[wannabe1]

Yup...that's way too hot.

Pick up a can of compressed air next time you get to an office supply store. Use that to blow out all the vents (bottom, side, and back) that ventilate the processor. I'll bet you get quite a bit of dust with the first shot. When the processor gets that hot, it will heat up the whole system board and the whole machine will feel hot to the touch...as you discovered.

Regarding the new keyboard you have coming...while it appears to be the correct keyboard, I hadn't really decided if that is the problem yet. That's why I wanted to try the machine with an external USB keyboard before deciding. Hopefully the keyboard will turn out to be the culprit and the touch pad won't prove to be a part of the problem.

Has your friend changed keyboards on an HP dv series machine before? They are pretty easy if you know how, but can be real buggers if you don't.

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He's never changed a keyboard but he, despite his very white collar occupation, likes to open things up and tinker. I've seen him solder something. He has what my mother used to call "golden hands" and is very pedantic, a quality I hate otherwise but that shall be very useful in this situation. Now, getting him to do it soon - that is my biggest challenge. The keyboard will be here tomorrow.

Edited by Sophia L, 23 May 2012 - 04:34 PM.

[Sophia L]

He's never changed a keyboard but he, despite his very white collar occupation, likes to open things up and tinker. I've seen him solder something. He has what my mother used to call "golden hands" and is very pedantic, a quality I hate otherwise but that shall be very useful in this situation. Now, getting him to do it soon - that is my biggest challenge. The keyboard will be here tomorrow.

Edited by Sophia L, 23 May 2012 - 04:34 PM.

[Amlak]

Maybe it's because of a gender thingy, but I actually envy anyone who has such a gift. It's not a quality I would hate.

[wannabe1]

Sometimes golden hands are just enough to get into a whole heap of trouble...

A couple pointers.

On the dv series machines, there are typically three small screws holding the keyboard to the chassis. Two of these are under the battery. With the lappy bottom up, the battery removed, and the machine positioned so the battery compartment is nearest to you, there should be three screws visible within the battery compartment. The two on the left are for the keyboard.

In about the center of the machine is the memory panel...This panel will have to be removed. On the right hand side of the memory compartment there is a recessed screw that is also for the keyboard. It should be marked with a little keyboard stamped into the plastic.

Then flip the machine over. Pry under the center top of the keyboard (F6-F7 area) and work your way to both corners while lifting the center gently. Use something nonmetallic for this. I'm a musician...I use a Gibson medium guitar pick. The corner of a credit card should work equally well. The bottom of the keyboard is held in place by three tabs that fit into slots in the chassis.

Remove the keyboard slowly...the cable underneath is barely long enough to reach the connector. The cable is secured to the motherboard connector with a locking mechanism. As you look at the connector, you'll see plastic tabs that are a different color than the connector at both corners. These tabs need to be pulled away from the connector slightly...but only about a millimeter (a little more than the distance between the lines of the = sign seen here). Be careful, this locking bar may be very brittle from the heat inside the machine. Once this locking mechanism has been "unlocked", the cable will slide right out of the connector.

Reverse the order to install the new keyboard.

Take your time!!!

[Sophia L]

Sometimes golden hands are just enough to get into a whole heap of trouble...

That is a whole different set of "golden hands". My mom probably would call those platinum hands...

Oh, wait a minute! You're talking about computer trouble?..

A couple pointers.
Reverse the order to install the new keyboard.
Take your time!!!

Will do. Will report.

Edited by Sophia L, 24 May 2012 - 12:40 AM.

[Sophia L]

OK, my friend is here finally and we're working on the computer as we speak. We've disassembled the entire laptop, now we're cleaning it up and are going to follow this video:
and replace thermal compound as it shows to do. Hope this will work. More reporting to come.

Any suggestions RIGHT NOW, while the guts are open?

[wannabe1]

That's really a pretty good video. About the only thing I saw was that he used a screwdriver to remove the old thermal compound...which is a no-no. Use something softer like a plastic putty knife or a credit card to avoid scoring the mating surfaces of the cooler and the CPU/GPU. You can do additional cleanup with paper towels and a bit of thermal compound cleaner or rubbing alcohol.

Don't get carried away with the thermal compound when you reapply it...it doesn't take much to do the job.

Take your time...

[Sophia L]

That's really a pretty good video.

I'm glad you like it. I went through quite a few to find this one. Actually, before this one, I found this one: and we used it to disassemble the laptop.

About the only thing I saw was that he used a screwdriver to remove the old thermal compound...which is a no-no. Use something softer like a plastic putty knife or a credit card to avoid scoring the mating surfaces of the cooler and the CPU/GPU. You can do additional cleanup with paper towels and a bit of thermal compound cleaner or rubbing alcohol.

<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">Done and done.

Don't get carried away with the thermal compound when you reapply it...it doesn't take much to do the job.

Take your time...

We are. Just opening the fan now. So far, something's not letting us open it (on the side)... Never mind - just found the fourth screw that wasn't in the video. Speaking of which, not everything in my laptop was identical to what was shown in the video. I had "extra" parts, screws and cables that needed to be removed. My god, the amount of dirt and dust inside the fan! I'm surprised it worked at all.

Thanks for the suggestions! Will post when we're done. Now I need to find a video on how to Reassemble the laptop.

[Sophia L]

Mission accomplished! At least partly so.

We finished at 1:30 AM, after about 9-10 hours of work, give or take some chatting, some smoking of some kind of horribly smelling carnation cigarettes (not by me), some cooking (by me) and some eating.

I have mostly good news and some questions.




We followed the two videos I mentioned above. The amount of dust and dirt! My goodness! Here's a small example:



Everything was cleaned with rubbing alcohol, reading glasses cleaner and a special vacuum cleaner attachment my friend brought. We replaced the keyboard. We scraped off and replaced the thermal compound. $11 for a tiny one-inch munchkin of a thermal compound tube at Radio Shack? One inch, if that!

Reassembling was perhaps the most challenging part of the job. They are no detailed videos or directions I could find, so I would rewind the disassembly video by a few seconds, play it and try to do that segment backwards and so forth. A pretty crazy-making endeavor, I must say. If you ever want to punish someone -- I highly recommend this method.

My friend used the wrong screws somewhere inside and so at the very end we were having trouble with a couple that were too short. Also,we were having trouble putting in place the right side of the speaker grill, it was too high and wouldn't let the monitor come down. My friend didn't want to reopen everything, so eventually he managed to coax it into place. There is a small problem though, not sure if it's related or not. The right side of the monitor sits slightly higher on the hinge than the left one, making it a few millimeters askew. No one will probably notice it, but I can see it. The left side of the monitor is much too tight, in my opinion, because it doesn't pivot easily. Any suggestions on how I can fix it? BY MYSELF?

Next problem, maybe related to the short screws, used on the outside or maybe not (pure speculation on my part) is that the touchpad is a lot less responsive. I played poker on Facebook, to repeat the conditions that made the laptop get too hot before, and I lost a few hands, not through bad play, mind you but because I clicked on a move that I wanted to make and it did nothing. Sometimes it works fine, sometimes I need now to hit the touchpad a few times to make it do something. Same question as before.

Now the very good news:

No more ringing at all, the computer boots to Windows!!!, the cursor is no longer frozen when I start, the new keyboard works great! It boots very slowly, but it does get there. Maybe now you can advise me how to speed it up, if it's even necessary. I counted about 7 seconds between the HP logo to Microsoft progress bar, which runs for 15-20 seconds, then it goes dark, then completely black for a second and takes 5 seconds to get to Windows screen, and then it takes some time to get to the desktop screen. Something along those lines.It would be nice to figure out what makes it lag so much on a reformatted hard drive but this can keep. BUT... all the big problems - gone. I am still missing the Bluetooth driver and Java plugin crashes a lot, as well as Shockwave Flash, but this was never an issue that was part of my laptop "going crazy".

The temperatures:

Last night, as I mentioned, I played a game on FB, after we were done and my friend was gone - the laptop got quite hot again. Not as hot as before, but the Speedfan showed most values with a fire icon next to them. It was 49, 48,54,52,51. Still, much lower than the high 70s before. I did have it sitting on a Belkin fan pad (I think, it was 2:30 AM) and definitely had Speedfan on automatic control.

Today, I searched online and found someone suggest that it helps a lot with the heat problem if you change the Maximum Processor state to 99%. I did that. The minimum was set to 5% and I didn't touch it.

The temperatures today - a lot better than last night, no fire signs. I don't know why it is, but I'll be very excited if it stays that way.




I have many more questions to ask but this War and Peace was long enough, so I'll keep it for the next time, after I hear back. Thank you, everyone, for your help and encouragement!

Edited by Sophia L, 04 June 2012 - 09:38 PM.

[wannabe1]

Great news that all the hard work you did has yielded positive results!

The screw situation is a bit bothersome. If you have a couple left over that are too short, then you have two installed that are too long. These could be a problem depending on where they are installed...hopefully they are not touching something they shouldn't...like the motherboard. The first thing I'd check is the left hinge for the display. Is one of the too long screws installed there and causing the problem?

The touch pad problems could be related to a too long screw, too, but it sounds more like maybe the touch pad cable isn't seated properly. You'd have to pull the keyboard (at least) to have a look at that.

It would definitely be a good idea to find out where the "too long" screws are. They are more likely to cause problems than the shorter ones.

As for the dusty CPU cooler...wow...I doubt I have that much cootie material under the guest bed. Cleaning up that mess had to result in better cooling.

I have to admire your courage for disassembling that machine as far as you did. I don't usually take them that far apart unless I'm replacing the motherboard.

[Sophia L]

After I was so happy that everything, except some minor thing or two, was working perfectly... Some bad news...

Took the laptop that was actually working great, back to my friend to fix the screw situation as you advised to do. This time he did it all by himself, without me there. When I got the laptop back, he said that he fixed the long-short screws situation but was now missing a couple of screws but the places he didn't put them in were unimportant. The monitor is now level and straight but the hinges are still way too tight, in my opinion.

In one of the outer corners, a small piece of plastic, right where a screw was going, tore off last time we were working a week ago, but he glued it back on with super glue. Today, as my friend was changing the screw there, the piece fell off again, but this time it fell inside the laptop. My friend told me, to my big surprise, that he wasn't feeling like taking off the the monitor to look for it and that he doesn't hear it rattle inside, so everything will be OK and I have nothing to worry about.


Don't know if it's related to the loose piece or to some connection that got screwed up, pun intended, when he was redoing some screws... though I don't see any other reason right now - suddenly ALL sound is GONE. The sound WAS working fine when I first came home with the laptop. Then, a couple of hours later, suddenly - puff... gone... Nothing, Zilch, Nada... It's not on mute, just in case you're going to tell me to check that first.

The device manager shows the sound & the speakers to be OK. When I test the speakers, it shows visually that there is sound coming out of each, yet there is no sound whatsoever. I even did a system restore, which didn't help. I also went on Microsoft Fix It Center which ran its tests and said that nothing was fixed because no problem was found. ...And still NO SOUND.

Edited by Sophia L, 11 June 2012 - 12:06 PM.

[wannabe1]

My best guess is that the speakers are not connected. There is a small connector under the bezel above the keyboard (on a small circuit board) that connects the speakers to the motherboard. It should be located on the left side of the bezel near the power button and should be pointed toward the keyboard.

[Sophia L]

My best guess is that the speakers are not connected.

If that is the case, why would the speakers work fine for a few hours and then quit?

My friend is annoyed & doesn't want to help me anymore... Could you please be a little more specific about that bezel's location?

BTW, I found this website and guide that I thought you might really like: Inside My Laptop website

Should I be worried about the lost loose piece?

Thanks so much for such a quick response. God knows this kept me up all last night...

Edited by Sophia L, 11 June 2012 - 02:09 PM.

[wannabe1]

The bezel fits right above the keyboard...right at the top of the main part of the laptop. The connector is under (behind) the power button on the left. No tools are required to remove the bezel other than a credit card or similar flat nonmetallic tool. This is one area I use a guitar pick. This particular bezel is for a dv6000, but yours should be very similar.



IF the part that's loose inside the machine is plastic and doesn't get into any moving parts (CPU fan), you should be ok. If it's metal, it needs to be located and removed

[Sophia L]

Thanks! Just to make sure that I understand correctly - I don't need to unscrew anything? Just remove the part that's in the photo and look for the connection?