Hi all.

Got a DV7-4150ea, a few years old run pretty hard (100'c+ reported core temps most days)...

Recently, the C drive checker has been coming up on startup...this comes after a long line of random BSODs and a possibly unrelated event where the graphics drivers were seemingly deleting themselves with every other boot...I'm beginning to suspect my hard drive is just a tad dodgy.

However, the odd recent twist is after one BSOD, I started the PC up again and it now refuses to run for much more than 20 minutes without an audio stutter, a freeze for a minute or two then another BSOD.

Any ideas what it could be? I'm not especially happy with the idea of having to buy another hard drive-this would be its 3rd in 3 years...nevermind not exactly being ecstatic about having to reinstall W7...again...

~Matt

Quote from MattsterGT :

(100'c+ reported core temps most days)...
...
Any ideas what it could be?

Well... fix your cooling to start with...

Quote from MattsterGT :

100'c+ reported core temps most days

What the? Ever thought of cleaning that thing?

GPU probably got fried by now which means this laptop has obtained junk status. Unless you can do a cheap BGA re-balling done by a professional (~ 100 pounds) it's pretty much dead.

And yes you get those problems which you describe, BSOD's, hangs, audio stutter.

Ah, didn't bother looking up what it was. Yeah, you've probably also cooked the GPU, RAM, motherboard and HDD as it's a laptop...

A: Congratulations for keeping a DV7 working for so long, they have a reputation for cooking themselves.

B: Clean it first with compressed air, pull it as far apart as you are comfortable doing. They fill with dust and, like most HP laptops, aren't well designed for cooling at all.

C: Strip it and put on new thermal grease on the processor and video heat sinks. HP seem to employ the blind to apply thermal grease at the factory and I've yet to see one that wasn't a disaster waiting to happen.

D: Temperatures, Should be around 40 or less on idle, no higher than 70 on full power gaming. That's only approx but much hotter than that needs checking out ASAP.

..Since it has been used for gaming, did you ever thought about a cooling stand/pad ?
It may be a bit late to think about it...