I have a HP laptop that died in much the same way
I'm still holding onto it in the vein hope that I'll get off my arse and call them up on their crappy build quality. Sale of goods act and all that.
Still pissed off that it died 18months after I bought it and that was about 3 years ago.
(Kushan just wants to fit in..to your mum, Wed 9 May 2012, 15:48, 2 replies)

no way
This is exactly what i did, and won.

Short Story: Laptop dies, it looks like the motherboard (AMD processor sure heats it up so Iassume its down to that)

I speak to Comet, they advise to go to HP. as its 18 months old it will cost me £360 becuase it was out of Warranty. I go back Comet and claim the Sales of Goods act. They take it off my hands straight away, return it 2 weeks later all fixed free of charged. They even picked it up from my house as the rapair depot was a few miles down the road.

Excellent Act!
(Dan dan dan They tik urh jerbs!!!, Wed 9 May 2012, 15:57, closed)

It wasn't really HP's fault, with the DV series - it was the NVidia GPU, and the problem cropped up with both Intel and AMD chipsets in various brands and models. That said, HP didn't really help themselves out by failing to provide intake vents under the fan, but this is easily fixed by removing the motherboard and drilling a series of small holes into the bottom plastic. They go from screeching ovens to perfectly usable laptops almost instantly.

If the machine's already shagged, incidentally, you can try reflowing the GPU. Works most of the time, and all you need is a couple of screwdrivers and a heat gun (the ones used for removing wallpaper are fine). And an hour or so.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Wed 9 May 2012, 20:42, closed)