What would you do
 

My main computer was/is a HP DV-7 I did all my web pages and image/video work on it, did everything I wanted to do with power to spare. The last 2 months it's spent more then 5 separate weeks at the repair depot, It was overheating etc, this past week I sent it back in when it got warm enough to transfer plastic from a cooler to the base of the computer (laptop cooler with fans) I got a shipment notice from them without the case manager calling like she said she would to inform me of what the issue is. I was told by the person they replaced the fan....again.....

This is what they've done and what I've done

Replaced Fan (first time)

Replaced heatsinks and systemboard

Replaced fan again

(other unrelated work they did (I hope unrelated) )
Screen, other one was loosing color

Keyboard (multiple Key loss and failure)

What I've done
I've reset the computer's OS back to Factory default, backed up all my data and did that. computer still ran hot

Replaced the HDD with a brand new one and a fresh copy of Vista. Again, still ran hot

Freecycled a laptop cooling tray thing (has fans in it)

Computer Transferred plastic from the top of the cooler to the bottom of the computer (yes, that warm)

Of late I hadbeen using the computer 30 minutes at a time and shutting it down for an hour and a half between use (pain in the butt to do)

So, basically they are returning it without doing much of anything.... what would you do?

find an open window.....

Very very Tempting.

Try a different circuit in the house...
Have you replaced the power supply ?
Are you sure the route of incoming air is not blocked by dust filter ?

Happens on several different Circuits of the house, power supply was replaced by them the last go around, forgot to place it on the list, and the heatsink/fan etc is new, barely 8 hours of total use and the air flow passageways are clear, It's confused me...

It has an AMD processor? These run hotter than the Intel CPUs. I have a loud, hot-running Gateway with AMD and two cooler, quieter HP's with Intel. [Disclaimers - one HP just had the motherboard replaced under warranty due to no-boot. The other HP repair was due to a teenager ripping out the DC jack. The loud/hot Gateway has been solid with no HW issues.]

Having also recently replaced the motherboard on an HP-HDX and seen the poor condition of the overcooked and crumbly thermal pad you may consider trying to help the situation by opening it up and replacing HP's pads on the video processor and the CPU heat sinks with a high-quality thermal paste. Some discussion here: http://forums.cnet.com/7723-7591_102-64247.html

My understanding is that pads are used in mass-produced assemblies since it's a stick-and-proceed solution with low probability of error vice the paste/grease solutions that require bit more skill to apply properly.

Find the online manual for disassembly and try to isolate specifically which component is overheating. I'd guess it's the video portion, but that's a guess. You may be able to set hardware acceleration to a minimum which could reduce that temp.

If it was doing it before they replaced the motherboard/systemboard and it's doing it again, then it's probably a poor design coupled with the settings.

yeah, thermal paste my next suggestion too...

It's factory settings, I've done nothing to speed it up. but it's worth looking into If I cant get satisfaction out of them. Still waiting on a call from the so called case manager...

Continuing the heat thing:-

This is a laptop right? My Dell gets really hot so I prop it up on my Haynes manual to give it a bit of air circulation. Also quite handy when you need to write in "well my Haynes manual says"...

Put the old computer down range and see if a steel cored 7.62x54R round might heal it.

If that fails I'd buy a new one.

If that were an option I would consider it... but I cant buy another computer right now..

Check your Power Manager or whatever that is and see if you can set it to "max conserve". They may have the on-AC power settings for "Max Performance".

You might also try running it on AC, but with no battery installed. You could have a bad/old battery that's drawing current through the motherboard circuits. There was a battery recall, but I don't know the cause or symptoms.

Does Vista on the laptop include diagnostics to query temps and fan speeds? If not, check CNET for utilities, maybe something like this: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/siw.html

I haven't used it, can't vouch for no malware, viruses, etc. Just an idea.

Sounds like there's an obvious heat transfer issue in there...You said they replaced the heat sink - did they use good thermal paste? "Arctic Silver" is pretty much the standard paste, I've got a few tubes myself from (way too many) computer repairs and tinkering. Also, you said that the screen colors would get funky when it gets hot - this is extremely indicative of the video processor overheating. I would check with the repair guys to see if they also repaired/replaced the graphics processor heatsink. There's a program that I use called Speccy http://download.cnet.com/Speccy/3000-2094_4-11906231.html
If you click on the graphics tab it'll tell you the temperature of the GPU, or track down what else is heating up and/or not right.

HP has the computer at the moment. I had the power settings on Max battery and performance set to max the life of the battery. Not sure if it's the GPU or not. it heats up where the processor is and the middle back so maybe a combo of the two. I dont know what Paste was used between the processor and sink, I've not opened up the computer to work on it, as it's covered under their warranty somewhat still.

Have the vents been cleaned?