Overheating Laptop... .

David333

I know that this is a common problem but the processors on my laptop seem to hit 100% quite quickly (especially when watching iplayer on Chrome but also when doing a couple of tasks like a full virus scan and surfing), at which point the laptop heats up to about 95 degrees and cuts off. I've tried cleaning it out with compressed air; I make sure it sits on a hard surface. Is there anything else I can do...?

I have seen those laptop cooling pads on ebay (for example: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-NOTEBOOK-COOLER-COOLING-PAD-3-FANS-LAPTOP-PC-/180481791006?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Computing_LaptopAccess_RL&hash=item2a058d941e#ht_3458wt_1137 ) and was just wondering a) if these would do the job, and b) whether anyone could recommend a particular type...?

Thank you!

mattymoo

Had this problem with an old work laptop in very similar circumstances.
Laptop cooling fan did help.
Fortunately it was a work laptop and had a service agreement. Engineer stripped down the machine and discovered a virtual absence of thermal paste between heat sink and CPU. If you understand that and feel confident stripping a laptop, might be worth checking.

I used Speedfan (freeware piece of software) to monitor the CPU load and temps. This enable the engineer to home in on the fault pretty quickly.

David333

mattymoo wrote: »

Had this problem with an old work laptop in very similar circumstances.
Laptop cooling fan did help.
Fortunately it was a work laptop and had a service agreement. Engineer stripped down the machine and discovered a virtual absence of thermal paste between heat sink and CPU. If you understand that and feel confident stripping a laptop, might be worth checking.

I used Speedfan (freeware piece of software) to monitor the CPU load and temps. This enable the engineer to home in on the fault pretty quickly.

Thanks. I'm reasonably confident with parts but searching for and replacing thermal paste might be a little beyond me! I'm using CoreTemp and am pretty sure that the problem is overheating. The only solution other than a cooling pad seems to me to prevent the processors being used so much but that seems to just mean not using my laptop as much as it could be used... .

danthemoneysavingman

you cleaned out all the fans thoroughly right? by taking it apart? If so then mattymoo may be on the money. look up arctic silver on the net.

David333

danthemoneysavingman wrote: »

you cleaned out all the fans thoroughly right? by taking it apart? If so then mattymoo may be on the money. look up arctic silver on the net.

There are a couple of youtube videos on how to install it but I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable doing that. I guess it wouldn't be worth the money to get some sort of computer shop to do it... .

Hammyman

The 100% usage is the core problem and you need to find out whats causing that. Until you do, no matter what you do you're going to have the same problem.

Those laptop coolers are a complete waste of money and just mask the problem. You don't need to replace thermal paste - just take the fan out. If you're going to pay someone, they should charge no more than an hours labour. But as I said, you need to find out what is causing the 100% CPU use.

David333

Hammyman wrote: »

The 100% usage is the core problem and you need to find out whats causing that. Until you do, no matter what you do you're going to have the same problem.

Those laptop coolers are a complete waste of money and just mask the problem. You don't need to replace thermal paste - just take the fan out. If you're going to pay someone, they should charge no more than an hours labour. But as I said, you need to find out what is causing the 100% CPU use.

Principally watching iplayer on Google Chrome... . Obviously I can watch it in a different browser but it's just frustrating! It's a dual core processor and both will increase to 100% for a prolonged period when I have a number of windows open... . I do like Chrome though - that's the problem!

point3

Which laptop? Some CPUs are very easily accessed - just unscrew a hatch on the base, unplug fan, unscrew heatsink and there you have it! You need to clean, and use just a "rice grain" of thermal paste - either spread it out or push the heatsink down on top and fit it all back together again.

David333

point3 wrote: »

Which laptop? Some CPUs are very easily accessed - just unscrew a hatch on the base, unplug fan, unscrew heatsink and there you have it! You need to clean, and use just a "rice grain" of thermal paste - either spread it out or push the heatsink down on top and fit it all back together again.

It's a Toshiba Equium A200... .

point3

Sorry, then. That's not one of the easy ones, lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzBiO9IgJSE&feature=fvw

Time for a new laptop and sell on the old one for "spares or repairs".

danthemoneysavingman

Have you looked at the processes/services running when it hits 100%? (thru task manager) This should give you insight into what's chewing up your processor time. May be your AV or similar... see if you can post what processes it is, or google em, which may serve up your answer!