Compaq Presario 700 laptop overheating (Problem Solved?)
 

Hi all,

Like many others I bought a compaq presario laptop 700 series (729EA) and
after a while I discovered it was prone to overheating (an understatement if
ever I heard one!). I trawled through the newsgroups and google applying
various patches etc, looking on the compaq website and applied the Softpaqs
it mentioned and the keyboard and mousepad updates that were suggested.

In short nothing really fixed the problem, the lockups seemed to happen
*slightly* less but then that could have just been my imagination. However
being the persistent (i.e. bone headed) person I am I dug around a bit
deeper, hopefully this might help some other people in the same
situation.....

I was "advised" by Compaq to twiddle with power settings (Control Panel -
Power Options) and set them to Laptop, this made no different whatsoever,
however it got me thinking. Apparently the point of doing that is so the
Athlon chip inside these machines will run cooler, but it doesn't. The
machine heated up just as much, the fan was *constantly* on.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I found out that AMD chips use something
called PowerNow! to control the speed the chip is running at, and guess
what....if you install Windows 2000 or Windows XP, the PowerNow! software IS
NOT installed. That's right, you have a nice new OS but your chip also runs
flat out all the time, probably thinking its in a nice big Desktop case with
huge fan when really its in a dinky little laptop with a small pixie gently
blowing on it. The PowerNow! software/drivers should be installed at the
factory, but if you're anything like me you rarely stick with a factory
setup (in my case they'd managed to "lose" about 10Gig of disk space because
of the way they'd partitioned it), so you reinstall the OS in the way that
you like it.

I installed the PowerNow! software and using the PowerNow dashboard software
(also from AMD) I can see that my chip drops down from running at 1.3Ghz to
about 500Mhz (obviously it zooms back up to full speed when it needs it),
the end result is that the chip runs a LOT cooler. My fan noise is barely
noticeable now and I no longer have the equivalent of an F16 Afterburner
exhaust shooting out of the side of my laptop.....oh and not a single lockup
*yet* (not conclusive I know, but I could consistently get one or two
lockups a day before).

Hope this helps others in the same (infuriating) situation,

John.

"John Edward Scott" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

Like many others I bought a compaq presario laptop 700 series (729EA) and
after a while I discovered it was prone to overheating (an understatement
if
ever I heard one!). I trawled through the newsgroups and google applying
various patches etc, looking on the compaq website and applied the
Softpaqs
it mentioned and the keyboard and mousepad updates that were suggested.

In short nothing really fixed the problem, the lockups seemed to happen
*slightly* less but then that could have just been my imagination. However
being the persistent (i.e. bone headed) person I am I dug around a bit
deeper, hopefully this might help some other people in the same
situation.....

I was "advised" by Compaq to twiddle with power settings (Control Panel -
Power Options) and set them to Laptop, this made no different whatsoever,
however it got me thinking. Apparently the point of doing that is so the
Athlon chip inside these machines will run cooler, but it doesn't. The
machine heated up just as much, the fan was *constantly* on.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I found out that AMD chips use something
called PowerNow! to control the speed the chip is running at, and guess
what....if you install Windows 2000 or Windows XP, the PowerNow! software
IS
NOT installed. That's right, you have a nice new OS but your chip also
runs
flat out all the time, probably thinking its in a nice big Desktop case
with
huge fan when really its in a dinky little laptop with a small pixie
gently
blowing on it. The PowerNow! software/drivers should be installed at the
factory, but if you're anything like me you rarely stick with a factory
setup (in my case they'd managed to "lose" about 10Gig of disk space
because
of the way they'd partitioned it), so you reinstall the OS in the way that
you like it.

I installed the PowerNow! software and using the PowerNow dashboard
software
(also from AMD) I can see that my chip drops down from running at 1.3Ghz
to
about 500Mhz (obviously it zooms back up to full speed when it needs it),
the end result is that the chip runs a LOT cooler. My fan noise is barely
noticeable now and I no longer have the equivalent of an F16 Afterburner
exhaust shooting out of the side of my laptop.....oh and not a single
lockup
*yet* (not conclusive I know, but I could consistently get one or two
lockups a day before).

Dude! That's a pretty big find. Well done! :-)

Maybe that's the fault with all these 700s..... the hardware is fine, it's
just the software image that's screwed on these machines?

Now, I just have to get my 700 back from the service centre so I can fix it
myself.

BTW, got a URL for the software?

"Rob King" wrote in message
...

"John Edward Scott" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

SNIP

Dude! That's a pretty big find. Well done! :-)

Maybe that's the fault with all these 700s..... the hardware is fine, it's
just the software image that's screwed on these machines?

Now, I just have to get my 700 back from the service centre so I can fix
it
myself.

BTW, got a URL for the software?



Hi Rob,

Yeah hopefully it's going to be a big help, I'm on day 3 now without any
major lockups and the machine is DEFINITELY running a lot cooler. Ok, the
"official channels" say that to get the AMD PowerNow! stuff you're supposed
to go to AMD or the retailer (Compaq) to get it. Despite searching for AGES
on both of those sites I couldn't find it.

I have however managed to get it, so unless someone tells me otherwise I can
point you in the right direction. Remember of course that this is AMD's
software not mine, as far as I can tell it's not under any restrictions (I
looked and looked on AMD's site). Oh and I didn't have any problems
installing it, but remember BACKUP if you're in any doubts.

Feel free to get in touch if you need a hand, I'm very curious to see if
other people get the same results as me.

John.

"Rob King" wrote in message
...

"John Edward Scott" wrote in message
...

"Rob King" wrote in message
...

"John Edward Scott" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

SNIP

Dude! That's a pretty big find. Well done! :-)

Maybe that's the fault with all these 700s..... the hardware is fine,
it's
just the software image that's screwed on these machines?

Now, I just have to get my 700 back from the service centre so I can
fix
it
myself.

BTW, got a URL for the software?



Hi Rob,

Yeah hopefully it's going to be a big help, I'm on day 3 now without any
major lockups and the machine is DEFINITELY running a lot cooler. Ok,
the
"official channels" say that to get the AMD PowerNow! stuff you're
supposed
to go to AMD or the retailer (Compaq) to get it. Despite searching for
AGES
on both of those sites I couldn't find it.

I have however managed to get it, so unless someone tells me otherwise I
can
point you in the right direction. Remember of course that this is AMD's
software not mine, as far as I can tell it's not under any restrictions
(I
looked and looked on AMD's site). Oh and I didn't have any problems
installing it, but remember BACKUP if you're in any doubts.

Feel free to get in touch if you need a hand, I'm very curious to see if
other people get the same results as me.

I read on the AMD web site that you don't need the software in WinXP
beacuse
it already includes it.
I found this in the release notes at:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/SellAMDProducts/0,,30_177_3472_1353^3841^9079^964^4396,00.html



Rob,

I've just checked and the software I have has installs for XP and for
Win2K/98/ME. The Win2K/98/ME is quite a large install (about 1.5 Mb), the XP
install looks like it just installs the AMDK7.SYS driver, which *should* be
installed by Windows Update, however it would be interesting to know how
many AMD/XP owners out there don't have this already installed.

John.

I read on the AMD web site that you don't need the software in WinXP
beacuse
it already includes it.
I found this in the release notes at:


http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/SellAMDProducts/0,,30_177_3472_1353^3841^9079^964^4396,00.html



Interesting, are you running XP or 2000? (I'm using 2000 which definitely
doesn't include it by default).

It's currently running the default install of XP Home but I'll be nuking the
drives and putting XP Pro on it instead when I get it back.

"John Edward Scott" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

Like many others I bought a compaq presario laptop 700 series (729EA) and
after a while I discovered it was prone to overheating (an understatement
if
ever I heard one!). I trawled through the newsgroups and google applying
various patches etc, looking on the compaq website and applied the
Softpaqs
it mentioned and the keyboard and mousepad updates that were suggested.

SNIP

Just as a follow-up to myself ....it's currently a hot summers day here (for
England anyway!) and my fan is running far less and quieter than it did in
mid-winter. The PowerNow software has DEFINITELY made a difference.

5 days without a crash now...and counting..

John.

"John Edward Scott" wrote in message
...

"John Edward Scott" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

Like many others I bought a compaq presario laptop 700 series (729EA)
and
after a while I discovered it was prone to overheating (an
understatement
if
ever I heard one!). I trawled through the newsgroups and google applying
various patches etc, looking on the compaq website and applied the
Softpaqs
it mentioned and the keyboard and mousepad updates that were suggested.

SNIP

Just as a follow-up to myself ....it's currently a hot summers day here
(for
England anyway!) and my fan is running far less and quieter than it did in
mid-winter. The PowerNow software has DEFINITELY made a difference.

5 days without a crash now...and counting..

Well I wish the service people would hurry up and return mine so I can try
this....... apparently work has been authorised to fix it.

And I bet the dude never once looked at this newsgroup :-)

"Rob King" wrote in message
...

"John Edward Scott" wrote in message
...

"John Edward Scott" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

Like many others I bought a compaq presario laptop 700 series (729EA)
and
after a while I discovered it was prone to overheating (an
understatement
if
ever I heard one!). I trawled through the newsgroups and google
applying
various patches etc, looking on the compaq website and applied the
Softpaqs
it mentioned and the keyboard and mousepad updates that were
suggested.

SNIP

Just as a follow-up to myself ....it's currently a hot summers day here
(for
England anyway!) and my fan is running far less and quieter than it did
in
mid-winter. The PowerNow software has DEFINITELY made a difference.

5 days without a crash now...and counting..

Well I wish the service people would hurry up and return mine so I can try
this....... apparently work has been authorised to fix it.

And I bet the dude never once looked at this newsgroup :-)



Following my own experiences with Compaq...I don't even think they look at
their Intranet...let alone the Internet.

John.

Can the PowerNow software be installed on a machine with XP? I thought an
earlier post mentioned XP had it built in. I can't see it in control panel
or power settings.

My 710US is freeze-free for the moment (even with 384 MB of ram) and seems
to be cooler after running a Softpaq that had to do with updating the
controller (or something). But would like to know about the PowerNow thing.
Thanks and good luck.





Just as a follow-up to myself ....it's currently a hot summers day
here
(for
England anyway!) and my fan is running far less and quieter than it
did
in
mid-winter. The PowerNow software has DEFINITELY made a difference.

5 days without a crash now...and counting..




---
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Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
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I did a search on that amdk7.sys file, and I seem to have it in several
locations on my XP laptop, including in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS and
C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 as well as C:\I386 and some file folders
with long numerical strings. So, I guess I have the software (all the files
in question have the Date Modified as 8/29/2002. It just doesn't show up as
a separate function in the power section of Control Panel.

Thanks.


"John Edward Scott" wrote in message
...

"Dillon Family" wrote in message
...
Can the PowerNow software be installed on a machine with XP? I thought
an
earlier post mentioned XP had it built in. I can't see it in control
panel
or power settings.

My 710US is freeze-free for the moment (even with 384 MB of ram) and
seems
to be cooler after running a Softpaq that had to do with updating the
controller (or something). But would like to know about the PowerNow
thing.
Thanks and good luck.



SNIP

Hi Dillon,

Yes the PowerNow has an install for XP, it's a LOT more minimal than the
2000/ME/98 install, infact looking at it all it installs is the AMDK7.SYS
file, so you could just look to see if that's already installed on your
machine.

On Win2000, the PowerNow tab appears in Power Options (Start - Control
Panel - Power Options), I assuming something similar will happen in XP if
it's installed properly.

John.




---
Outgoing mail is certified pretty darn clean.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.488 / Virus Database: 287 - Release Date: 6/5/2003