Not OK computer
January 10, 2015 8:31 AM
I have an Envy Dv7 laptop which I love. It is out of warranty, and a call to HP yielded no help as far as diagnosing the problem. I kept getting bounced from tech support to warranty to sales to someone else. The call lasted about an hour and eventually I had to give up as I had to leave for a flight.
Crackling and smoking details within
The problem: Weeks ago I was carrying my laptop open watching a you tube video while going from one room in my house to another. I slightly tilted it and noticed a crackling noise coming from the vent on the side. Either smoke or dust started coming out slightly (tried to smell it and it didn't have a real distinct burning smell, so I don't know.) I tilted it again and it happened again. It sounded like either there was someone in there bouncing around or maybe a fan loose or something? I shut the computer off and shook it and did everything I could to "goose it" to do it again and it wouldn't do it when off.
JUST AS AN ASIDE, I DID NOT NOTICE ANY PERFORMANCE ISSUES. THE COMPUTER DIDN'T DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHAT WAS DESCRIBED. Youtube etc still worked fine and nothing missed a beat on the screen.
Weeks went by and I forgot all about it until one day I tilted it again and it did it again. I just turned it on this morning and a puff of smoke/dust came out. I have it on a table top and have been "Babying" it.
What does this sound like? Where would my best bet be to take this to fix it. The Geek Squad? An independent store?
ONE OF THE BIG THINGS IS THAT I DON'T HAVE A DESKTOP COMPUTER AND USE THIS THING DAILY FOR WORK , PERSONAL AND EVERYTHING!!! BEING WITHOUT IT FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME IS NOT AN OPTION!!!
The computer is about a year and a half old.
Thank you in advance
The problem: Weeks ago I was carrying my laptop open watching a you tube video while going from one room in my house to another. I slightly tilted it and noticed a crackling noise coming from the vent on the side. Either smoke or dust started coming out slightly (tried to smell it and it didn't have a real distinct burning smell, so I don't know.) I tilted it again and it happened again. It sounded like either there was someone in there bouncing around or maybe a fan loose or something? I shut the computer off and shook it and did everything I could to "goose it" to do it again and it wouldn't do it when off.
JUST AS AN ASIDE, I DID NOT NOTICE ANY PERFORMANCE ISSUES. THE COMPUTER DIDN'T DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHAT WAS DESCRIBED. Youtube etc still worked fine and nothing missed a beat on the screen.
Weeks went by and I forgot all about it until one day I tilted it again and it did it again. I just turned it on this morning and a puff of smoke/dust came out. I have it on a table top and have been "Babying" it.
What does this sound like? Where would my best bet be to take this to fix it. The Geek Squad? An independent store?
ONE OF THE BIG THINGS IS THAT I DON'T HAVE A DESKTOP COMPUTER AND USE THIS THING DAILY FOR WORK , PERSONAL AND EVERYTHING!!! BEING WITHOUT IT FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME IS NOT AN OPTION!!!
The computer is about a year and a half old.
Thank you in advance
It sounds to me like you have a dying fan. HP laptops are known for bad fans.
You could find a manual and take it apart yourself and replace the fan with parts from ebay. You'll probably have to buy a specialist screwdriver (also sold on ebay).
Or you could pay someone else to do it for you.
posted by srboisvert at 9:24 AM on January 10, 2015
You could find a manual and take it apart yourself and replace the fan with parts from ebay. You'll probably have to buy a specialist screwdriver (also sold on ebay).
Or you could pay someone else to do it for you.
posted by srboisvert at 9:24 AM on January 10, 2015
HP laptops are known for bad fans.
They're also know for being flimsy as buggery. Carry them around and they bend. Carry them around with the fans operating, especially if they're operating hard against a typical HP dust clog, and their blades bang into things.
If you didn't immediately and unambiguously smell burning, my best guess is that you've just seen a flexing HP laptop chassis push the main cooling fan's blades close enough to the radiator on its heat pipe to knock some of the dust loose.
posted by flabdablet at 9:34 AM on January 10, 2015
They're also know for being flimsy as buggery. Carry them around and they bend. Carry them around with the fans operating, especially if they're operating hard against a typical HP dust clog, and their blades bang into things.
If you didn't immediately and unambiguously smell burning, my best guess is that you've just seen a flexing HP laptop chassis push the main cooling fan's blades close enough to the radiator on its heat pipe to knock some of the dust loose.
posted by flabdablet at 9:34 AM on January 10, 2015
I kept getting bounced from tech support to warranty to sales to someone else. The call lasted about an hour and eventually I had to give up
That's typical of HP, in my experience, and is one of the reasons I generally advise people to resist the siren song of HP's low prices.
posted by flabdablet at 9:35 AM on January 10, 2015
That's typical of HP, in my experience, and is one of the reasons I generally advise people to resist the siren song of HP's low prices.
posted by flabdablet at 9:35 AM on January 10, 2015
I shut the computer off and shook it
Don't do that to an HP, you'll break things. Instead: shut it down, swallow all your loose spit, purse your lips very close to the cooling exhaust vent, and BLOW AS HARD AS YOU CAN. You'll get a big puff of dust coming back out through the cooling intake, and your HP will run with less fan noise for about two months.
posted by flabdablet at 9:38 AM on January 10, 2015
Don't do that to an HP, you'll break things. Instead: shut it down, swallow all your loose spit, purse your lips very close to the cooling exhaust vent, and BLOW AS HARD AS YOU CAN. You'll get a big puff of dust coming back out through the cooling intake, and your HP will run with less fan noise for about two months.
posted by flabdablet at 9:38 AM on January 10, 2015
Get a can of air, and blow into every orifice of your powered-off laptop. Then blow out the keyboard.
Do this outdoors with a dry crossbreeze, if possible. Always look away when you blow out the keyboard. Not only are there flying crumbs, but some things can't be unseen.
After all that, fire it up, and it should cough out more dust that you dislodged but didn't have the right airflow to leave the laptop yet. You will indeed have to do this every few months henceforth; you've hit a critical mass of accumulated dust combined with a degradation of fan function.
I don't know that model at all, and HPs are not famously friendly to users who want to open things up and upgrade, but if you can look inside, such as by extracting the removable motherboard, or some other major face of the machine, get in there and blow it again. If the machine can be taken apart, someone has recorded the procedure on video and put it on youtube.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:54 AM on January 10, 2015
Do this outdoors with a dry crossbreeze, if possible. Always look away when you blow out the keyboard. Not only are there flying crumbs, but some things can't be unseen.
After all that, fire it up, and it should cough out more dust that you dislodged but didn't have the right airflow to leave the laptop yet. You will indeed have to do this every few months henceforth; you've hit a critical mass of accumulated dust combined with a degradation of fan function.
I don't know that model at all, and HPs are not famously friendly to users who want to open things up and upgrade, but if you can look inside, such as by extracting the removable motherboard, or some other major face of the machine, get in there and blow it again. If the machine can be taken apart, someone has recorded the procedure on video and put it on youtube.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:54 AM on January 10, 2015
if you don't have canned air you could probably also use one of the small attachments on your vacuum cleaner on low first to see what you can vacuum out of the vent.
posted by eatcake at 10:19 AM on January 10, 2015
posted by eatcake at 10:19 AM on January 10, 2015
Applying vacuum to the vents won't shift the dust that clogs the fans. That stuff builds up on the upstream side of the fins, immediately downstream of the fan blades. Applying a vacuum to the outlet is only going to suck the plug of compacted dust onto the fins a little harder; applying it to the inlet will pull air from lots of other places beside the fins and once again the dust clog will stay in place.
The only way to shift compacted dust off a laptop's cooling fins is to blow vigorously in the opposite direction to the way the cooling air usually flows. A compressed air handpiece is best for this. Canned air is next best. But even eyes squinched shut and a good hard blow into the exhaust vent shifts a useful amount of dust - certainly more than you'll get by applying suction to either inlet or exhaust.
posted by flabdablet at 10:36 AM on January 10, 2015
The only way to shift compacted dust off a laptop's cooling fins is to blow vigorously in the opposite direction to the way the cooling air usually flows. A compressed air handpiece is best for this. Canned air is next best. But even eyes squinched shut and a good hard blow into the exhaust vent shifts a useful amount of dust - certainly more than you'll get by applying suction to either inlet or exhaust.
posted by flabdablet at 10:36 AM on January 10, 2015
SO IS THE CONJECTURE THAT IT IS DUST? DOESN'T SEEM LIKE IT COULD BE SOMETHING ELSE?
I WILL ATTEMPT TO TAKE IT APART. WILL THAT LOSE ANY INFO?
posted by kbbbo at 1:42 PM on January 10, 2015
I WILL ATTEMPT TO TAKE IT APART. WILL THAT LOSE ANY INFO?
posted by kbbbo at 1:42 PM on January 10, 2015
If something is emanating from the vent and you don't smell burning then it is unlikely to be smoke, and dust is the most likely culprit - laptops suck dust up like a hoover.
I would advise in the strongest possible terms that you do not take the computer apart if you don't know exactly what you're doing. I'm not trying to be a dick when I say that if you're asking "Will it lose any info if I take it apart?" then you absolutely should not attempt to disassemble the computer yourself, especially if being without it for long periods of time is, as you say, not an option.
Turn the laptop off and blow some canned air into the vent. Blow some out into the air before you aim it at the vent. If the problem persists, a local service shop might be the way to go, but you will want to back it up first.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 2:38 PM on January 10, 2015
I would advise in the strongest possible terms that you do not take the computer apart if you don't know exactly what you're doing. I'm not trying to be a dick when I say that if you're asking "Will it lose any info if I take it apart?" then you absolutely should not attempt to disassemble the computer yourself, especially if being without it for long periods of time is, as you say, not an option.
Turn the laptop off and blow some canned air into the vent. Blow some out into the air before you aim it at the vent. If the problem persists, a local service shop might be the way to go, but you will want to back it up first.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 2:38 PM on January 10, 2015
THANK YOU FAMOUS MONSTER. I HAVE A FRIEND THAT WORKS AT IBM THAT IS CONFIDENT THEY CAN DO IT. AS LONG AS SOMEONE DOES IT PROPERLY, YOU WON'T LOSE ANYTHING?
posted by kbbbo at 2:46 PM on January 10, 2015
posted by kbbbo at 2:46 PM on January 10, 2015
on the HP laptop I tried to take apart to clean out dust, I discovered (after wrecking a delicate and weird cable plug on the inside) that I would have to take out the motherboard to access the fan, and to take out the motherboard I would have to practically take out every other part of the laptop, including parts of the screen.
Canned air in the out vent actually worked wonders. It cleaned out the dust and grime much better than my fingers or a knife ever could. Don't bother your friend, just get some compressed air from 'Staples' or 'Office Depot'
posted by ennui.bz at 2:50 PM on January 10, 2015
Canned air in the out vent actually worked wonders. It cleaned out the dust and grime much better than my fingers or a knife ever could. Don't bother your friend, just get some compressed air from 'Staples' or 'Office Depot'
posted by ennui.bz at 2:50 PM on January 10, 2015
I agree with the comments above about chassis causing the fan to grind in to dust/dirt around the heatsink, and just the fan enclosure itself.
But really, i've worked on several of these HP envy machines(and have owned as second/loaner machines, or given to family members several HP elitebooks which are "as good at it gets" for HP).
Every single one of them had janky fans that clogged constantly and ran faster than they really should have needed to all the time.
I really, really hate HP laptops and fans are one of the primary reasons why. Even the HP i owned in the 90s had a terrible stupid clogging loud fan.
My serious advice, having dealt with this over and over on my moms machine is to sell it on ebay and buy a used thinkpad. I did that with hers, and she's happy as a clam. I'm honestly not kidding. I've never had a fan problem with a thinkpad. The one time i thought i did, there was just a crumb of some crunchy snack food trail mix stuff in there(and not my snack, eugh).
I will never buy anything they make again.
posted by emptythought at 5:22 PM on January 10, 2015
But really, i've worked on several of these HP envy machines(and have owned as second/loaner machines, or given to family members several HP elitebooks which are "as good at it gets" for HP).
Every single one of them had janky fans that clogged constantly and ran faster than they really should have needed to all the time.
I really, really hate HP laptops and fans are one of the primary reasons why. Even the HP i owned in the 90s had a terrible stupid clogging loud fan.
My serious advice, having dealt with this over and over on my moms machine is to sell it on ebay and buy a used thinkpad. I did that with hers, and she's happy as a clam. I'm honestly not kidding. I've never had a fan problem with a thinkpad. The one time i thought i did, there was just a crumb of some crunchy snack food trail mix stuff in there(and not my snack, eugh).
I will never buy anything they make again.
posted by emptythought at 5:22 PM on January 10, 2015
AS LONG AS SOMEONE DOES IT PROPERLY, YOU WON'T LOSE ANYTHING?
You'll lose a lot of time for no good reason. Dust you can't get out of a laptop by blowing air the wrong way through the cooling system usually doesn't cause any trouble.
Seriously, just blow the dust out backwards before you even think of getting inside a laptop, especially an HP or Toshiba. It's really easy to break stuff inside those machines, and the risk of doing so is simply not worth the benefit.
posted by flabdablet at 6:16 PM on January 10, 2015
You'll lose a lot of time for no good reason. Dust you can't get out of a laptop by blowing air the wrong way through the cooling system usually doesn't cause any trouble.
Seriously, just blow the dust out backwards before you even think of getting inside a laptop, especially an HP or Toshiba. It's really easy to break stuff inside those machines, and the risk of doing so is simply not worth the benefit.
posted by flabdablet at 6:16 PM on January 10, 2015
Also, if you're actually worried about losing information from your laptop, you need to acquire an external backup drive ASAP whether your machine is making weird noises or not.
posted by flabdablet at 6:18 PM on January 10, 2015
posted by flabdablet at 6:18 PM on January 10, 2015
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The crackling noise is a bit strange, it might be a fan that is wearing out that makes noise if the fan slides to the end of its shaft (like when the computer is tilted).
Blow it the dust. Get the fan checked at a local shop if it bothers you.
G
posted by gnossos at 9:08 AM on January 10, 2015