Overheating Laptop

JoKay_2

Hi, I hope you can help me!!

I have a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo laptop, which we bought brand new a year ago. Its worked beautifully until yesterday - its shut down 3 times unexpectedly and seems to be because its overheating - its very hot on one side of the keyboard area.

This has happened before, when I loaded my Sims games on - I thought it might be because the disk drive was constantly on, so I uninstalled it and haven't used it since, and the problem went away.

I've checked the fans underneath, and they seem clear, but am at a loss what to do next!

JonnyThunder

Are the fans actually turning? We had a bunch of Fujitsu laptops in my work (probably around 200 or so) which got returned because they had fan issues. I think in an upgraded bios, they had new settings too - for the temperature at which the fan kicks in.

I'd check the fujitsu website just in case there is a known issue.

Jersy

i had a similar prob with my desk top yesterday (packard bell)

took it apart and cleaned the dust out

the CPU was running @ 97 C

theres an error message coming up for the CPU fan failing so need to get that replaced!

cledor

You can download "Everest Home Edition" to check your CPU temperature and other performance figures.

opportunity_cost

Try cleaning out any dust first. Dust is the #1 laptop overheating cause. See:
Curing Laptop Overheating

Cricri

When I opened my laptops, I never found them to be dirty. But I guess it depends on how clean is your environment!

My first step would be to make sure to use the laptop where the fans can take air in/out (i.e. if you use it on your bed and the fans are below the case, it's bound to get warm).

Then, I'd agree with the BIOS update. It might sound risky, but I never ever bricked anything with a BIOS update (ok, actually I did brick a DVD drive once, but I managed to flash it clean again on a different PC). Just make sure to follow the instructions, leave it time, and charge the battery before starting (in case you get a power cut).

Next I'd try a program to force the fans to run, such as SpeedFan:
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
For my Dell laptop, there is a dedicated program and SpeedFan won't work.

Finally, if none of those work, I'll open up the case. On my current laptop, I had to open it up due to a broken PCMCIA connector. While it was opened, I took advantage to remove the default heat conductor between CPU and heatsink (a kind of foil), polished slightly the heatsink, and apply Arctic Silver thermal paste to it. If your laptop is dirty, that's also the best opportunity to clean it thoroughly of course! In order to not break anything, you might want to download the service manual and follow their instructions for disassembly.

JonnyThunder

Ahhh god bless Arctic silver! A saviour in heat conduction!

Generally speaking (like Cricri said) - if you're using the laptop on a flat hard surface and it's still overheating then you got issues. If you're using it on a shagpile carpet or a duvet then the fan ports may be blocked.

Did you check if the fans are actually blowing yet? Can you feel hot air blowing out of them?

JoKay_2

Thanks for your replies! :beer:

Yes, I mainly use it on a desk surface, and make sure that if I use it in bed I have a book or something underneath it.

I just checked the fans, and they are currently blowing cold air out - the pc has only been on for 5 mins or so.....

I think I'll just have to wait and see - I haven't used it often in enough in the last few days for it to overheat, so I'll see how long it takes tonight, and will report back!

Quasar

I have had to buy a laptop cooler formy HP lappy because the internal fan broke - I've had it for just over a year but have used the other lappy mostly, so this one is not clogged with dirt.

I've no idea how much repairing a broken fan costs, but the cooler cost me about £15.

JoKay_2

... I've just noticed that the laptop is getting hot again - its only been on for 40 mins or so - and noticed that Windows Defender is scanning in the background. Since its been going for nearly 30 minutes, would this contribute to it getting hot? And is Windows Defender really necessary?

TIA!!

Little_John

It does pretty well at keeping spyware out.

a post earlier asking about the cost of replaceing the fan, they can be very expensive, my fan failed so I tried to get it replaced £80-£105 for a replacement. I pretty much refused to pay that much but laptop fans are pretty special, running on 5v where most are 12v very low profile and an oddball size 70mm in my case.
I had a look at the fan and found the make and model so I searched for the company then contacted the company they sent me a free sample, even made it up to fit with the wire the correct length and connector for my laptop. I was charged for secure postage by courier which was $30 so £15 for somthing others wanted £105 for. between getting my new fan I used a deskfan blowing under and over the laptop to keep it cool.