How do I get my notebook to stop heating up so much?

Do you have a cooling pad? I don’t know why your notebook is so hot, but a cooling pad might make it easier to handle.

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Notebook-Cooling-Green-Accent/dp/B001U3ZH7W/ref=dp_cp_ob_e_title_2

get some air duster and clean out the vents too

@XOIIO has a good point. Dust may have built up around the vents and the cooling fan. And you may not need a cooling pad, just something to lift it up a bit off whatever flat surface you use it on without covering up the vents. I have two rolls of stiff cardboard, a smaller and stiffer (oops, maybe this is an answer to your other question :-) than paper towel rolls, I don’t remember what the heck they are from, where I got or salvaged them, so I can’t tell you where to get something like that, that I set my laptop up on if it gets hot. Prop it up on something that increased the air flow underneath but doesn’t obstruct the vents or fans.

I wouldn’t be so long-winded if I didn’t feel compelled to say things at least twice.

@lillycoyote @XOIIO The vents didn’t have anything in them, and it’s up on those little rubber feet on a flat surface.

Those little rubber feet? The only problem with them is that they’re little. Not really much room for air flow. And you’re sure there’s no dust built up inside the computer? Around the vents and the fans? Is it a Toshiba perhaps? What kind of laptop is it? Really, never mind. I don’t really know anything about this stuff.

@lillycoyote It’s a Sony Vaio. And maybe there’s dust in there, but nothing I can blow out with an air can. I blow it free of crud every day.

Have you tried sucking it out, so to speak rather than blowing it out? Why do my answers keep coming out like they should be to your other question? A little vacuum cleaner, maybe? Anyway, I see that @jerv is about to weigh in as we speak, his “green crafting a response” light is on and I suspect that that he will either have the right answer or something that is pretty damn close so I will defer to him.

If you’ve been doing a good job of keeping the cat hair and crud out of the heat sink then the only things that can cause it to heat up that much are a failed fan or a glitch in the fan’s controller. I know that my T135 had a firmware update for that one.

Now, I am going to ask a dumb counter-question; the fan is still spinning, right? If not then there’s your problem. Even if it is, sometimes they drag, causing them to spin slower and thus move less air.

One other final thought that is highly unlikely but I feel I must mention simply because I’ve been there, done that, and got the crappy T-shirt is that the heatsink got knocked loose and thus an really do it job as well. Given how tightly things are packed and how solidly they are mounted (usually) I honestly doubt that that’s it, but it is a possibility. I don’t suppose it’s had any rough knocks, lately, has it?

@lillycoyote Personally, I have never used one of those. Maybe part of it is that I tend to get laptops that are designed for longer battery life and that reduced power draw naturally leads to less heat and thus easier cooling. At the CFM ratings of the average laptop fan, the added space underneath won’t matter, and if you need more fan than the laptop came with then I can’t help but wnder what other design flaws the laptop has.

@jerv You’ve never used salvaged, stiff cardboard rolls, similar to those cardboard rolls that paper towels come on, but thicker and stronger, to prop up your laptop and keep the air flowing under it? I’m really surprised, you’ve always seemed so technologically savvy and cutting edge to me. :-)

@jerv Is the fan supposed to be spinning all the time? It starts and stops. Unfortunately, yes, it has fallen a couple times recently (fucking cats!!!!). How would I find out if it’s a failed fan or a glitch in the controller?

Whether it starts and stops or just runs all the time (probably at variable speed) is a make/model specific thing, so I cannot answer that one for certain. I can say that if it’s anything like my friend’s old Vaio that I fixed recently, it may not be able to start itself reliably; I had to poke it with a paper clip to start it spinning. Mine spins all the time, though usually slowly.

A glitch in the controller is also unlikely as that would be basically a design thing. Then again, if it’s not getting a correct temperature reading from the sensors then it won’t know what to do, and that is technically a controller glitch.

With SpeedFan I know that each of my CPU cores is running at 111F right now while my hard drive is at 93F. On my desktop system, it will actually tell me (and let me manually control!) the speeds of some of my fans. Just installing and running it will give you some info, like whether your sensors are working. However, it’s not exactly intuitive to read and trickier near your bedtime.

@lillycoyote Nope. I use those for other things and don’t have any to spare. Then again, like I said, my laptop doesn’t need much air; an Intel SU4100 runs pretty cool.

@jerv Core temp is another good one with a windows 7 widget

Even if the vents look clean they probably aren’t. My laptop was shutting down due to overheating, I used air duster and a cloud of dust bigger than the laptop flew out.

@MyNewtBoobs Do you use your laptop while laying on bed? From past experiences I found out, it’s not such a good idea without a cool pad.

True, many people place their laptops on a soft surface which it then sinks into and blocks the vents. For some people, even their thighs are malleable enough to do that. Whenever I have mine in my lap, I have it a bit off-center because of where my vents are, and if I lay it on my bed or sofa, I put a book under it. RPG rulebooks are usually 8½” x 11” hardcovers; perfect for my 13” Toshiba, and quite plentiful in my house.

” Whenever I have mine in my lap, I have it a bit off-center because of where my vents are…”

@jerv lol. You have vents in your lap? It doesn’t get any more techie than that, does it? Awesome. :-)

@PocketWatch Never. Not even for 5 minutes.

@lillycoyote You gotta adapt/evolve as technology advances. I might get a USB port surgically installed next month, if my health insurance will help cover the costs :D

@jerv If my health insurance pays for it, I’m planning on having a panel installed in the back of my head and have the aging computer that is my brain upgraded with additional RAM.

Ok, so I installed the fan monitor thingy. It says:
HD0: 99F
Temp1: 120F
Temp2: 120F
Core1: 122F
Core2: 113F

Not terribly far off from mine after it’s been on for five hours, and mine is perfectly healthy.

HD0: 93F
Temp1: 129F
Core1: 115F
Core2: 115F

Not bad for a fairly hot summer day in a non-air-conditioned place. It seems about average for a fairly modern computer, and cool for an older one. My old Athlon desktop had an average CPU temp of around 163F! It may feel warm, but it is not overheating; not even close.

Ok, so when is it overheating?

That depends mostly on the CPU. Many have a maximum temperature of around 70C/158F though some are either higher or lower. My Intel SU4100 can do fine up to 100C/212F though I don’t know how the rest of the system would fare if it was literally hot enough to fry an egg.

However, system longevity is improved if you keep it at a more normal temperature; anything under 55C/131F is absolutely fine and should last for years.

Well, then that’s good to know. I thought if it was hot enough to hurt, it was hot enough to fry the hardware.

@MyNewtBoobs Nope. My laptop is running at 83 degrees celcius but its fine, had me worried when I first got it though

I’ve seen some laptop reviews that included temperature readings taken at various points along the exterior. Many will get around 95–100F on the bottom in places; notably warm, and implying that the inside is even warmer. That’s normal.