[mdlug] Netbook suggestions (and uhappy laptop)

[Aaron Kulkis]

Ingles, Raymond wrote:
> I think my wife may have killed our laptop. It was showing signs of
> overheating last time it worked (she had it on a pillow on her lap,
> blocking the inlet vent).

I don't think that should be a problem.  My HP has a Core-2 duo,
and has been running almost continuously for, oh, probably 32 of
the last 36 months.  For a good portion of that time, it has
rested on pillows, blankets, etc.

> Now it won't boot if there's a hard drive
> connected - I've tried two different drives. I think it'll boot off a
> CD/DVD, but it's of limited utility then. Any suggestions for
> troubleshooting?

I would suggest looking for the service and repair document
for your model, and investigating the fan assembly.

After about 7 months in Iraq, the fan started making noise.
It soon became significant, but the system wasn't showing
signs of heat problems (I was running SuSE 10.1 at that time,
in fact until I finally got the motivation to upgrade it to
openSUSE 10.3 about 2 months ago).

Finally, about a month ago, it started going down hard after
about 5-10 minutes. The fan just stopped turning.

Fortunately, I had decided about 6 month ago that I would
have to replace the fan, and had HP's service repair book
in .pdf form already on another computer.

It turned out to be lint in the fan.  About a month ago, the
machine wouldn't stay up more than 5-10 minutes due to the
CPU's internal thermal cutoff getting tripped.

I actually found significantly sized dust-bunnies trapped in
between the fan blades.  The fan noise has almost completely
disappeared (from somewhere areound, oh, I would guess 60 dB
down to about 20 dB)

To prevent a repeat, I now have a cheap ($10) notebook stand
(NO FANS) that has 4 pedestal points to keep the air intake
from sucking up all that lint.  I'm next going to work on
putting some sort of filtration material over the fan intake
(unfortunately, there's not enough room INSIDE to do this,
and due to the way that HP DV8000 series is designed, I would
literally have to rip the entire computer apart every time
I wanted to change the filter material...meaning 2-4 hours
of screwdriver time) so it will have to be on the outside.

I'm kind of disappointed with HP that while all of the other
mechanical devices in this computer (DVD, hard drives) are
easily removable, there is no outside access to the fan
assembly, and requires removing the motherboard from the
base plate...hence the 2-4 hours of work).

> 
>  In other news, come xmas I think I'll get her a netbook. Less likely to
> overheat and will do all the things she cares to do. Linux is no
> problem, I just need something that'll capably netsurf and connect to
> our Windows machine via RDP. Anyone have any suggestions or tips on that
> front?
> 
>  Sincerely,
> 
>  Ray Ingles                                           (313) 227-2317
> 
>  "DRM 'manages access' in the same way that jail 'manages freedom.'"
>                          - Mr. Chaotica
> 
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