful design flaw by HP caused the CPU and the discreet GPU to run at ~100°C on a light load, which I also figured was causing the restarts as well, as the i5-480M is supposed to automatically shut down at 105°C. I took the laptop apart, cleaned the fan enclosure and heating element, removed the entire cooling system, cleaned everything up, applied fresh thermal compound and put everything back together. With air now moving freely through the heating element, the improvement was drastic, with the CPU maxing out at ~75°C on full load, which is still pretty hot (due to the quite poor overall design of the laptop), but well within the operating limits. The GPU temperature also seemed in order, but that's where things got a bit weird.
My initial fresh Windows 8.1 install went smoothly and everything seemed to be in order. There was an unknown device in the device manager, the ID of which pointed me to the HP 3D Drive Guard, which I installed and then restarted the PC. Windows went black after the Welcome screen and then restarted. I reinstalled Windows after finding out the 3D Drive Guard had issues with 8.1 and decided to skip this feature. On the new fresh install I first tried installing AMD drivers for the Mobility Radeon HD 6550. The installer did not finish, and rebooted in the middle of the process. Windows then proceeded to boot normally, but restarted after several minutes of using just basic applications (Explorer, IE). This happened several times, after which I decided to try another fresh install. This time I let the computer run for an entire day, using IE and Chrome occasionally for some light browsing and Youtube. On this clean install everything seemed to work well, with no overheating or forced restarts. I then tried windows update which, after seemingly finishing installing all the recommended updates, again force restarted on the welcome screen at every boot.
I ran several tests from Hiren's BootCD and everything seems to be in order. The HDD seems to be in good condition and passed every benchmark without issues, the CPU works perfectly under the heaviest of loads and the memory is fine as well. The laptop also runs Prime95 in a portable Windows XP environment for extended periods without any issues.
My main suspect now is the GPU, but I'm not exactly sure how to confirm this, and what to do if the GPU was indeed damaged by the overheating.
Has anyone had similar issues on similar devices?
How can I confirm that the GPU is indeed fried?
Is there any other explanation to this kind of behavior?
Can the GPU be replaced, and does it have to be the same exact one, if I decide to go that route?
The laptop was effectively gifted to me, so I have no problem with trying riskier procedures and, while I'm no professional, I'm confident in my skills when it comes to hardware.
It's also more of a hobby project, so I'm looking to spend no to very little money on fixing it up, but time I have plenty of. The laptop is otherwise in excellent condition and I have a friend who could really use a new laptop for free, so I'm quite committed to getting it to work.
All opinions greatly appreciated!
/support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-Pavilion-dv6-Entertainment-Notebook-PC-series/5081518/model/5037372/document/c02673628/)) and am having trouble diagnosing a problem.The laptop came to me with severe overheating issues, which the owner presumed were the cause of constant forced restarts, to the point of making the laptop unusable.
There was major dust buildup in the fan enclosure, which caused the fan to be completely isolated from the cooling element and exhaust vent. This quite frankly disgraceful design flaw by HP caused the CPU and the discreet GPU to run at ~100°C on a light load, which I also figured was causing the restarts as well, as the i5-480M is supposed to automatically shut down at 105°C. I took the laptop apart, cleaned the fan enclosure and heating element, removed the entire cooling system, cleaned everything up, applied fresh thermal compound and put everything back together. With air now moving freely through the heating element, the improvement was drastic, with the CPU maxing out at ~75°C on full load, which is still pretty hot (due to the quite poor overall design of the laptop), but well within the operating limits. The GPU temperature also seemed in order, but that's where things got a bit weird.
My initial fresh Windows 8.1 install went smoothly and everything seemed to be in order. There was an unknown device in the device manager, the ID of which pointed me to the HP 3D Drive Guard, which I installed and then restarted the PC. Windows went black after the Welcome screen and then restarted. I reinstalled Windows after finding out the 3D Drive Guard had issues with 8.1 and decided to skip this feature. On the new fresh install I first tried installing AMD drivers for the Mobility Radeon HD 6550. The installer did not finish, and rebooted in the middle of the process. Windows then proceeded to boot normally, but restarted after several minutes of using just basic applications (Explorer, IE). This happened several times, after which I decided to try another fresh install. This time I let the computer run for an entire day, using IE and Chrome occasionally for some light browsing and Youtube. On this clean install everything seemed to work well, with no overheating or forced restarts. I then tried windows update which, after seemingly finishing installing all the recommended updates, again force restarted on the welcome screen at every boot.
I ran several tests from Hiren's BootCD and everything seems to be in order. The HDD seems to be in good condition and passed every benchmark without issues, the CPU works perfectly under the heaviest of loads and the memory is fine as well. The laptop also runs Prime95 in a portable Windows XP environment for extended periods without any issues.
My main suspect now is the GPU, but I'm not exactly sure how to confirm this, and what to do if the GPU was indeed damaged by the overheating.
Has anyone had similar issues on similar devices?
How can I confirm that the GPU is indeed fried?
Is there any other explanation to this kind of behavior?
Can the GPU be replaced, and does it have to be the same exact one, if I decide to go that route?
The laptop was effectively gifted to me, so I have no problem with trying riskier procedures and, while I'm no professional, I'm confident in my skills when it comes to hardware.
It's also more of a hobby project, so I'm looking to spend no to very little money on fixing it up, but time I have plenty of. The laptop is otherwise in excellent condition and I have a friend who could really use a new laptop for free, so I'm quite committed to getting it to work.
All opinions greatly appreciated!
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