Presario C700 Series (C793TU) Review - An overheat piece of junk

Compaq Presario C793TU – An overheating piece of junk with poor service

October 24th, 2008 · 8 Comments

Few months ago I mentioned on my Compaq Presario C793TU laptop in one of my posts. These two weeks, I had bad experience with this machine, that is, it is overheating at room temperature of about 30ºC! When I first purchased this machine I installed Fedora 9 (a Linux distribution) under air-conditional environment which is working fine. Intermittently, I noticed that the laptop’s fan spins for few minutes and shutdown automatically when I was using Firefox. I tried to fresh install Fedore/Windows Vista and the process cannot be completed due to overheating issue.

I am suspecting the CPU fan is not powerful enough so I sent it to local HP service center located at Krystal Point, Penang two weeks ago. It takes about 4 days to replace a board and test it before I noticed that the laptop failed me again when trying to install Windows Vista/Fedora 10 Beta at 30ºC.

I am suspecting the technician was testing it under air-conditional environment as when I first turned on the laptop at service center to verify the fix, the air blew from the vent is like coming from Alaska. Early this week, I threw my laptop back to the service center and this time I clearly stated under “Problem Description” that the laptop is still overheating when using at room temperature of 30ºC.

After 3 hours, I received an unhappy call from the technician saying that the laptop is working fine. When I asked him whether he is testing on testing on non air-conditioning environment, he told that the air-conditioner is running but is at low speed. From the conversation, I knew that he has no intention to fix my laptop.

The next day, when I was collecting back my laptop, as usual, I turn it on on the spot. Again, the air flow is like the laptop just taken out from fridge!

I am fed up with HP customer service. When I went back home, I tried to install Fedora 10 Beta again and it overheats as usual. To overcome this issue, I actually have to take out the cover at the bottom:

C793TU memory compartment

With bottom cover removed, I can install Fedora 10 Beta successfully. What’s the point I purchase a laptop while I have to take out its cover every time I use it? Definitely a laptop designed by a penguin working in south poles which underestimate the weather in tropical countries like Malaysia.

As a whole, cheap laptop has its own price. HP used to have good reputation on its product, especially on printer series (I have a HP Laserjet 1100A which is about 8 years old and is still running… even though some time it sucks up whole rim of paper.) Due to bad experience with the product and HP customer service, I will never consider HP notebook in future.

My Very First Laptop (Compaq Presario C793TU)

Tags: Hardware · Linux Survival

8 responses so far ↓

1 Jessica // Oct 24, 2008 at 7:08 pm

Hi Waco,

Sorry to hear that. These days, overheating is a pretty common and scary experience on laptops eh. I am rather surprised that it happened to Compaq notebooks too. I have an almost 5 years old Compaq notebook and it has been excellent. HP should have given you a new replacement !
2 Waco // Oct 25, 2008 at 11:48 am

Hi Jessica,

Yes, either a full replacement or refund. I just logged a complain in HP Malaysia website.
3 Jessica // Oct 29, 2008 at 2:54 pm

Hi Waco,

I look forward to the response from HP. Interested to see what’s their comment :=)

I shall cross my fingers for you yaa (a new notebook replacement) :=D
4 IntelBurnTest - Free tool to stress test your overclocked CPU | Waco's Malaysia Food, Foto & Fun // Nov 1, 2008 at 1:15 am

[...] Jessica: Hi Waco, I look forward to the response from HP. Interested to see what’s their comment :=) I shall… [...]
5 James // Apr 6, 2009 at 12:39 pm

hi, i have a c793tu laptop. mine is working fine above room temperature… my room awfully gets hot at noon. same time i’m playing counterstrike source… i think your overheating issue is a factory defect.. maybe you should tell them to replace your laptop….
6 Waco // Apr 6, 2009 at 2:12 pm

Hi James,

Thanks for the feedback. After returning to HP service center 3 times (if not wrong), the problem been solved. According to them, the thermal paste is not properly contacted with CPU, and the heat cannot transfer to heat pipe. Not sure why they take 3 times to solve simple issue but anyway (fingers cross) hope it won’t happen again.
7 freeman // Aug 30, 2009 at 12:05 am

i seen 4 units of Compaq Presario C767TU Notebook PC… all of them have the same problem the cooling system of unit is not enougt.. it overheat.. hopefully the company will gonna make a solution to this…
8 lizwelsh // Jan 25, 2010 at 9:57 am

I also have compaq laptop presario c700 and the overheating problems are getting worse and I am losing data. My house is only 22 degreees and it is overheating. I am leaning up on pile of papers and using it to create more airflow underneath. It shakes a bit. Maybe I will glue four small black pieces of plastic to give it legs and permanent airflow to reduce problem.

The laptop was cheap, and now we know why.