Laptop troubles

[fishstix]

I've been working on my dad's laptop, HP Pavilion tx1217cl Notebook PC, doing stuff for him (basically ripping cds onto his ipod) and I started tinkering around. I'd only be able to rip 2 cds at a time before I have to either let the laptop cool down, it gets pretty hot, or restart it entirely. If I don't, the next cd I put into the drive wont be recognized as anything.

While ripping the cd, the CPU usage goes from 50% to 80% usage on both cores (2.0 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile) and according to the program CPUCool, the temp is somewhere around 48-50 C... ~122 F. Does anyone know any good temp checking programs? I found this when I was searching for a program to regulate fan speeds. I realize now how hot that actually is...

What really bugs me though, is in CPU-z, the clock core speed is only 800 mhz. I know if I enable Quiet n cool on my Phenom II, that's the speed it idles at. I checked bios and there's hardly any options at all. Can't change voltages, fsb, clock speeds. I can only do the basics, boot sequence, time, and that's about it.

Anyone have any ideas or thoughts? I might try taking it apart, see if anything's obviously broken or dust accumulated. Also, the laptop is about 2 years old now. tbh, I wish they never bought this laptop, my mom back then went shopping and picked it up at Sam's club without me, without knowing anything about computers.

//edit: apparently the HP tx1000/2000 series is pure crap according to the HP forums. It was poorly designed in that the onboard nvidia 6100go chip would overheat horribly causing problems across the board. HP ignores all complaints towards this too.

[fishstix]

Took it apart following HP's guide and found very little dust. I can see why the overheating nvidia chip would cause systemwide problems. There's no heatsink or airflow near it. It sits close to the CPU and the only fan there is, is one attached to the crappy heatsink assembly. The heatsink isn't really even a true heatsink. It's a single copper heatpipe that runs along the center of the CPU, giving the chip only like 20% coverage.

I put the laptop back together... and now itunes doesn't work anymore lol.

[Okan]

Pretty much all laptops will get hot. Best thing to do is place them on a hard, cool surface to all proper cooling. Your lap isn't one of those places. Ironic no?

Maybe just rip a cd and give it a minute or two to cooldown. Also, pillows are a bad place to rest them. Not much you can physically do sans working in a freezer to prevent a laptop from overheating if you're going to work it like a dog.

[fishstix]

We used to own an ice cream store and I loved the walk-in freezer during the summertime. Especially when the store a/c went out.

[fishstix]

OK, downloaded HW monitor from CPUID... and apparently, the GPU is running at 174 F. I'm not even doing anything "graphical" just ripping a cd. It's actually been this hot for as long as I can remember, while running after several minutes. The CPU is running at around 120 F.