Never buy anything from HP.

November 20th, 2009

Never more to buy HP.

This is the second time I say this. This is my second laptop and THE LAST. I was a happy owner HP pavilion with NVIDIA 8400m for last 1 and half year. Until now.

One morning I wake up started started the laptop and after tree to five minutes my screen splits to six and typical artefacts begin to appear.

hp nvidia video problem 6 screens

What more to say. A “new” main board from ebay is around 200$, a repair in service maybe will cost me more – and this is half the price of an new laptop. πŸ™

So I open it – first to see main board serial numbers, and it is true no mater what you hear about HP there is BIG problem with overheating inside – cpu and nvidia chips are on the different levels. And if intel cpu touch cpu cooler directly, nvidia gpu is 2 or 3 mm under it, not touching directly the cooler, HP used thermal “gum” compound πŸ™ very poor design of the cooler gives you an series of overheating of the chip and all around components. The north bridge is cooled not with heat sing – it tyres to touch part of the laptop, south bridge only have thermal compound over it – it not touches anything !!! Complete lack of design.Β  πŸ™

In other words chip unsolder itself.

Solution – to solder it again.Β  First I just heated it for couple of minutes with usual hair dryer . And this WORKED for around 10 minuets. I was able to boot ubuntu and next windows go blue screen, restart and again 6 screens.

So I send it to service to repair – the bad thing is that you never know when will be next maybe final stop.

conclusion :Β  never,never buy HP again,Β  never buy nvidia mobile.