Hot Laptop

turkish

hi all
my wifes laptop (dell 1520 2 yrs old )is messing around was taking long time to boot up,shut down,
would shut down just by it self while doing some thing
my son noticed a noises coming from from a part of laptop(turned out to be hard drive area

i gave it a full diagnostic check took ages it said ''reseat hard drive''
did nothing else seem to work ok for a bit

made sure backed every thing up got caught out before

took out hard drive where the noise coming from put back in



but now not boot at all,,

is it just hard drive gone what other check can i do before i buy new hard drive at around £50 +,or take to a pc doctor

or has been over heating in past !! and fried hard drive {usually used on table ]

SplanK

the laptop will have slowed down as the processor has throttled back to help with cooling - due to this, it cant do as much work as before (more human example, you go for a run, get rather warm and out of breath so you slow down to a jog to catch your breath and cool down...). All modern laptops will do this. It will usualy turn on the fan as well.

This is all very dependant on the settings for cooling and weather or not its powered by the battery or mains (usualy on battery mode it runs slower mode to extend battery life....)

power chargers get hot as they are converting 240vAC down to (usualy) 12vDV so by nature these will get rather warm.

best thing to do is ensure that the laptop is placed on a surface where the vents can breath easy.

Turkish... its hard to diag a computer problem from over the internet - by nature - hard drives DO make noise as they contain moving parts. Also, other parts of the laptop could make a noise such as fan or optical drive....

if you removed the hard drive and reseated it - then depending on the type of connector (IDE = loads of little pins / SATA = 2x moulded L shaped connectors) you could have damaged pins or might not be seated correctly. I would take ot out, ensure the connectors are not damaged and reseat....

Also - if its SATA type connector then you can plug this into a normal desktop computer if you have spare connectors to see if you can read the data - and backup if needed.

if you are unsure and you need to take it to somebody else to look at - please do not go to the likes of PC world or any of the larger computer stores - they usualy are pants and try to sell you more things than are actualy needed.... try your local, small indenpendant computer shop to do some initial diag.... usualy it should not take them too long to give you an idea of whats going on with it

SplanK

MrYorke wrote: »

if your laptop is dual-core, you'll find that it would run hotter than those with urm, single core

not quite true... multi core CPU's are generaly better at heat managment compared to their previous single core counterpart (excluding the Intel Atom CPU which is a single core - but VERY efficient and designed specificly for mobile computing...) the processor die uses a much closer circuite structure which helps with cooling and usualy much better software managment allowing the processor and other components related to it can be throttled down to save power and allow better cooling before active cooling (fans...) are required

janninew

Thanks for all the advice, i used the brush on my hoover to clean the vents and i've been sitting at my desk to use it! I know i shouldn't use it on my lap, just laziness i suppose!

Thanks for all your info.

Jannine

Taffybiker

Yes, daft I know - so why do they call it a laptop?:D

SplanK

Taffybiker wrote: »

Yes, daft I know - so why do they call it a laptop?:D

older laptops of ye old days didnt have enough power to cause heating problems. Todays processors and even other chipsets in computers such as graphics cards, ,otherboard controllers are powerfull enough to require active cooling thus the need for fans, vents and software to keep them under control!

janninew

Taffybiker wrote: »

Yes, daft I know - so why do they call it a laptop?:D

Very good point, maybe i should claim under the trade descriptions act!!!

coffee_prince

my laptop gets hot too, plus its summer so it gets super hot. I use a cushion and stuff, but laptop seems to run fine, if hot.

the adaptor will get very very hot, that is normal, and mine also makes a small buzzing sound too, which frmo what i gather is normal for my laptop

SplanK

I would strongly advis against using any sort of padding under a laptop resulting in blocked airflow.... these units can easily run into 100c+ if not properly cooled - it may run fine however the compound use to make these chips start to break down at around the 70-80c mark - resulting in a shorter life for the laptop.

The amount of laptops repairs I have to deal with due to users preventing proper airflow around the laptop is quite high compared to any normal failire.... most of the time the manuf will not honor the warranty on burnt out components unless there is proven production issuse - for example the heatink has come away from the processor.....

macman

coffee_prince wrote: »

my laptop gets hot too, plus its summer so it gets super hot. I use a cushion and stuff, but laptop seems to run fine, if hot.

the adaptor will get very very hot, that is normal, and mine also makes a small buzzing sound too, which frmo what i gather is normal for my laptop

It may run fine now, but sooner or later it won't, because you're shortening the life of the components drastically. Use something hard under it and clean out the fans and vents with a can of compressed air.