What should I do with a semi-broken laptop?

[DL402]

It overheats if you do anything remotely cpu intensive, and the wifi doesn't work. It's a gateway t-1625 I believe, how much would it even sell for? I've tried tons of different ways to fix the overheating issue, but none of it worked and I really don't want to fish out money to buy a new heatsink to test if that would fix it.

 

[biostud]

Blend it

 

[Blain]

It overheats if you do anything remotely cpu intensive, and the wifi doesn't work. It's a gateway t-1625 I believe, how much would it even sell for? I've tried tons of different ways to fix the overheating issue, but none of it worked and I really don't want to fish out money to buy a new heatsink to test if that would fix it.

* Sorry, no price checks here
* I'm guessing you've tried reapplying heatsink compound to the HS?
* Have you updated the BIOS? (set the laptop on an icepack to make sure it doesn't shut down during a BIOS flash).

I worked on an HP that had bad overheating/shutdown problems.
A reusable icepack bought me enough time to dig deeper into the problem.
That HP used the defective nVidia chipset, but was out of warranty.
Reading through postings about HP honoring repair/replacement, they seemed to have a horrible reputation for customer service.
One call may get a rep that acknowledged the problem and authorized repair.
While another call may get a rep that would not acknowledge any chipset problems or authorize any repairs.
I told the customer she could slug it out with HP if she wanted...

 

[DL402]

Yeah I tried reapplying thermal paste, was a painful experience with all the tiny screws and tight fitting pieces.

I've updated the BIOS.

Before it was somewhat useful for some light internet browsing, but now the wifi doesn't even work, and it would be more of a chore to replace the wifi chip than to find another solution to either fix everything or get rid of it.

 

[Blain]

You might try running it at a lower resolution and color depth.
It won't look as pretty, but it will take some load off the graphics chip and allow it to run cooler.
It helped on that HP I worked on.

 

[lxskllr]

Do you need a SSF desktop? You could partially disassemble it, and put on some beefier heatsinks. Add USB accessories, and you'll have a shiny new desktop machine.

 

[corkyg]

Put it in the scuppers with a hosepipe on it . . .

 

[DL402]

tried lowering the resolution and color depth, still overheats.