Lately I’ve been having a problem with my HP ZD8000 17” laptop overheating. If it was just getting hot, I wouldn’t mind. But when it overheats, it can unexpectedly shut down.

Not only was the laptop overheating and shutting down, but the fans had gotten so loud, that the laptop sounded like a loud jet engine.

Now, I love my laptop. I had it customized beyond belief and also (at the time I bought it) made sure it came with the largest screen possible (17 inch).

Beign the kind of guy who prefers fixing something before replacing it, I decided to just jump in and give this thing a cleaning.

So I started removing screws, and for every one screw I removed, there were three more staring back at me. Eventually, I had most all the screws removed, and only half of the laptop would open up. In general things got overwhelming very quickly.

I decided to google the subject.

I found a blog by a guy who had been through the same struggle. He loved his laptop, and would prefer to fix before replacing.

This guy’s site, combined with the HP owners manual helped me to completely fix the problem.

So if you’re looking to fix a similar problem, here are the two links that I found handy:

http://www.drtweeker.com/how-to-fix-overheating-hp-notebooklaptop-zd8230uszd8000-series/ and http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00291986.pdf

My wife thinks I’m crazy for trying this, but hey… I got everything put back together, and I didn’t even have a single screw left over.

The HP owners manual details which size screws go where, so when you put it back together, all you need to do is back track through the manual, and voila!! You’re as good as gold.

I am happy to report that after following the directions that drtweeker provides, my laptop run as good as new, and all overheating problems have been fixed. I had forgotten how silent the laptop originally was. The thing is now close to silent.

Well hope this helps someone.

-Ben