WIndows 10 What could be going wrong with my HP8470p

ssal

ssal

Active Member
I love the HP8470p and it has been performing solidly. But lately, there is something about the screen that's not working right.

Here's the spec: HP8470p; 12 gb DRAM (4+8); 256 gb SSD; 500 gb HHD.

Once in a while recently (more often now) when I move the laptop around (with AC plugged in), the screen will be all garbled, like in the old days when the TV station signed off and there is no signal. Hitting any keys doesn't bring it back except for rebooting. Pressing the power down button to shut it off and restart it solved the problem immediately.

Obviously, something is not right, or something is loose.

My initial reaction is that could be caused by the DRAMs. The machine originally came with 2x4 gb. I swapped one 4x with an 8x from another machine. Would there be any incompatibility that may cause this kind of problem?

Can someone point me to the right direction in repairing the issue?

Thanks.
 
ssal

ssal

Active Member
aldan said:
what happens when you move it around with the ac unplugged?
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I have a healthy battery. Sometimes I took it out to the library and I never experienced any problem. But I just noticed the problem and I have it plugged in all the time when I am home.
 
ssal

ssal

Active Member
I ran the Windows memory diagnostic and it reported no issue. That eliminated the possibility of RAM issue?
And since the pressing the power button off and then on would restart it right the way without any problem, and it lasts a long time (days), that should eliminate the possibility of something is loose, right?

Please help me with the diagnostic.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
My guess is a loose video cable or something going on with the motherboard.
 
Darren

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
Those Elitebooks are notorious for overheating. Saw it a lot, my boss said it was a common problem with those. I'd guess the video card or motherboard entirely is dying, which is usually one and the same on those. Did you get it used or new?

Might be able to get into it and reseat the video cable but if the garbled image doesn't change when you touch/move the screen it's probably not that. Usually you can tell if it's a physical connection issue because it responds to movement.
 
ssal

ssal

Active Member
Darren said:
Those Elitebooks are notorious for overheating. Saw it a lot, my boss said it was a common problem with those. I'd guess the video card or motherboard entirely is dying, which is usually one and the same on those. Did you get it used or new?

Might be able to get into it and reseat the video cable but if the garbled image doesn't change when you touch/move the screen it's probably not that. Usually you can tell if it's a physical connection issue because it responds to movement.
Click to expand...
I posted the same question in a photo/video forum and someone also suggested possibly overheating problem. My initial reaction was, "No!", but then I tried running Media Encoder for a short video I'd just shot. And sure enough, it died (the screen going garbled) in the middle of it. I guess I had not had the dust blown out for a while and the dry indoor heating in the winter is causing some dust build up. I had the dust blown clean and rerun Media Encoder twice and I can feel the heat coming out on the side. But it went thru without dying. I guess that's a good sign.

I bought the HP refurbished about 18 months ago. I hope the overheating is just an overheating issue, but not some permanent hardware damage.
 
Darren

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah I remember those things were warm to the touch even at idle. Years or running warm will wear it down faster. Might look into a cooling pad.
 
ssal

ssal

Active Member
Darren said:
Yeah I remember those things were warm to the touch even at idle. Years or running warm will wear it down faster. Might look into a cooling pad.
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Yes. I have an external usb fan for the other machine. I am going to pick another one up from eBay so I can stick it under the computer when I encode.
 
ssal

ssal

Active Member
I bought a cooler pad from eBay for $14.50 and tried it on a new encoding today. I am extremely happy with the result so far.

The fan forces the heat out of the laptop at a higher rate. I think the internal temperature is cooler than without the fan. Without the fan, the same clip took 30 minutes to output. With the fan, it took less than 10. I checked the performance in task manager and found the CPU was operating at 100% at 3.3 ghz. When I encoded without the fan, CPU was at around 65% @ 2.7 ghz. I think the machine ran at overclock when it is not in danger of overheat.

I hope this was the problem and by blowing out the dust, and adding a cooler pad resolved it.
 
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