Octopus Overlords

WIth guidance from you fine people, I got this laptop for him Jan 2019 from Best Buy (a refurb):

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-14-refu ... Id=5956004

Earlier this year, it started having overheating issues, some crashing, slowing down.

If not for the issues, this was a decent laptop that was fully adequate for all the kid's gaming and productivity needs.

This time, I am not limited to Best Buy (though I can spend an extra $100 at Best Buy with Gift Cards I can get). Budget is $500 max.

I could get something better, but this looks pretty comparable to what he had before, was thinking this might be a good start (from Woot, free shipping as we are Prime members):

https://sellout.woot.com/offers/hp-prob ... at_pc_2_39

Keeping in mind that the first laptop was good, am I reading this right as basically a comparable (maybe slight upgrade on CPU, slightly smaller hard drive, but he's no where near 500 GB on this one)?

Even though he doesn't really need more and I don't really want to spend more than I have to, should I really be looking for something better (particularly in the quality department more so than performance as he was perfectly happy with the performance and is not likely to do anything more demanding than he did before any time in the foreseeable future)?

Thank you in advance for any feedback on the subject.

thats not a bad little machine, but you may want to look for something with 16gb of ram. 8gb is about the minimum now, and you'll need 16 to get a smooth experience for any kind of multitasking

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:38 pm
Thank you in advance for any feedback on the subject.

looks fine, i see no issues

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:38 pm Earlier this year, it started having overheating issues, some crashing, slowing down.

hate to ask the obvious question, but did you look into the warranty for that at all?

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 3:23 pm

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:38 pm Earlier this year, it started having overheating issues, some crashing, slowing down.

hate to ask the obvious question, but did you look into the warranty for that at all?

No bad questions.

It was a refurb before, just had a 90 day warranty. More than 2 years later, it's done.

I might look a little more for 16gb, but options there were very limited for this price, even with refurb. Fortunately, not overly concerned about multi tasking (if the old one was good enough, this one should be too). I get ti though, more is better! If I was expecting to have some level of future proofing rather than just continue current abilities, I'd be a lot more concerned about more memory.

The one on Woot is only available for 4 days (3 now), so time limited, to act on this.

Thanks peeps!

FYI, the RAM is easily replaceable in this model, so if you ever want to add another 8GB of DD4 RAM, you can:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05162298

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 6:37 pm
It was a refurb before, just had a 90 day warranty. More than 2 years later, it's done.

ah, i misread - it sounded like you had just gotten it THIS January.

could be a broken fan? i think that would be easy to check and replace (if so).

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 6:40 pm FYI, the RAM is easily replaceable in this model, so if you ever want to add another 8GB of DD4 RAM, you can:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05162298

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 6:37 pm
It was a refurb before, just had a 90 day warranty. More than 2 years later, it's done.

ah, i misread - it sounded like you had just gotten it THIS January.

could be a broken fan? i think that would be easy to check and replace (if so).

He said the fan gets hot, so it's not non-functional broken. Can a fan overheat? To the point it would cause a shutdown?

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 10:21 pm He said the fan gets hot, so it's not non-functional broken. Can a fan overheat? To the point it would cause a shutdown?

don't think i have heard of that. likely cause is some component is actually overheating and the fan is exhausting the (super)heated air. could be a heat sink issue? (in that one needs to be reaffixed)

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 10:21 pm He said the fan gets hot, so it's not non-functional broken. Can a fan overheat? To the point it would cause a shutdown?

Pardon me for asking the obvious, but have you or he considered thoroughly cleaning out the laptop with compressed air or the like? Here's a guide from Wikihow that illustrates and walks you through the process of how to do so.

Anonymous Bosch wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 3:25 pm

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 10:21 pm He said the fan gets hot, so it's not non-functional broken. Can a fan overheat? To the point it would cause a shutdown?

Pardon me for asking the obvious, but have you or he considered thoroughly cleaning out the laptop with compressed air or the like? Here's a guide from Wikihow that illustrates and walks you through the process of how to do so.

I had to go out of town for a few days and forgot about the woot laptop...

Thanks AB, doubt cleaning will be sufficient to fix the problem (maybe if I'd been doing preventative cleaning all along or done this when it first started), but what the heck, can't hurt to try!

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 31, 2021 8:46 pm

Anonymous Bosch wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 3:25 pm

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 10:21 pm He said the fan gets hot, so it's not non-functional broken. Can a fan overheat? To the point it would cause a shutdown?

Pardon me for asking the obvious, but have you or he considered thoroughly cleaning out the laptop with compressed air or the like? Here's a guide from Wikihow that illustrates and walks you through the process of how to do so.

I had to go out of town for a few days and forgot about the woot laptop...

Thanks AB, doubt cleaning will be sufficient to fix the problem (maybe if I'd been doing preventative cleaning all along or done this when it first started), but what the heck, can't hurt to try!

Cleaned. Kid says it's marginally better, but nowhere near back to normal. So, the laptop search will resume...

Found same laptop we bought before, except 1 TB HDD instead of 750 GB.

$329 refurb on Amazon. Free shipping. Ordering that (it worked before, it'll be functional at least this time).

Thank you again for all the feedback and assistance in picking these things out!

Got new laptop, seems like it runs a little hot while running tests.

Then it restarted 4 times in 1 day (unexpected restarts in system log). Back it goes.

Next up:
https://www.microcenter.com/product/637 ... FB93159487

Brand new, looks pretty decent for $499?

companies selling refurbs REALLY need to up their system testing game.
but if they're covering return shipping, that's not such a bad deal, right? you just have to wait longer.

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Tue Aug 17, 2021 5:15 pm companies selling refurbs REALLY need to up their system testing game.
but if they're covering return shipping, that's not such a bad deal, right? you just have to wait longer.

Definitely agree this company at least needs to up their testing game. The previous laptop was a refurb, lasted 2-3 years before the overheating began. Not bad for a refurb? Certainly long after anything I'd have expected their testing to find.

Wife has a refurb desktop from Microcenter, think it's 1.5-2 years old, still going strong <knock on wood>.

Not totally against refurbs, though probably not from this particular company again. It was a 3rd party on Amazon.

The laptop I linked for $499 is from Microcenter. It's new, but it looked like a pretty good one for the price (in my limited knowledge, not needing a powerful graphics card). Bit of an upgrade over the HP he had. Graphics card, while still just Intel onboard, is quite a bit better than before. 11th gen I5 processor vs 4th gen. Slightly faster processor/memory. SSD instead SATA hard drive.
It's $200 off (whatever that means, sale prices for big ticket items like PCs are often misleading, price was raised just before the sale, price was about to be permanently reduced anyway, etc).

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 7:04 pm Got new laptop, seems like it runs a little hot while running tests.

Then it restarted 4 times in 1 day (unexpected restarts in system log). Back it goes.

Next up:
https://www.microcenter.com/product/637 ... FB93159487

Brand new, looks pretty decent for $499?

you think this would handle games like roblox and minecraft with the intergrated gpu?

naednek wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 12:39 am

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 7:04 pm Got new laptop, seems like it runs a little hot while running tests.

Then it restarted 4 times in 1 day (unexpected restarts in system log). Back it goes.

Next up:
https://www.microcenter.com/product/637 ... FB93159487

Brand new, looks pretty decent for $499?

you think this would handle games like roblox and minecraft with the intergrated gpu?

I googled a compare between the GPU with what he has now (also integrated), this one is supposedly significantly better. His current one (before the overheating) ran Minecraft to his satisfaction. No clue if Roblox is more demanding or not, but I'd guess as a web based game, it run adequately.

But I have no idea how high he sets graphic quality (or how high it can even get) in Minecraft.

And they sold out at the only store in Michigan. Should have reserved one I guess.

But, they had these online. So, did that. $20 shipping, but still seems like a good deal. Picked up 3 cheap on sale mouse (kid needs a new one, have a couple spares). $3.99 ($3 off regular) plus slightly less than a dollar shipping each.

Supposedly this is a good laptop for staying cool too. Hope it's good!