HP Laptop black screen crash

[LurkerAspect]

Hi there!

I have an HP Pavilion dv7 17-inch that's been in service since mid 2010. Late last year I opened the laptop twice to deal with overheating issues, the first time to clean the fan, and the second time to replace thermal paste on the CPU and graphics cards. I may have damaged something in the process. The fan doesn't speed up at all, and the laptop is on a cooler bed constantly.

Not too long after that, the laptop was hit with a storm of BSODs that I couldn't identify using google. I turned the processor power down, which helped, but now I get crashes quite often, mostly whenever I play any game created post-2004, and even while watching Youtube videos.

A typical crash involves either a BSOD (less common), or the screen suddenly goes black, and a violent crackling comes from the sound system (either laptop or plugged in external speakers). Laptop is unresponsive, and has to be shutdown by holding the power button.

I'm close to replacing it, but I'm wondering if I'm missing something, and could potentially keep using this laptop a while longer.

I've attached a dxdiag if anyone feels like going through it.

TL;DR: Laptop crashes to a black screen and sound glitch when playing 3D games or watching Youtube. Memtest returns clean, have updated graphics card 4 times in the last 3 months. Probably overheating.

Any help is much appreciated!

 

[Monovertex]

How old is the laptop? You said you started putting it into service since 2010, but how old is it actually?

Maybe the processor is damaged because of the constant overheating. Does this specific laptop model have a history of overheating (other people with the same overheating issues)?

Have you tried various versions of the graphics driver (I'm assuming you already have the latest one). Perhaps the graphics driver is causing the card to overheat, considering you're getting this when playing games and stuff. And maybe an older version would help.

Have you tried re-installing Windows, trying various versions of Windows or Linux (perhaps live usb / cd of Linux, to not replace the entire OS)?

Another thing to consider would be the HDD, have you tested that with diagnostic tools?

I say these because you should rule out every component before considering the CPU or mobo faulty. And you say memtest is clean (how many passes did you run, btw?) and the GPU has been replaces already. So it's either something related to the GPU, but software, either some other component faulty.

 

[LurkerAspect]

Thanks for the quick response!

I phrased that badly; I bought the laptop (new) mid-2010; from what I can tell, most if not all HP's run hotter than other brands of laptop; I ran a full 8 passes on memtest. I'lltry an older graphics card driver, thanks for the suggestion! I'm hesitant to reinstall windows because I don't have a cd and to download it would take about 3 years on my internet speed, but I'll look into it. Again, thanks for the reply!

 

[Monovertex]

You can still try Linux, their distributions are smaller than Windows' so you'll be able to download it fast enough.

However, you should try an OS re-installing, after all it's preferable to try that first, rather than just buying a new laptop (unless you are standing upon piles of cash ).

And again, test the HDD with some diagnostic software as well.

 

[Accname]

You could also try the official support. Although the fact, that you have opened it probably voids the warranty.

 

[Monovertex]

Considering he bought it mid 2010, I assumed that warranty has expired by now .

 

[LurkerAspect]

Thanks for all the replies!

A friend suggested that I might have put too much thermal paste on the connections; could that cause some of the problems I'm experiencing?

I'm pretty sure the warranty is WELL gone by now

 

[Monovertex]

I have no idea of the effects of too much paste, usually I put just as needed. Once or twice a few of it got out into the socket, but nothing happened...

 

[LurkerAspect]

Ah well. Thanks for all the help, at this point I'll try to squeeze as much life from this laptop as I can before it finally kicks the bucket. I just need a liddle more money and I'll be able to replace it (this one's getting old anyways)