Laptop cooling help

dickieg

I was wondering weather anyone could help me decide weather a laptop cooling pad works and if so what one to get. I know they are relativley cheap but i have seen so many designs, such as 1 fan and 3 fan ones. The laptop stays fairly cool doing simple tasks but when i play games on it, it gets a bit to hot and since its a HP its a common problem with heat. Anyway could anyone help me decide which one is a good buy. Thanks.

tonynw

i would recomend a 3 fan unit if you are getting one, but i would rather make sure there is no dust build up in the laptop have a look and see if you can see a collection of dust on the fan or on the inside of the vent where you can feel the warm air being blown out of the machine.

if you can see dust in the air vent where the warm air comes out i would reverse blow air back through the vent holes to release any build up of dust. then once it has been blown loose then use a vac cleaner to suck the loose dust back out.

even better would be to strip the thing if you can and do a proper clean.

tonynw

wornoutmumoftwo

I got one out of pound land, it's only small but it's worked in keeping my laptop cooler (think I may invest in a better one in the future though).

Painkiller

Avoid the ones with LEDs in the fans if possible - I've got one under my 360 & one under my ps3... eventually the LEDs start to flash and then fail.

Hammyman

DO NOT BUY ONE OF THESE THINGS. THEY CAUSE MORE PROBLEMS THAN THEY CURE.

Do what tonyw said, especially if you've owned it a year or more.

Yolina

Buy a cheap wire roasting rack and put your laptop on it - that way it's raised a few inches off the table which is enough to allow the warm air to dissipate quickly.

Painkiller

Hammyman wrote: »

DO NOT BUY ONE OF THESE THINGS. THEY CAUSE MORE PROBLEMS THAN THEY CURE.

Would you care to elaborate?

Hammyman

Painkiller wrote: »

Would you care to elaborate?

Yep. The laptop already has a cooling system designed to cool the system adequately. When laptops get hot, people buy these pointless fans that simply do nothing else but keep the plastic base cool instead of fixing the actual cause of the problem which is the gap between the fan and heatsink being blocked by fluff and dust so the air from the fan never gets to flow over the heatsink. People also think they work because whilst on these things instead of on their knee, the inlet for the laptop fan is no longer blocked so it can actually work.

Laptops can work quite well even though they're extremely hot to the touch. My Macbook Pro can get to the point of being virtually unbearable to have on my lap when I'm really hammering it yet that would imply an overall temperature of around 40C, a full 30-35C less than the critical temperature at which the CPU starts throttling the speed and you risk killing components.

HappyMJ

hmmmm I don't think fans are pointless I have a laptop where the internal fan has failed and it gets up to 95 degrees when hammered and eventually shuts down if pushed for about 10 minutes. Also have another laptop where the fan outlet points downward towards the desk and needs airflow to cool it (toshiba). If the device mentioned doesn't cost much then I'd say go for it. Games really shouldn't be played for long periods on laptops better off to get a desktop with lots of built in fans and heatsinks on the CPU. You'll also find the processor runs a lot quicker rather than stepping down in speed to save itself.

Hammyman

HappyMJ wrote: »

hmmmm I don't think fans are pointless I have a laptop where the internal fan has failed and it gets up to 95 degrees when hammered and eventually shuts down if pushed for about 10 minutes. Also have another laptop where the fan outlet points downward towards the desk and needs airflow to cool it (toshiba). If the device mentioned doesn't cost much then I'd say go for it. Games really shouldn't be played for long periods on laptops better off to get a desktop with lots of built in fans and heatsinks on the CPU. You'll also find the processor runs a lot quicker rather than stepping down in speed to save itself.

So instead of buying a £4 fan off Ebay and following one of the many Youtube videos on how to change it you instead pay at least 4 times the amount on a bodge solution that will not give sufficient airflow over the heatsink.

And what model Toshiba is it that has the fan outlet pointing down to the desk and do you realise you've just contradicted yourself by claiming a fan thing improves it, even if there were one? You do realise it would be working against the internal fan?

Not to worry, people like you are a constant source of bargains for people like me who then spend 20 minutes at the most swapping the fan or unblocking the heatsink and selling it on for a decent amount of money.

And BTW, Alienware have been making a range of dedicated gaming laptops for years.

kabayiri

A guy from HP support recommended a zalman cooler for my laptop (HP envy).

And you know what? It works a treat. Why shouldn't I spend a few quid to stop an expensive laptop toasting my knackers off? Makes sense to me