Keeping it cool Options

[Pickysaurus]

Hey guys,

In the last few weeks my laptop has started getting dangerously hot. Especially while gaming. Any ideas how to keep it cool, or anything that could be wrong with it?

At the moment it's getting there, can feel the heat through the keyboard :/

[Nix]

How long have you had it?

It might be filled with dust and needs to be cleaned out.

Compressed air is one of the easier ways to do it.


Have you ever poked around in a laptop before? If not, I cannot stress enough, that if you open it without knowing exactly what you are doing, you WILL break something. Perhaps not something important, but it will happen. Laptops have very specific ways of opening that is different for each kind, and are akin to one of those mind puzzles. Even I am often hesitant to open one.

What model is your laptop?

[The_Hunter]

I actualy fix about 9 laptops a day for a living so i can give you some good suggestions

1. Make sure the fan exhaust areas are completly open ( so don't go sitting on your bed with it or some other place that could completly seal off that area.)
2. clean it out with compressed air sometime like Nix said
3. if possible buy yourself a cooling pad

i got myself one of these cooling pads for 5 euros and they work great.

[NergiZed]

My old laptop had some serious heat-dispersion issues. I usually had it on a bowl or something so that it could have the maximum amount of ventilation. I never had dust problems with my laptop, but my desktop does.

There are some less well-built or designed laptops out there that just have heat issues by default. My friend once had a lappo where the CPU, GPU were located on the left side of the laptop, and would be fairly hot on the left, but only luke-warm on the right. (That laptop didn't last long btw).

[Pickysaurus]

How long have you had it?

It might be filled with dust and needs to be cleaned out.

Compressed air is one of the easier ways to do it.


Have you ever poked around in a laptop before? If not, I cannot stress enough, that if you open it without knowing exactly what you are doing, you WILL break something. Perhaps not something important, but it will happen. Laptops have very specific ways of opening that is different for each kind, and are akin to one of those mind puzzles. Even I am often hesitant to open one.

What model is your laptop?

I have opened my laptop and inspected it. The first thing I did.
It's got a small cooling fan which has a thin coat of dust, and a passive cooling thingy that spans across the entire motherboard.
Very little dust on the cooling components.

My laptop is E-System 3213 and it's about 18months old.

I actualy fix about 9 laptops a day for a living so i can give you some good suggestions

1. Make sure the fan exhaust areas are completly open ( so don't go sitting on your bed with it or some other place that could completly seal off that area.)
2. clean it out with compressed air sometime like Nix said
3. if possible buy yourself a cooling pad

i got myself one of these cooling pads for 5 euros and they work great.

Ok Hunter, that's interesting to hear. Wish I did that for a living
My vents are clear (although the first time it overheated they were blocked by a cushion). So I guess a cooling pad would be the only real option. 5 euro... that's somewhere between £5-£10 i think. Might look into it.

My old laptop had some serious heat-dispersion issues. I usually had it on a bowl or something so that it could have the maximum amount of ventilation. I never had dust problems with my laptop, but my desktop does.

There are some less well-built or designed laptops out there that just have heat issues by default. My friend once had a lappo where the CPU, GPU were located on the left side of the laptop, and would be fairly hot on the left, but only luke-warm on the right. (That laptop didn't last long btw).

I might try putting it on a bowl to see if it makes a difference, I've been experimenting with different surfaces. Nothing changes... My laptop also doesn't seem to have a dust problem. I could crack it open and take a picture if that'd help.

My processor is in the upper right hand corner of the keyboard side (but underneath obviously) I don't know where my GPU is - might be built into the board.


I was also looking at getting a better CPU or more RAM - on the logic that if it takes up less memory/processing power in scale of the unit it'll generate less heat, probably wrong though

[C.o.m.m.a.n.d.e....]

generaly bttr CPU makes more heat as for ram they are about the same no matter how much you have it rly depends on how long u keep it on my friend keeps his on for weeks at a time and eventually his mousepad burns your finger just buy a cooling pad and you should be fine

[Pickysaurus]

generaly bttr CPU makes more heat as for ram they are about the same no matter how much you have it rly depends on how long u keep it on my friend keeps his on for weeks at a time and eventually his mousepad burns your finger just buy a cooling pad and you should be fine

Better CPU = Better fan (some of them come with better fans)
Although if I did get a better CPU my graphics card would bottleneck it all. It's 128MB something...

I usually use it for hours at a time - sometimes all day.

My mousepad and info decals are getting like that. Also as it gets hotter it gets slower.

Guess a cooling pad is the way to go. They're about £20 here though :S

[Nix]

Well, sounds like dust isn't really the problem then.

Any other advice I could give would really be grasping at straws.

And as far as cooling pads go, I myself use a thin 3-ring binder and have a wooden block from an old peg game that works great for me.

Good luck.

[beefJeRKy]

Better CPU = Better fan (some of them come with better fans)

Only true with desktop fans. As long as CPUs have the same TDP, they generate more or less the same heat. Consult wikipedia for more info.

[The_Hunter]

If you could post some pictures of the bottom and sides of your laptop i might be able to tell which panel you should screw off to get to the heatsink and fan.
Once you do that you can see if it's clogged up with dust or not and clean it out with something like a toothbrush or something simmulair if you don't have acces to compressed air.

[Wi-Ta]

toothbrush or something

my neck hair go up

Before you take something like a toothbrush try please this
Compressed air


Or use a soft brush careful.
Best regards
Wi-Ta

[The_Hunter]

Trust me a clogged up heatsink or fan is not going to get cleaned by a soft brush
At least not the Acer models i have to fix everyday

[Wi-Ta]

Hmm ... Arcer i do not now.
But i now the fan of my Dell will get hurt.
And i have a brush like this.

[Prophet of the P...]

i took a vacuum cleaner to my heat sink once. Compressed air is for pussies.

[Cobretti]

That has to be the best way to clean dust out of a computer!

[The_Hunter]

i took a vacuum cleaner to my heat sink once. Compressed air is for pussies.

Vacuume cleaner pffff.

We have a compressor here that would litterlly blow all the chips of your mainboard if you held it dirrectly onto it and i'm not even kidding.
My dad once used it to clean our lawn mower (one of those on which you can sit and drive around).

[Wi-Ta]

We have a compressor

Yea
6 or 8 Bar?

[Pickysaurus]

If you could post some pictures of the bottom and sides of your laptop i might be able to tell which panel you should screw off to get to the heatsink and fan.
Once you do that you can see if it's clogged up with dust or not and clean it out with something like a toothbrush or something simmulair if you don't have acces to compressed air.

I have the pictures waiting, but sadly my laptop is currently out of commission

The left mouse pad button is stuck down making it mostly unusable

[The_Hunter]

Yea
6 or 8 Bar?

Not sure but i could clean my pc with it while using it from a distance at about 2 meters it was like a explosion of dust when i used it

[Pickysaurus]

I've sortof got my left click working again

Here's two pictures of the inside of my laptop...

I lost a screw opening this up T.T

[The_Hunter]

don't worry a single screw is not going to couse you any major issues

Now on those pictures i can see quite alot of dust on the Fan i suggest cleaning that out as good as possible with compressed air or a brush if compressed air is not availible to you.
Altho incase of the brush becarefull as ou can damage something so be absolutley sure you do not mess with anything but the actual fan.

[Thez]

Not sure but i could clean my pc with it while using it from a distance at about 2 meters it was like a explosion of dust when i used it

Never give that to me, ever.
You'd see it on the news the next day.

I have noticed laptops can run hot if they really have to pump out a lot of work, especially when on your lap or something similar that can partially close off the exhausts.
Giving it a good clean never hurts.

[Pickysaurus]

Might be worth mentioning.

While it's hot I usually have an external HD attached by USB and placed on the left side of the mousepad.