Grrr! I feel so frustrated with my laptop. It keeps overheating and shutting down automatically. This is really annoying because I never get any warning. I have tried to put my laptop on top of a stack of books, my desk, and my own lap - it still overheats and gets really hot easily. I am so fed up, it seems so oversensitive. Any ideas? Thanks. -Andy PS - my laptop is a HP Pavilion zv5000, if that helps any.

Your lap is the worse place. Have you checked the fan and what are the temperature readings (if any)?

Return the laptop if the problem persist. It is suppose to survive on ur lap. Check the fans and check whether u have blocked the perforations. Also check how often the fan stops and starts or does it run all the time. Most laptop come with intelligent software that monitors hardware and depending on the temperature, the fan on off is set and also the fan speed is set. If that is the case u might end up in updating the firmware. My laptop gets heated so much that i cannot keep it on lap, but it never died on me but it might someday die permanently unlike your laptop. Sajid Mohammed sajidspace@yahoo.com http://www.cs.uml.edu/~smohamme

My laptop didn't come with any intelligent software, whenever it gets too hot, it just turns off. Plain as that. No warning, no nothing. Know of any software that will help? Perhaps, freeware/shareware? And, it may seem like it keeps doing this every minute... it does not. But it does like, once, twice, or even from time to time, thrice (three times) a day. It depends, really. It's just such an annoyance, and I don't want my HD to get damaged by being shut down unexpectedly like that. So... ideas, people? -Andy

Is it shutting down completely or restarting? Have you tried blowing the dust out of it? This space for rent

The venting within a laptop as well as the cooling fins are quite fine. As a result the fans and fins need to be cleaned often. My laptop runs all the time so I clean the system once every moonth or so and I'm always amazed at the amount of lint that has entered and plugged up the air passages.

PS: Mine is a zv5000 also... a good hint to when a cleaning is needed is when the second fan starts kicking in all the time and runs for long periods. Fortunately HP has made it easy to get to these fans. Turn the machine upside down and remove the cover in the upper left corner (near the power plug) Under there you will find 2 fans with shiny cover plates. Take these plates off and you will see the lint build up on the heat fins. The whole process should take about 10 minutes.