Computer Problems

[Presbyterian Continuist]

I have been troubleshooting a friend's HP Pavilion All-in-One 20 which goes for 10 minutes, overheats and switches itself off. She has taken it to a repairer who could not fix it. It is three years out of the warranty. In my opinion, it is now a heap of junk. It is a design fault in the machine, and I think that HP should recall all the machines that are failing through overheating and either fix the problem or give people their money back, regardless if it is out of warranty or not. I would not recommend anyone buying these machines. Warning: If you buy an HP Pavilion All in One, you are very likely to be disappointed and frustrated when it overheats and packs up. What I suggest is that when you are considering buying a new computer, look on Google to see what models are the most reliable. I have had a Samsung Laptop for a number of years, and have had no problems with it at all. My daughter bought an Acer laptop, and it kept overheating and switching off. I have to run it with a desk fan blowing directly on to it. Yet I have another Acer that does not have that problem at all. So LET THE BUYER BEWARE when considering buying an HP Pavilion All in One. You'd be better off buying a standard tower type computer with a separate monitor. They seem to be much more reliable.

 

[geiroffenberg]

not sure whts going on, plus i realize youre not asking advice here and you probably know more about computers than i do, but i have a hp pavillion and when there gathers too much dust inside the GPU fan, it soon overheats, you can hear the fan easily working on full speed specially when wtching movies, and after a few weeks of this it will get to the opint where the pc turns itself off before it gets cooked. All ive done is opening the graphics card and blowing the dust out, somtimes theres note even ea need to opening the card, just get the dust out of the fan. And then its back to normal. Last time this happened, it hardy turned itself on even, and the screen just had a lot of lines on it. It looked all borken, but all i had to do was clean the fan. and its now stable and normal, works great.

Btw, to check if this is the problem, i use the free excellent openhardwaremonitor to monitor everything going on. Link below. Highly recomennded.
There you can see if it is the gpu fan goin on near 100%, and then you know thats the problem, then you know why the 0pc turns itself off, its s self perserving mechanism: Open Hardware Monitor - Core temp, fan speed and voltages in a free software gadget

 

[chevyontheriver]

I have been troubleshooting a friend's HP Pavilion All-in-One 20 which goes for 10 minutes, overheats and switches itself off. She has taken it to a repairer who could not fix it. It is three years out of the warranty. In my opinion, it is now a heap of junk. It is a design fault in the machine, and I think that HP should recall all the machines that are failing through overheating and either fix the problem or give people their money back, regardless if it is out of warranty or not. I would not recommend anyone buying these machines. Warning: If you buy an HP Pavilion All in One, you are very likely to be disappointed and frustrated when it overheats and packs up. What I suggest is that when you are considering buying a new computer, look on Google to see what models are the most reliable. I have had a Samsung Laptop for a number of years, and have had no problems with it at all. My daughter bought an Acer laptop, and it kept overheating and switching off. I have to run it with a desk fan blowing directly on to it. Yet I have another Acer that does not have that problem at all. So LET THE BUYER BEWARE when considering buying an HP Pavilion All in One. You'd be better off buying a standard tower type computer with a separate monitor. They seem to be much more reliable.

Likely too much dust, as previously mentioned, or the cpu fan needs to be re-pasted onto the cpu. I've seen both as overheating causes. The heat transfer paste between cpu and cpu fan doesn't last forever. Getting the dust out would be the first thing, blasting it good with canned air.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

I'll be blunt.... If HP died off I wouldn't care. I used to LOVE HP. They used to make quality stuff, including printers. But now they always have new models, they are cheaply made and we always having some problem with them. Our current All In One already is having issues with not printing right from mobile devices and laptops. Sometimes it doesn't notice the paper in the tray. I've complained to HP so many times since as a PC repair geek and they just don't seem to care.

Looking online it seems many agree and all think HP has gone down hill alot. But sadly there really no is magic answer for a better printer. The other brands are also cheap quality printers and they have more limited things for them. Such as ink. You can founds endless amounts of ink for HP stuff at least. If it wasn't that my wife needs a printer I'd get rid of it. Or at least only keep it for faxing.

 

[timewerx]

My dad's Dell also have same problem so I downloaded a disassembly manual from the internet, took the thing apart to get to the fan, cleaned the fan, fins with compressed air, problem solved!

Out of the laptops I took apart, Lenovo is the easiest and quickest to get to the fan is just behind the keyboard. In some models of Dell, you have to remove the LCD monitor and the motherboard before you can even access the fan!

 

[chevyontheriver]

I'll be blunt.... If HP died off I wouldn't care. I used to LOVE HP. They used to make quality stuff, including printers. But now they always have new models, they are cheaply made and we always having some problem with them. Our current All In One already is having issues with not printing right from mobile devices and laptops. Sometimes it doesn't notice the paper in the tray. I've complained to HP so many times since as a PC repair geek and they just don't seem to care.

Looking online it seems many agree and all think HP has gone down hill alot. But sadly there really no is magic answer for a better printer. The other brands are also cheap quality printers and they have more limited things for them. Such as ink. You can founds endless amounts of ink for HP stuff at least. If it wasn't that my wife needs a printer I'd get rid of it. Or at least only keep it for faxing.

They are vehicles for selling expensive ink. A laser printer is far more economical. The best thing ever was the Phaser, which basically used colored wax crayons and it melted those on t o the paper with precision. I don't think they make those anymore but a used one might be a smart buy. I try to go paperless, but still need printing.

 

[geiroffenberg]

just to make it clear, when this happenes, and it has happened a few times, it was not the cpu fan, tho i have cleaned that as well, it was the fan over the grapich chip, the gpu. ITs either directly on the motehrboard, or most probably it sits on its own graphic card in one of the slots (if this is a desktop pc we are talking about), i sear, all i had to do last time was just to blow out ALL the dust from the fan and around it, and now it doesnt get heated anhymore.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

not sure whts going on, plus i realize youre not asking advice here and you probably know more about computers than i do, but i have a hp pavillion and when there gathers too much dust inside the GPU fan, it soon overheats, you can hear the fan easily working on full speed specially when wtching movies, and after a few weeks of this it will get to the opint where the pc turns itself off before it gets cooked. All ive done is opening the graphics card and blowing the dust out, somtimes theres note even ea need to opening the card, just get the dust out of the fan. And then its back to normal. Last time this happened, it hardy turned itself on even, and the screen just had a lot of lines on it. It looked all borken, but all i had to do was clean the fan. and its now stable and normal, works great.

Btw, to check if this is the problem, i use the free excellent openhardwaremonitor to monitor everything going on. Link below. Highly recomennded.
There you can see if it is the gpu fan goin on near 100%, and then you know thats the problem, then you know why the 0pc turns itself off, its s self perserving mechanism: Open Hardware Monitor - Core temp, fan speed and voltages in a free software gadget

Hey, thanks for that. It's worth looking at. My daughter's Acer laptop had the same problem and I cleaned out the fan and put new goolash on the CPU and it made an improvement. I also put the computer up on 4 milk bottle tops and had a usb fan whatsaname under it and had a desk fan blowing on the top, and it didn't click off then! Yet I have another similar Acer which doesn't have that problem at all. My friend has had the Pavilion for three years and the problem has only just occurred, so it may be a dust problem. She had it in with a repairer and I am puzzled as to why they didn't pick up on it. So I'm glad I posted here because of helpful folks like you!

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Likely too much dust, as previously mentioned, or the cpu fan needs to be re-pasted onto the cpu. I've seen both as overheating causes. The heat transfer paste between cpu and cpu fan doesn't last forever. Getting the dust out would be the first thing, blasting it good with canned air.

Yes. That seems to be the common problem. I had a look at what it takes to get the back panel off the machine, but not having experience with this type, I can only see two screws and nothing else. I'm not going to risk it. I will tell my friend what the problem may be and to take it back to the repairer and get the dust removed and the cpu repasted, and to see what will result. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

I'll be blunt.... If HP died off I wouldn't care. I used to LOVE HP. They used to make quality stuff, including printers. But now they always have new models, they are cheaply made and we always having some problem with them. Our current All In One already is having issues with not printing right from mobile devices and laptops. Sometimes it doesn't notice the paper in the tray. I've complained to HP so many times since as a PC repair geek and they just don't seem to care.

Looking online it seems many agree and all think HP has gone down hill alot. But sadly there really no is magic answer for a better printer. The other brands are also cheap quality printers and they have more limited things for them. Such as ink. You can founds endless amounts of ink for HP stuff at least. If it wasn't that my wife needs a printer I'd get rid of it. Or at least only keep it for faxing.

I posted a warning on Facebook detailing the problem with the computer and that if anyone buys this type they will end up with disappointment and frustration. I said let the buyer beware and avoid the model all together and buy a more reliable desktop model where it would be much easier to clean out the fan and re-goo the cpu. I think that putting it on social media is the best way of getting HP to take notice. If my post goes viral and sales of those models fall, then HP have to take notice. In New Zealand we have the consumers guarantees act which says that a product has to be of marketable quality. I don't believe these HP models are marketable quality because they have a design fault, and it would be interesting to see if HP might be vulnerable to litigation under consumer legislation.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

My dad's Dell also have same problem so I downloaded a disassembly manual from the internet, took the thing apart to get to the fan, cleaned the fan, fins with compressed air, problem solved!

Out of the laptops I took apart, Lenovo is the easiest and quickest to get to the fan is just behind the keyboard. In some models of Dell, you have to remove the LCD monitor and the motherboard before you can even access the fan!

I did the same with my daughter's Acer. It was sure a mission to get to the fan! But it gave me good experience at dissassembling a laptop. I think the hassle is all the screws that have to be undone! I damaged the screen on my laptop and got a replacement and installed it myself. That was much easier!

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

just to make it clear, when this happenes, and it has happened a few times, it was not the cpu fan, tho i have cleaned that as well, it was the fan over the grapich chip, the gpu. ITs either directly on the motehrboard, or most probably it sits on its own graphic card in one of the slots (if this is a desktop pc we are talking about), i sear, all i had to do last time was just to blow out ALL the dust from the fan and around it, and now it doesnt get heated anhymore.

That's interesting! I never thought of that one.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Thank you for all your good feedback. I will make these suggestions to my friend so she can go back to the repairer to implement them. Hopefully it will solve the problem.

 

[chevyontheriver]

Yes. That seems to be the common problem. I had a look at what it takes to get the back panel off the machine, but not having experience with this type, I can only see two screws and nothing else. I'm not going to risk it. I will tell my friend what the problem may be and to take it back to the repairer and get the dust removed and the cpu repasted, and to see what will result. Thanks for the feedback.

I've taken apart a few laptops, iMacs, even older all-in-one Macs, and I have come to appreciate the bigger cases of a more standard desktop. Those other ones where nothing is easy and you have to take 17 things apart before getting to your destination were nerve-racking.