Laptop Temp

[radiofloyd]

My laptop is five years old and has been used basically as a desktop PC all that time. One area where I've completely neglected it is in managing overheating. My laptop always seems to be boiling so I never took too much notice...however it crashed (I mean shut down) three times yesterday while I was playing a game on Steam.

Anyway I downloaded a really cool 2MB program called Core Temp which gave me this reading:

The exclamation marks mean that at one point while the program was running the cores reached critical temperatures (83 was the highest recorded, as you can see). It's been running now for around 15-20 minutes and most of the time the temperature is in the 70-75 range. They recommend that ideally it should never be within 20 degrees of the Tj. Max. Well I amn't coming close to achieving that.

It's a nifty program. It has an "overheat protection" option that gives you a popup when the temperature reaches a critical value (there are more options than that but for now I'm just going to turn on the popup).

Anyway I don't really care because I'll be replacing the laptop soon with a desktop PC, and I doubt I'll ever buy another laptop again (although I might invest in a heat sink, if they make a difference?) I want to make sure any new computer I buy is properly cooled. So do any of you have any recommendations for things to get when buying a new PC?

And let me know your readings, if any of you are bothered!

[spatular]

I want to make sure any new computer I buy is properly cooled. So do any of you have any recommendations for things to get when buying a new PC?

for a desktop pc its pretty simple, big case with lots of vents and fans, and a big heatsink/fan thing for the cpu, and occasionally clean it...laptops i have no idea beyond maybe take it to bits and clean it out. or if you're feeling adventurous you could try taking the heatsink off the cpu, clean it up and apply new thermal paste...i probably wouldn't do that myself mind.

[RoboticMonk3y]

laptops often get badly clogged up

you can normally lift up the keyboard from small sprung catches running along the bottom edge of the keyboard, or held in via screws accessible from the battery port. Once the keyboard is up, you can marvel at the dusty fudge accumulated in the heatsinks and fans.

Get in there with a hoover and a cotton bud, and your laptop will run cool again.

[Sambob]

Laptop temp sounds like some kind of highly expendable hooker, down on her luck and moving on every few days.

[radiofloyd]

Well I opened it up:

Only some dust and tiny bits of fluff (from what I could see). I didn't take the hoover to it or anything, just gave it a wipe and closed it back up. Amazingly when I turned it on the temperature settled at 51 degrees and never went above 60, I thought it was a Christmas miracle. Unfortunately when I went back to it two hours later it was back to its old self, 70-75 and constantly pushing into the 80s. I think the main problem is that I leave it on all day (it doesn't help that my laptop rarely goes into hibernation when I close it). From now on I'm going to turn it off and plug it out when I'm not using it.

[retroed]

I need to have a look at mine. It runs so hot, it'll cut out simply watching YouTube on it for any decent length of time. It's put me off buying or playing games on it.

It must be about 4 years old now though, and I've never taken it apart, cleaned it or anything.

[Pikman]

I doubt it's the fact you leave it on all day. Mine stays on 24/7 with probably a weekly restart and max temps are usually 65C. Typically processors are 80-100% and I'm usually using all the RAM

[Sambob]

One thing to try is to see if there are any updates to the BIOS, or any of the drivers generally. Sometimes if thats not configured right then it can cause things to run a bit hot.

[radiofloyd]

I doubt it's the fact you leave it on all day. Mine stays on 24/7 with probably a weekly restart and max temps are usually 65C. Typically processors are 80-100% and I'm usually using all the RAM

Well I've turned it on now this morning and it's sitting quite happily around 59-60 degrees. I'll see how hot it is in an hour or two's time.

One thing to try is to see if there are any updates to the BIOS, or any of the drivers generally. Sometimes if thats not configured right then it can cause things to run a bit hot.

Is there any program you use to keep your drivers up to date? I know my ATI drivers are up to date because I downloaded the newest set from the website not long ago.

[RoboticMonk3y]

you can - of you're going ot go down that rabbit hole - hack the bios settings and lower the voltage going to the CPU, which means your clock speed will take a hit, but it'll run cooler.

If it's been getting hot repeatedly, you may also find that the thermal paste between the CPU and the heatsink is not really doing it's job. If you get air bubbles under there, it makes the CPU toasty hot.

70 degrees isn't too mental I guess, really not great though, go search out some youtube videos of laptop batteries getting too hot and venting if you're after some motivation to fix the situation though...

[Pikman]

Haha

I checked this on mine. 23C ambient, working at close to max all day, 65C junction temp

[Cyberpunk]

I've recommended these in the past for ageing laptops. Of course, clean what you can, and invest in a can of dry compressed air from a PC shop, to blow out the heat sink, fans and vents. But a stand like this typically goes for between £5 to £15 on ebay. They are powered by your laptop's usb. You put your laptop on top of it, and it blows cool air into your laptop vents on the underside. I've had good results from one of these.

Typically, my desktop PC runs at about 30 to 50 degrees. I have no cooling fans on it, except for the three on the graphic card. Instead I have a very large mushroom shaped heatsink on my CPU. It has a lot of surface area for cooling, and has the benefit of being silent.

[retroed]

I was looking at new laptops earlier (see gaming laptop thread), but now I've decided to have a proper go at replacing the heat sink and fan, and new thermal paste. I can get the required bits for about £25. I opened it up last night and sprayed a bunch of compressed air in there, but it was hard to get the the bits that needed doing. It's going to be quite a job, going by the guide video on YouTube, but if I take my time with it I should be OK. I just hope it turns out to be worth the hassle.

This is what I'm getting, brand new from Poland for £12 +P&P.

And here's the three part guide.

[retroed]

Oh, and here are my typical temps when running a game on Steam. Deadlight, in this case.

When not running a game Core #0 and #1 temps are normally around 60 degrees.

[Cyberpunk]

Best of luck with that Ed. I'm here to lend a hand if you need it mate. But you've gone down the right road with this one. A nice meaty heatsink system there. Just take your time.

Also, I've found snapping pictures of what goes where, or writhing notes as you disassemble will help with the putting together again.

[RoboticMonk3y]

it's simple, just take your time.

and don't use too much thermal paste!

If you're having the thing open, while your'e there it's good to give the rest of the innards a good brush off. I did this on my last laptop with an old paint brush

[RoboticMonk3y]

Also, I've found snapping pictures of what goes where, or writhing notes as you disassemble will help with the putting together again.

this times a million, camera phones are an excellent invention!

plus you get to show us all your wonderful adventure in fixing up Laptops!

also having a small tray or tub to keep the screws in is an excellent idea

[retroed]

Well when I took it apart the other day to have a look, I ended up with three screws leftover. This doesn't bode well.

[radiofloyd]

I've recommended these in the past for ageing laptops. Of course, clean what you can, and invest in a can of dry compressed air from a PC shop, to blow out the heat sink, fans and vents. But a stand like this typically goes for between £5 to £15 on ebay. They are powered by your laptop's usb. You put your laptop on top of it, and it blows cool air into your laptop vents on the underside. I've had good results from one of these.

Typically, my desktop PC runs at about 30 to 50 degrees. I have no cooling fans on it, except for the three on the graphic card. Instead I have a very large mushroom shaped heatsink on my CPU. It has a lot of surface area for cooling, and has the benefit of being silent.

I want to get one of this, could you link me to it on ebay?

[Cyberpunk]

Just search Laptop Cooler on eBay. There's loads there.