adgjqetuo Posted August 16, 2007 Report Share Posted August 16, 2007 I have another question regarding my girlfriends Compaq Laptop. When she bought it, it was souposed to have 512mb of ram with it. About a year and a half later we noticed that its been getting REAL hot, and super sluggish. It would get so hot that it would even sometimes shut itself down, (I've never seen that before on a laptop). We found out if you prop it up though it helped a lot, but isn't that still not normal?My other concern was when I looked at it for her, and I right clicked on her "My Computer" and hit "Properties" under the stats it only reported 327mb of Ram. I thought that was really unusual, so since we had the Best Buy Warantee, we took it to them to be serviced. It came back with apparently a new motherboard installed. We took it back home and turned it on (we couldn't at the store because the battery was 100% dead for some reason) and it STILL only said 327mb of ram...not only that but this time the processor was only reporting 530mhz when its souposed to be 1.2ghz...we later discovered that it was going back and forwth from displaying 530mhz to 1.2ghz. We decided to wait a few days to see if the heat issue went away, but that still became an issue. It didn't get hot enough to turn itself off, but it became hot enough where the touchpad was too hot to use. We took it back to best buy, and they argued that it's "normal" eventhough it didn't do that when she bought it, and also the memory thing is "normal" too because the memory is shared with the video.I don't think they are right, because my laptop has shared video memory, but when I click on the My Computer Properties, it still shows the 1gb of Ram. Are they wrong or am I wrong? Should we take it back again? It's still acting sluggish.Thanks Again, (sorry for the long post)Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted August 17, 2007 Report Share Posted August 17, 2007 Welcome to the Windows Forum.No, that is not normal - not the overheating, not the insufficient memory or processor speed. If it is still under warranty, I would request a replacement.Regarding overheating: we have a few people here who know much more about hardware than me, but they usually log in later. So let me just give you some points until then. Overheating is obviously caused by a lack of cooling, which in turn can be caused by a malfunctioning fan and/or accumulated dust inside the computer.But some warranties automatically expire if you open up a computer, so I don't know if you are allowed to do that. Better tips will be coming forth when the UK people log in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted August 17, 2007 Report Share Posted August 17, 2007 The word laptop can be a bit of a misnomer. You have pointed out that it helps to prop it up. Using them on a lap with a full skirt or dress may be keeping cooling vents blocked. My daughter finds that hers operates much better on a flat solid surface. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark2 Posted August 17, 2007 Report Share Posted August 17, 2007 I may be wrong but some mobile CPUs would throttle down when overheating, this could account for the changing processor speed.It may be worth trying a temp monitoring program to see where the heat builds up quickest, HDD or CPU. see http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php which could initially assist, it may also show if a fan is running slowly.You may be able to access some of the internals to clean and dedust via the battery compartment.Can you link to the model ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.