dandart

I put my laptop on a soft surface for 5 minutes, and it promptly overheated, saying "Over 85 C" and shutting down before doing permanent damage (the recommended temperature for my CPU is under 100 C).

However now the laptop regularly goes over 70 C (whereas before it was in the 30s or 40s). And it quite often overheats when I'm doing something processor demanding or using the ethernet.

I have cleaned it out (there was half a cm of dust on the radiator, this is a 2nd hand laptop), but it still overheats a lot.

Maybe there's a way to make the fan turn on at a lower temperature?

What can I do?

Cheers

waterhead

Does the fan still work? It is my experience that fans are the cheapestly made part of a computer. Too much dirt and dust easily wears them out.

If it still works, you may be able to change the settings in the BIOS. This is acessable at boot by pressing a specific key. Which key is dependent on your system. It will usually say "To enter Setup press __ key".

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Paul

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dandart

It still works and I don't see a BIOS option

Tarthen

If your laptop's CPU supports Intel SpeedStep, use the CPUFreq monitor to force the processor to a lower speed. This saves power and curbs heat output. Turn off Compiz effects if it has a non-integrated GPU. Etc, etc. Less processing = less heat.

See if you can buy a new fan for it. That may help. But, in HP desktops at least, there's a Thermal option with the default, idle fan speed. Try bumping that up, if it exists.

davidian_24

I have heating problems as well with my Toshiba laptop running 2.0Ghz dual core AMD turion and 3 gigs ram. I have noticed when web browsing with lots of tabs opening clips off you tube especially my laptop starts heating up like no tomorrow!! and then to the point it cuts the power as a safety precaution.

Is there a way to reduce processing on my machine by turning off any background processes not required? Unfortunately this isnt easy like Windows Ctrl + Del .

Can anyone suggest what i can do ?

chanavs

Send your laptop to a technician like me for repairs else find a new fan and change it

dandart

I don't think it's the fan, I've been told by a technician that it may be that the paste has solidified, and I need some more.
I'll try to keep the processing down.

And davidian_24, it is easy. Just hit Ctrl+esc and you can kill things at your mercy,

waterhead

That's easy to fix, but it does require disassembling the laptop. But so would replacing the fan. First you need to get a tube of Arctic Silver 5

Newegg.com - Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - Thermal Compound / Grease

There are also instructions available from HERE. I would clean the old compound off with alcohol. Then apply a small amount of Arctic Silver, about the size of a grain of rice, to the top of the CPU.

Make sure that you are properly grounded when working on any electrical circuit. Do not do this in a room with carpeting, as static electricity will easily be created.

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Paul

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Tarthen

Ah, the paste. Why didn't I think of that xD. Spose that's why I'm a programmer and not a hardware tech .

But, yes. It would require taking it apart - if your a softwarey like me, I'd reccomend taking it to a tech.

waterhead

It's not so hard to take a laptop apart. It's putting it back together that gets a bit tricky!

One of the things that I do, is to get some small paper cups (Dixie cups), to put the screws in. The laptop usually will come apart in layers, so each cup is labeled for the layer. You can also take some pictures of the layers, as you take it apart.

Another help is to download the service guide from the laptop manufacturer. It will sometimes have detailed instructions on how to disassemble it.

And one more pointer. Put it back together right away! The longer it sits disassembled, the harder it is to remember how you took it apart.

I just fixed a Dell for a co-worker, his daughter spilled a glass of water into it. The main board was blown apart. I first gave him the option to fix it himself or find someone to do it. After two weeks I said "Long enough!", and he gave it to me (to keep). So I found a new (used) mobo for $140, and ordered it, which took another week to get.The laptop sat on my bench disassembled for three weeks before I re-assembled it! Not every screw went back in the correct hole, but the laptop is now working great! (I also had to replace the LCD inverter = $12)

Oh, and I put some Arctic Silver compound on the CPU before I re-assembled it.

So, for $150 I got P4 2.4Ghz laptop. Not bad!

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Paul

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