I actually used this notebook for gaming. I had problems with overheating and have figured out a way to keep it cool. First i think the bios needs a revision since the fan doesnt turn on when it needs to. I imagine hp wanted to keep this laptop fairly quiet and the settings are more than satisfactory to do so under normal operation, but when stressed the fan dooesnt kick in early enough to stop the machine from automatically shutting down. My quick fix was to drill holes to allow for better ventilation, cutting the and taping the pink wire on the fan, removing the keyboard and placing a fan that i removed from a laptop cooling unit directly over the cpu. Now i idle at 28 degrees celsius and while gaming i max out at 58 degrees celsius. Before i did all this i was dangerously getting up to 70 degrees celsius before the fan kicked in and sometimes it wouldnt kick in at all which would result in a bluscreen of death. I dont expect alot of people to do the same thing but for people like me who used it almost like a desktop and want to game on it then this works like a charm. Before I did this i was looking everywhere trying to figure out how to change the bios settings to control the fan. I even installed speed fan and hp coolsense not knowing what i was doing.
I feel I should explain why I cut the wire on the fan for people interested. Cutting the wire permanently turns your fan onto highspeed completely bypassing the bios. If you dont mind the constant whirring sound then cut away. There is probably a way to make a toggle switch or something similar to allow you to revert back to the way it was if you want.
I use an external keyboard for gaming so removing the keyboard wasnt an issue either. I could probably get away with not removing the keyboard but i wanted to make sure i keep this thing cool because it gets very hot very quickly.
As mentioned earlier you can underclock the cpu in the catalyst control center under power options and it works great if you arent gaming.
