A few weeks ago I wrote about Stef’s laptop and its spontaneous shutdowns. You were nice enough to make loads of suggestions. I think I now know the cause.
The problem was difficult to diagnose because it came fresh on the heels of a bad infection. The virus likely had nothing to do with the problem, but it added a little fog to what was going on.
Diagnosis: The CPU fan seems dead. Though there are programs which should read fan speed none of them seem to work for me. I don’t hear it whirring when it should. Isn’t that enough evidence?
In stressful situations when the CPU is under heavy load the core temperature quickly goes to 100° Celsius (212° Fahrenheit). I wasn’t going to let it get any hotter. The computer’s BIOS has thermal shutdown limits which is why it would turn powerless for no apparent reason.
With a few of the back panels off and a small room fan blasting the case I can keep the temperature under 80° Celsius. It really should be well under 50°.
Unfortunately, opening the case and unsticking the fan (I’ll bet it’s jammed up with dog and/or cat hair) is beyond me. I can work with desktop machines, but laptops scare the hell out of me. The HP website says there might be as many as 72 screws on this and similar models.
I am weighing my options.