Laptop Cooling

[freeztar]

I have a problem.
My laptop sux.
The heat it produces chokes it three minutes into boot.
Through trial and error, I have figured out an optimal setup for its necessary cooling. I raised it up on supports (small cardboard boxes) about 1.5in off the table and I have a fan blowing underneath the laptop. Things tend to work well like this, but it's loud and inefficient (more electricity).

Looking into cooling pads, I had my doubts. Nonetheless, I bought one yesterday and should receive it soon. Not long after I ordered my new solution did I find this:
Laptop cooler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Unfortunately adding additional power requirements to a laptop that is overheating is self defeating as additional heat is generated by the internal power supply due to the additional load. Unless the fans are supplied with power from an external source which does not add to the current load.

While I understand the claim that adding load to an overloaded source creates more stress, I am unsatisfied with how the cooling factor is left out. Surely the added power load creates less "net" heat effect than the cool creates cooling.

What are your experiences with cooling a laptop?
Have you found certain solutions to be more effective than others?
I've seen the traditional laptop cooling "platform", a PCMCIA fan, and normal fans such as my own setup. Which of these, if any, would you recommend?

[Jay-qu]

My laptop used to overheat occasionally, then I noticed that the fan had stopped working once that was replaced its been smooth sailing

[Tormod]

I opened up my laptop and used a can of condensed air to clean the heatsink and fans. It helped for a few weeks...

[GAHD]

Mine's a dell, it's been through 5 different constuction sites and on a few points it's started overheating. The proble was ALWAYS the dirt, usually fine drywall compund sanded dust.


Since you're obviously not to hardware savvy, take it to a shop to have them clean it and check the fans. If there are still problems after that call the manufacturerto see if there's any diagnostics they can reccoment to find the problem. With any luck it could be a terminal defect and they'll replace the macheine under warrenty...

[alexander]

you guys lol, well there are a few solutions:

one:
Clean the laptop
> if you have a service contract, just bring it to the place that services your laptop and have then clean it (Yay Apple stores and Macs)
> if you do not have such a contract, whip out your number 2 and number 1 philips head screw drivers, and just remember where all the screws go. while you are at it, you can also clean your keyboard by disassembling it, and putting the board through a dishwashing cycle, just remember to dry it all out before putting it back together. Yes you need to take thr rubber thingies off, otherwise they will melt in the dishwasher .

You can make a better cooling system:
> if you have problems with your laptop constantly overheating, you may want to consider a cooling mat or a cooling dock, made by lots of companies today, they are withing a $20-$75 range, and provide some cooling advantages and a better airflow through your laptop (i like the antec one, but then again i dont have it because i dont have that problem, i tweaked my Power Book Pro to be quite a bit cooler by altering the temperature/fan speed controls)

> if you have time, you may want to check this out: Laptop water cooler
its a hack to build a removable water cooling system for your laptop, its not true water cooling system, but its pretty darn good.... looks bad tho, but if you read the notes, you may want to make the tubing out of a thin copper pipe, then you can make it look like it belongs there.

> and afcourse if you are really bored, and have nothing better to do then to test the cooling system or make your own cooling gadgets, you can just setup this forced air laptop cooling system and make your laptop run an average of like 20 degrees cooler. Ofcourse you can improve on this, and make a couple of fine grade screens that can be removed and cleaned so dust does not enter, or put an actual air filter on there for hahas

[freeztar]

Thanks for the great reply Alex!

Originally Posted by alexander

you guys lol, well there are a few solutions:

one:
Clean the laptop
> if you have a service contract, just bring it to the place that services your laptop and have then clean it (Yay Apple stores and Macs)
> if you do not have such a contract, whip out your number 2 and number 1 philips head screw drivers, and just remember where all the screws go. while you are at it, you can also clean your keyboard by disassembling it, and putting the board through a dishwashing cycle, just remember to dry it all out before putting it back together. Yes you need to take thr rubber thingies off, otherwise they will melt in the dishwasher .

Yeah, I need to do this, but I've never taken a laptop apart, so I'm a bit hesitant. I'm sure I can figure it out though. I've never heard of the keyboard-dishwasher idea. I'll have to try that while I'm at it.

You can make a better cooling system:
> if you have problems with your laptop constantly overheating, you may want to consider a cooling mat or a cooling dock, made by lots of companies today, they are withing a $20-$75 range, and provide some cooling advantages and a better airflow through your laptop (i like the antec one, but then again i dont have it because i dont have that problem, i tweaked my Power Book Pro to be quite a bit cooler by altering the temperature/fan speed controls)

I received my new cooling pad in the mail over the weekend and it is helping, but my laptop fan is still whirring away at full speed. I've used a fan utility and it shows it at max and the temperature is upward of 180 degrees! (w/o cooling pad)

> if you have time, you may want to check this out: Laptop water cooler
its a hack to build a removable water cooling system for your laptop, its not true water cooling system, but its pretty darn good.... looks bad tho, but if you read the notes, you may want to make the tubing out of a thin copper pipe, then you can make it look like it belongs there.

Sounds like a bit much, but I'll give it a look.

> and afcourse if you are really bored, and have nothing better to do then to test the cooling system or make your own cooling gadgets, you can just setup this forced air laptop cooling system and make your laptop run an average of like 20 degrees cooler. Ofcourse you can improve on this, and make a couple of fine grade screens that can be removed and cleaned so dust does not enter, or put an actual air filter on there for hahas

I like the screen idea, thanks!

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by GAHD

Since you're obviously not to hardware savvy, take it to a shop to have them clean it and check the fans.

FWIW, no way it's going to the shop. I've been repairing computers (desktops) for about 16 years now. I even had my own computer repair business for a little while.
My hesitation with this machine is because it is a laptop. Not much experience with their hardware unfortunately (besides the occassional memory upgrade or hard drive swap).

I'll have to just bite the bullet and start unscrewing it...I'll let ya'll know how it goes...

[CraigD]

My Laptop, a clunky, cheap Toshiba A65-126, had its first thermal problems when I thoughtlessly set it on a leather cushion, sealing its fan outlet, while it was running a program that had the CPU pegged at 100%. I walked away for a few minutes, and returned to find it had powered itself down, and all those annoying little manufacturer’s stickers were now barely attached to its almost-too-hot-to-touch surface, their tenacious glue backs melted.

It took about 10 minutes to cool before it would reboot successfully.

Realizing that I was likely to repeat the blunder – what’s the point of a laptop if you can’t set it wherever you want, without having to conduct a mini-study of its environmental needs? – I got one of those little “chillpads” I’d seen various places. The one I got is a Targus PA248 (at a big department store for an overpriced US$30) has 2 little USB-powered fans in it that very gently sucks air from the laptop’s belly to blow out the open back edge of the hollow plastic pad, but is said to work OK passively, with the fans unpowered.

Since then, I’ve had no thermal issues. I can just palm the little plastic pad against the bottom of the laptop – it has no sort of attachments. My only problem, easily remedied, was when some sort of plastic sticker on the laptop’s belly got frayed and started making a racket being sucked into a little pad fan.

I like the little thing. Though I’d not much noticed it, I now realize putting the laptop on my actual lap sometime gave me a slightly sweaty lap, which the pad cures, while the laptop fan rarely reaches what my wife referred to as its “jet on takeoff” level anymore. One of the little pad fans, however, has started making a faint but annoying tapping noise, which poking and banging hasn’t cured. I’ll give it a pipe-cleanering when I come across a pipe cleaner.

Now, spilling Raman noodles on the screen was a whole different adventure, revealing a feature of the Toshiba laptop I’d given little thought to – a sort of “storm drain” vent tucked under the lid hinges that effectively dumps any liquid directly onto the least good things one can get wet, including its big heat sink. Amazingly, my desperate unscrewing and mopping efforts seem to have worked, and the box doesn’t even smell enough of noodle flavor broth to attract cats. Even with the mopping up effort, it took the box about 8 hours to dry out enough to even power on without just squealing its speaker and displaying a v-synk-less mess of some sort of bluescreen message.

[alexander]

whoa, i just had another idea that would take more space then that liquid cooler, but less space then the obnoxiously huge forced air design

how about having a small mesh of thin copper tubes covering the intake part of the laptop case, with a few small wholes drilled in the tube, then run a flex tube to a co2 valve connected to a co2 tank, then have a tiny mechanism periodically release small amounts of co2 into the piping system and it will cool the copper down (which will cool the air coming in) and at the same time it will dispense the co2 which by itself (while being pulled through the cooling sustem) will cool the laptop down.... i gotta get a sketch of this lol

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by alexander

whoa, i just had another idea that would take more space then that liquid cooler, but less space then the obnoxiously huge forced air design

how about having a small mesh of thin copper tubes covering the intake part of the laptop case, with a few small wholes drilled in the tube, then run a flex tube to a co2 valve connected to a co2 tank, then have a tiny mechanism periodically release small amounts of co2 into the piping system and it will cool the copper down (which will cool the air coming in) and at the same time it will dispense the co2 which by itself (while being pulled through the cooling sustem) will cool the laptop down.... i gotta get a sketch of this lol

That's a nifty idea. Having an industrial sized CO2 can seems a bit much though. Perhaps there is a way to use the smaller cylinders typically used in paintball? Or perhaps an "air duster" aerosol can can be made to work, as any compressed-air aerosol-can will release cold air.