Hi everyone,
I joined this forum just today.
A bit about myself:
I'm not new to computers. I've been using computers since a very young age. I did my schooling in Singapore, college in India then started working here. Got married in 2003, went off to Melbourne, Australia to do an MBA and then back to Chennai in 2006. Have worked in HP/Compaq tech support (email/chat), banking (home loan / credit card escalations for an MNC bank) and now I work in the IT industry as an Instructional Designer in the e-Learning domain.
In July 2009, I decided to purchase a HP Pavilion DV6-1154TX top of the line model laptop for my personal use. I do lots of browsing, downloading movies etc. Of course, I love car games and I am a big fan of the NFS series. I chose this model as it was powerful enough to handle personal and official work, multimedia and high definition entertainment, and high profile games.
This laptop cost me 65k. It's got a Core2Duo 2.4 GHz CPU, 4GB DDR2 memory, 500GB 5400RPM HDD, 15.6 inch screen and 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4650 dedicated graphics. We later got an LG 50 inch plasma tv at home around July 2010 and I was hoping to connect the laptop to the tv and enjoy some big screen gaming. Till then I had played some games on the laptop itself and had no problems.
HP Product Info page:
Product Specifications HP Pavilion dv6-1154tx Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (India - English)
(Except for the nVidia graphics card mentioned, everything else seems to be right)
Most of the games I have tried till now have been quite smooth. The NFS games are lovely. Even Call of Duty Modern Warfare has been very good. Played Wolfenstein as well.
Sometime in late 2010, when I was playing an NFS game (Undercover I think) on the plasma, the laptop just shut off. This was the 1st such instance. I had hardly done any gaming on the laptop till then. Mainly on weekends, 2-3 hours in total.
I tried this a few times after that and the same thing happened. I did not keep track of the time then. I thought the laptop could not handle the "clone" display mode, since the screen is active even when I connect the computer to the plasma tv using the HDMI.
Then I got really busy with work and other personal stuff, functions in the family, travel etc and I could not do much gaming.
Last month, I became more free after finishing lots of pending work in the family etc and decided to play Blur (racing game) on the laptop with my big Philips headphones. Again, within 30 mins of playing, the laptop just shut off without warning. The game was running so smooth and I was really enjoying it. Then this happened.
This shocked me, as till then I thought this was happening only when I had connected the laptop to the plasma tv using the HDMI connection. Now it was happening while playing on the laptop itself!
I decided to go back to my computer dealer (whom I've known for 12 years now, and who's supplied most of the computers/upgrades/peripherals at my place), from whom I purchased this laptop. I explained the problem to him. He took the laptop and said he would first give it to a multi-brand laptop service place (where he usually sends his customers' laptops for problems) to check this issue out.
He got back to me in 2 days saying that the service centre informed him that the ATI graphics chip (or some related I/C) had become weak and was heating up easily. When the overall temperature went beyond a set point, some protective circuit was kicking in to shut off the machine. It seems they sent back the laptop saying nothing could be done, and to have it for "light usage". Meaning, no games!
But that's not what I paid 65k for, right?
I discussed this with my dealer again and he suggested sending it to the HP authorised service centre to get a 2nd opinion. In another 2 days, he got back to me saying that the service centre was recommending changing the motherboard, which would cost 29k!
Now this was ridiculous! Another 5-10k more than that and I can get a lovely new laptop with better specs!
My dealer said there was no way out of this. He said, I should either keep the laptop for normal use and go in for a powerful desktop or even better, try to sell the laptop and then go in for a new desktop. He also informed me that HP had discontinued the extended warranty feature for its consumer laptops, but that it was still available on its business laptops! Though he had offered me an extended warranty (additional 2 years for around 7k or so) sometime in late 2009, I somehow did not take it. Maybe if I had, the board would have been replaced under warranty and the problem would have been sorted out.
A very highly specced desktop with 2TB HDD, 8GB DDR3, 1GB nVidia GTX550 graphics card and 22 inch LG LED monitor itself, is not costing me more than 45k. I have already put my laptop up for sale on Sulekha and Tradeusads apart from OLX dot in. Have already got 2 responses too. Posted the ads only on Sunday.
Since I found a dedicated thread on DV6-6121TX etc, I thought I would come here, tell my story and find out from you people whether you had any idea on how to fix this problem.
I am still unable to believe that the ATI Radeon HD 4650 1GB graphics chip in my laptop is in this state, despite very little gaming in the last 2 years. I am already losing faith in laptops and HP in particular.
Before I bought this laptop I checked out other brands at eZone and I was somehow not impressed at all with the Dell Inspiron series that was on display at eZone. The HP Pavilion's build, fit and finish were far better than the Dell's.
So here are my questions to you all.
Has any of you experienced a similar problem on your laptop? Was it fixed? If so, how? Approximate cost? Is this an issue specific to the ATO chip or HP laptops in general? Or, would this problem be a possibility even in Dell and other high end laptops?
Is it a safer bet to just sell the laptop and go in for a new desktop?
Please help me folks! I am in a real dilemma right now.
Thanks and warm regards,
Venkat
Hey people ... 34 views and not a single response? Come on! Please help me out if you guys have any ideas on how to get this problem fixed!
Hey people ... 34 views and not a single response? Come on! Please help me out if you guys have any ideas on how to get this problem fixed!
I joined this forum just today.
A bit about myself:
I'm not new to computers. I've been using computers since a very young age. I did my schooling in Singapore, college in India then started working here. Got married in 2003, went off to Melbourne, Australia to do an MBA and then back to Chennai in 2006. Have worked in HP/Compaq tech support (email/chat), banking (home loan / credit card escalations for an MNC bank) and now I work in the IT industry as an Instructional Designer in the e-Learning domain.
In July 2009, I decided to purchase a HP Pavilion DV6-1154TX top of the line model laptop for my personal use. I do lots of browsing, downloading movies etc. Of course, I love car games and I am a big fan of the NFS series. I chose this model as it was powerful enough to handle personal and official work, multimedia and high definition entertainment, and high profile games.
This laptop cost me 65k. It's got a Core2Duo 2.4 GHz CPU, 4GB DDR2 memory, 500GB 5400RPM HDD, 15.6 inch screen and 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4650 dedicated graphics. We later got an LG 50 inch plasma tv at home around July 2010 and I was hoping to connect the laptop to the tv and enjoy some big screen gaming. Till then I had played some games on the laptop itself and had no problems.
HP Product Info page:
Product Specifications HP Pavilion dv6-1154tx Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (India - English)
(Except for the nVidia graphics card mentioned, everything else seems to be right)
Most of the games I have tried till now have been quite smooth. The NFS games are lovely. Even Call of Duty Modern Warfare has been very good. Played Wolfenstein as well.
Sometime in late 2010, when I was playing an NFS game (Undercover I think) on the plasma, the laptop just shut off. This was the 1st such instance. I had hardly done any gaming on the laptop till then. Mainly on weekends, 2-3 hours in total.
I tried this a few times after that and the same thing happened. I did not keep track of the time then. I thought the laptop could not handle the "clone" display mode, since the screen is active even when I connect the computer to the plasma tv using the HDMI.
Then I got really busy with work and other personal stuff, functions in the family, travel etc and I could not do much gaming.
Last month, I became more free after finishing lots of pending work in the family etc and decided to play Blur (racing game) on the laptop with my big Philips headphones. Again, within 30 mins of playing, the laptop just shut off without warning. The game was running so smooth and I was really enjoying it. Then this happened.
This shocked me, as till then I thought this was happening only when I had connected the laptop to the plasma tv using the HDMI connection. Now it was happening while playing on the laptop itself!
I decided to go back to my computer dealer (whom I've known for 12 years now, and who's supplied most of the computers/upgrades/peripherals at my place), from whom I purchased this laptop. I explained the problem to him. He took the laptop and said he would first give it to a multi-brand laptop service place (where he usually sends his customers' laptops for problems) to check this issue out.
He got back to me in 2 days saying that the service centre informed him that the ATI graphics chip (or some related I/C) had become weak and was heating up easily. When the overall temperature went beyond a set point, some protective circuit was kicking in to shut off the machine. It seems they sent back the laptop saying nothing could be done, and to have it for "light usage". Meaning, no games!
But that's not what I paid 65k for, right?
I discussed this with my dealer again and he suggested sending it to the HP authorised service centre to get a 2nd opinion. In another 2 days, he got back to me saying that the service centre was recommending changing the motherboard, which would cost 29k!
Now this was ridiculous! Another 5-10k more than that and I can get a lovely new laptop with better specs!
My dealer said there was no way out of this. He said, I should either keep the laptop for normal use and go in for a powerful desktop or even better, try to sell the laptop and then go in for a new desktop. He also informed me that HP had discontinued the extended warranty feature for its consumer laptops, but that it was still available on its business laptops! Though he had offered me an extended warranty (additional 2 years for around 7k or so) sometime in late 2009, I somehow did not take it. Maybe if I had, the board would have been replaced under warranty and the problem would have been sorted out.
A very highly specced desktop with 2TB HDD, 8GB DDR3, 1GB nVidia GTX550 graphics card and 22 inch LG LED monitor itself, is not costing me more than 45k. I have already put my laptop up for sale on Sulekha and Tradeusads apart from OLX dot in. Have already got 2 responses too. Posted the ads only on Sunday.
Since I found a dedicated thread on DV6-6121TX etc, I thought I would come here, tell my story and find out from you people whether you had any idea on how to fix this problem.
I am still unable to believe that the ATI Radeon HD 4650 1GB graphics chip in my laptop is in this state, despite very little gaming in the last 2 years. I am already losing faith in laptops and HP in particular.
Before I bought this laptop I checked out other brands at eZone and I was somehow not impressed at all with the Dell Inspiron series that was on display at eZone. The HP Pavilion's build, fit and finish were far better than the Dell's.
So here are my questions to you all.
Has any of you experienced a similar problem on your laptop? Was it fixed? If so, how? Approximate cost? Is this an issue specific to the ATO chip or HP laptops in general? Or, would this problem be a possibility even in Dell and other high end laptops?
Is it a safer bet to just sell the laptop and go in for a new desktop?
Please help me folks! I am in a real dilemma right now.
Thanks and warm regards,
Venkat
Hey people ... 34 views and not a single response? Come on! Please help me out if you guys have any ideas on how to get this problem fixed!
Hey people ... 34 views and not a single response? Come on! Please help me out if you guys have any ideas on how to get this problem fixed!
).
