IT Professionals

Overheating Laptop Solutions

Posted by on Apr 12, 2011 | 7 Comments

Not all laptops are designed to deal well with excessive heat. Yes, it’s an unfortunate fact of life that more than a few of us will have to deal with at one point or another. Perhaps more importantly than the scorched lap we end up with, is the damage that can be caused to the hardware itself if this is left unchecked.  So clearly, it behooves those affected to address massive heat dispersion failures with the quickness.

Is your laptop running too hot?

Finding yourself unsure as to whether or not a laptop/notebook is running a bit too hot? Here are some common symptoms to watch out for.

1) Wireless Internet drops on some occasions, but only after the notebook has been running for an extended amount of time. This is especially true with USB dongles.

2) Recently removed USB devices are hot to the touch at their tip. The metal part of the dongle that came from inside of the laptop feels hot enough to leave welts.

3) (Guys) You’re finding that your laptop may very well be hot enough to the touch in your lap that it might serve as an effective form of birth control.

4) After extended use, you find that the laptop fans run non-stop.

5) Your laptop keeps freezing as it feels warm to the touch. The problem becomes worse the longer the device is left on or when under a heavy load.

What to do about an overheating laptop?


cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by FHKE

At risk of sounding obvious, you must take proactive steps to cool things down immediately. And considering the fact that ice water isn’t likely to go over too well, this leaves us with the idea of using cooling pads to keep heat dispersion under control. Cannot really say any one of these is better than another, but you will likely want something that is either USB or battery powered. Passive cooling with a heat sink like setup isn’t going to cut it.

Another approach is to throttle back excessive CPU usage (most OS’ have some kind of governor) or consider disabling wifi when it’s not needed. For my money, I’ll take the cooling pad every time. Cheap, available at any big box store and it means you’re not having disable anything.

  • http://twitter.com/silverlokk Daniel Escasa

    My brother has an even cheaper solution — a device that looks like a cooling pad that doesn’t have any fans. All it does is raise the laptop off whatever surface you’re using it. Seems the vents on most (all?) laptops are on the bottom (!) so raising the laptop might help cool it. Seems to work for him. Me, I got myself a cooling pad with two fans.

  • http://twitter.com/silverlokk Daniel Escasa

    My brother has an even cheaper solution — a device that looks like a cooling pad that doesn’t have any fans. All it does is raise the laptop off whatever surface you’re using it. Seems the vents on most (all?) laptops are on the bottom (!) so raising the laptop might help cool it. Seems to work for him. Me, I got myself a cooling pad with two fans.

  • http://twitter.com/silverlokk Daniel Escasa

    My brother has an even cheaper solution — a device that looks like a cooling pad that doesn’t have any fans. All it does is raise the laptop off whatever surface you’re using it. Seems the vents on most (all?) laptops are on the bottom (!) so raising the laptop might help cool it. Seems to work for him. Me, I got myself a cooling pad with two fans.

  • http://www.goretsky.com/ Aryeh Goretsky

    Hello,

    Another option is to open the laptop, clean out any dust and debris that might be blocking the flow of air from the inlets to the exhaust ports, as well as impeding the free flow of movement of the cooling fan(s) inside the chassis. In some instances, replacing the fans may be required as well. Some laptop manufacturers explain how to do this in their hardware maintenance manuals, while for others it may require a trip to an authorized service center or repair depot.

    Still, though, if you are having problems with a laptop which is running much warmer than it did after purchase a few years ago, it is probably a good idea to remove the problems causing heat build-up, rather than to treat the symptoms.

    Regards,

    Aryeh Goretsky

  • http://www.goretsky.com/ Aryeh Goretsky

    Hello,

    Another option is to open the laptop, clean out any dust and debris that might be blocking the flow of air from the inlets to the exhaust ports, as well as impeding the free flow of movement of the cooling fan(s) inside the chassis. In some instances, replacing the fans may be required as well. Some laptop manufacturers explain how to do this in their hardware maintenance manuals, while for others it may require a trip to an authorized service center or repair depot.

    Still, though, if you are having problems with a laptop which is running much warmer than it did after purchase a few years ago, it is probably a good idea to remove the problems causing heat build-up, rather than to treat the symptoms.

    Regards,

    Aryeh Goretsky

  • William Ross

    Thanks for posting. I was wondering about buying tires online.

  • William Ross

    Thanks for posting. I was wondering about buying tires online.