I have a 2+ yr old laptop (HP dv7-6199us) that had been very reliable.
Over time it got more and more sluggish, until it was nearly unusable. I
tried re-installing win7, and it wasn't much better. (!? Maybe the
disk was getting flaky?)
I tried swapping in an SSD, specifically a WD Black2 SSD/HD hybrid, with another fresh win7 install. Shazam! My old workhorse turned into a fire-breathing hot-rod. Performance was awesome. All was good.
But then I started noticing problems. I got a few BSODs shortly after installing the Black2, but that hasn't happened in the last 2 months. But lately I'm having a bigger problem: hangs.
The laptop occasionally (unpredictably) slowly hangs. I'll notice that one app has hung -- it quits responding and gives a spinny-circle mouse sprite. Usually the app screen grays out. Hung apps like that can't be killed or anything else. I can continue working with other apps -- shutting down, writing out data, media files are still playing, etc -- but usually within 2-3 minutes EVERYthing is hung. I have to kill the power. This has been happening every few days for the last 2 weeks.
I suspect it's temperature-related. The laptop has been running significantly hotter than it used to. The left palm rest gets extremely hot. Ambient temps are generally 75-85°F but it hung several times in the middle of the night when it was pretty cool.
I've been running Open Hardware Monitor to watch the temps, and the CPUs typically run in the 70-90°C range. Temps will jump 5° or more just by opening an app, even if the app doesn't stress the CPU. It's almost like just having the app in RAM makes it run hotter. When apps start hanging, it seems like the Monitor has already hung so I can't see what the current temps are. (Then I reboot and put the laptop on an ice pack. )
I'm not real confident in the Black2 SSD/HD. The logical next step is to replace it with a different SSD that hopefully runs cooler. But before I throw more money at this old laptop, does it sound like the Black2 is the culprit?
I tried swapping in an SSD, specifically a WD Black2 SSD/HD hybrid, with another fresh win7 install. Shazam! My old workhorse turned into a fire-breathing hot-rod. Performance was awesome. All was good.
But then I started noticing problems. I got a few BSODs shortly after installing the Black2, but that hasn't happened in the last 2 months. But lately I'm having a bigger problem: hangs.
The laptop occasionally (unpredictably) slowly hangs. I'll notice that one app has hung -- it quits responding and gives a spinny-circle mouse sprite. Usually the app screen grays out. Hung apps like that can't be killed or anything else. I can continue working with other apps -- shutting down, writing out data, media files are still playing, etc -- but usually within 2-3 minutes EVERYthing is hung. I have to kill the power. This has been happening every few days for the last 2 weeks.
I suspect it's temperature-related. The laptop has been running significantly hotter than it used to. The left palm rest gets extremely hot. Ambient temps are generally 75-85°F but it hung several times in the middle of the night when it was pretty cool.
I've been running Open Hardware Monitor to watch the temps, and the CPUs typically run in the 70-90°C range. Temps will jump 5° or more just by opening an app, even if the app doesn't stress the CPU. It's almost like just having the app in RAM makes it run hotter. When apps start hanging, it seems like the Monitor has already hung so I can't see what the current temps are. (Then I reboot and put the laptop on an ice pack. )
I'm not real confident in the Black2 SSD/HD. The logical next step is to replace it with a different SSD that hopefully runs cooler. But before I throw more money at this old laptop, does it sound like the Black2 is the culprit?
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