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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. |
#2
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"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? |
#3
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"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. |
#4
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"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. |
#5
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"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 :-) |
#6
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"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. |
#7
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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.. --- 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 |
#8
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"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 :-) Actually I have finally got the notebook back and they did in fact do something to it. They seem to have looked up the same support sites as me (or got the info direct from Compaq) and done the old new-heat-compound-paste on the cpu trick. We got it home and fired it up. Things seemed to run quite happily until I tried to do something really menial. Bam! Total lock up again. So, I thought, bugger this, before I take it back AGAIN, I will nuke the whole HDD and completely reinstall the OS from scratch. So, on wnet WinXP Pro + SP1. I downloaded the PowerNow software and it showed the everything running at maximum. I scrounged the MS site for that PowerNow CPU driver and installed that (5.1.2600.1106 is the latest verion apparently). PowerNow now shows everything at minimum with occasional spikes up to the max when under load. I'm assuming this is how PowerNow works? Anyway, haven't had a lockup since the reinstall. I've also avoided installing any of the Compaq software as WinXP drives it all anyway and I don't much care for the easy access stuff. |
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