laptop overheats with battery, but is fine when battery not installed

I am trying to help a friend who has an HP Pavilion 17" notebook pc (model 17-e019dx)

She has been having a lot of issues and complaints - first of which is that it runs really slowly. Well, I now have the machine and the first thing I realized is that her laptop only has 4GB RAM and is running windows 10 so her machine is much slower than mine that is running with 8GB of RAM.
When I plugged it in within about 10 minutes or so it would just suddenly shut down on me. I did try again, but it kept doing this every time I did it. I then removed the battery to check the connections and noticed that the laptop was pretty warm on the bottom. Instead of putting the battery back into the laptop, I just plugged the laptop into the electrical outlet and made sure that there was lots of air circulating under the laptop (I also cleared out the vents just in case as well) The laptop will run without shutting down all day without any issues (other than running really slowly). I was able to allow the computer to do all the windows updates without any issues. (she stopped using this unit about a year ago and needed lots of updates)

This morning I opened up the back to check on the connections and do as much as possible of a thorough cleaning of the vents without taking the whole thing apart to access the fans in there. I did notice a lot of discoloration of the metal so I am not sure if that is due to the fact that the unit was overheating for awhile and just recently started shutting off due to overheating or if the the issue with the pc shutting down is due to the battery since it happens whenever I connect the battery again - even with the unit being elevated so that there is a lot of air circulation.

She was wondering about adding more RAM to the unit since it can be upgraded to 8GB of RAM (although some information states 16G RAM - the HP site states a maximum of 8GB or RAM so that is what I would install if that were to be the route she wants to go).

I am not sure if the problem; aside from the amount of RAM that came installed with the laptop that came installed with windows 8 Home and was upgraded to windows 10 Home has to do with the battery; if the unit is overheating; a combination of the battery and an overheating issue or something else completely different.

I did do a little research on overheating and found some information that may indicate something regarding the heatsink and or fan. I can hear the fan running and if the fan was not running at all, I can't imagine that the laptop would run all day (8 + hours) without getting overheated but I am not sure about any of this.

The computer is running Windows 10 Home - Version 22H2 OS build 19045.4412

Any input would be so very much appreciated.

Unfortunately that make/model is reknowned for overheating due to poor thermal design... just Google its overheating issues.

I have one here that won't run longer than a few minutes because the components have been damaged beyond repair, even though I've taken it apart, cleaned vents and internal fan, replaced CPU thermal pad, etc... the components just fall over within minutes.

It sounds like the laptop you are working on isn't that bad yet but an overheating battery is tipping the balance and triggering a thermal shutdown for self-protection of the components.

As a result I would suggest you need to do three things: 1) Take it apart and thoroughly clean the fan cooling the CPU; 2) Replace the CPU thermal pad; 3) Replace the battery.

1 and 2 will increase the overall thermal efficiency by making it run cooler whilst 3 will replace what could soon be a bigger issue... physical expansion of the battery as it further deteriorates leading to - at best - it damaging the laptop's rear shell as it expands.

I should warn you... that model is not designed for easy access. Also, it's about 7 years old so your friend needs to decide whether it's worth the time and trouble, especially with only 4GB RAM... it's never going to be a good performer with that small amount of RAM and a spinning HDD.

(If I had to do it again I would opt to retire it... I just wasted time and money and it still won't run reliably for more than 5 minutes. However, I got it going long enough to get the data off after a couple of attempts instead of having to pull the HDD.)

Hope this helps...

Thanks for all that information. I was thinking of maybe just telling her to run it plugged in and getting the ram so that it runs better, but knowing that this specific make/model is renowned for overheating due to poor thermal design, I am going to suggest that we just get all of her stuff off of this and she gets another pc since it may still end up dying on her sooner than later.
It's a shame since she thought that she was buying a great laptop at the time and I am sure she paid quite a bit for it. Oh well, it happens.
Thank You So Very Much for All the helpful information!

Hello,

Tell her to not waste her money on such an old computer.

It's time to bust out that credit card and purchase a brand new, 'lightning-fast', Windows 11 Computer.

Just be sure to read reviews on specific makes and models before buying.

Don't spend more that you need to if you're only going to use it for basics things like, web surfing, music, and videos.

You could also choose to post on Eleven Forums, ask folks there which brands and models are best, at a certain price.

My two cents worth.

Thanks for the suggestions. I did tell her that it isn't worth adding more RAM and just running it connected to an outlet at this point in time and I am now copying her photos and such to an external hard drive so that she has them when she gets her new computer. She was a little hesitant about the claims that windows 11 is fast - but I think that is because her computer came with windows 8 and she did upgrade it to windows 10 since it is supposed to be faster than windows 8. But she did not realize that 4GB of RAM is really the least amount of RAM you want with windows 10. When I got my computer it too came with windows 8 - but it was already known about the upgrade so I made sure that the one I got had at least 8GB of RAM on the computer.

Thanks Again!