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Help: HP Pavilion dv7 Instability Issues (Heat Related?)
I have an old HP Pavilion dv7 1135nr laptop that has developed some instability issues. I got it shortly after Vista came out and while many complained of Vista's reliability, the laptop was always rock solid. Over the years it's gotten bogged down though and was getting a bit slow, so I figured I'd do a fresh install of Vista to clean the drive up via the restore discs Best Buy created for me, but they didn't work.
So I tried to put XP on it. That didn't work out so well due to a lot of driver incompatibility issues, and the computer would keep giving me a BSOD during attempted installed, or just flat out cutting itself off completely with no BSOD or anything...like the battery went completely dead (it was still plugged in).
I figured the hard drive may be crapping out, so I replaced the hard drive and then put W7 on it (which installed fine), but it's still cutting itself off after it's been on for a few minutes. It seems to be related to heat (I think). The bottom of the computer gets hot, hotter than normal, and the fan runs non-stop. After it's really warm it'll cut itself off, and if I cut it back on it'll stay on for a few minutes and then cut itself off again. If it's completely cool and hasn't been turned on for a long time it'll run for half an hour until it gets really hot and cuts itself off again.
Is it possible that I damaged something trying to install XP on it, or is it just a coincidence that all these issues started coming up at the same time I tried to do a new OS install?
System Specs:
AMD Turion X2 RM-70 2.0GHz processor
4GB Memory
250GB Hard Drive (upgraded to WB Caviar Black 320GB 7200 RPM HD)
ATI RADEON HD 3200 video card
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit (upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium)
The battery was barely holding on and I thought the hard drive was failing too, so I just dropped $100 on a new battery and a replacement hard drive, and just put Windows 7 on it, so I'd really like get it stable rather than just replacing it. Even if it means replacing RAM or something else.