is it normal for laptops to get rather hot

DaveAshton

Mine's been running for over 63 hours now (according to task Manager, system idle process). It's a Dell Inspiron and is still only slightly warm, even if I put my hand over the side vent.

So not all Dells get hot.

SE

LadyMorticia

I own an Acer Aspire 5100 and it runs rather hot sometimes and causes my laptop to slow down on some occasions.

Have you tried using Speedfan to see what temperature your laptop is running at?

I'm not sure what the "normal" temperature is for a laptop to be but I normally have mine on my lap and it gets hot. Not so hot that I can't have it comfortably on my lap though. It's more like a laptop and hot water bottle in one for me. , without the hot water of course.

xx

richt71

If you've had he laptop a while you can get a build up of dust around the fan which can slow it down and increase the heat of the laptop. Unfortunately difficult o clean yourself unless you are good at taking things appart.

steveo3002

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Well .... nearly 3 hours now and it's barely warm. Compared with mine, yours is certainly behaving differently.

is that 3 hrs constant use or any idle time...with or without charger?

noticed mine isnt quiet so how when running on just the battery, but then it slows the performance etc to save power

isofa

If I use mine (Dell Latitude) in anger i.e. lots of data work, development, moving and working on massive graphics files in Photoshop, it gets very hot, but just writing a document etc, it only gets warm.

Depend what the user usage is = what the processor and hard disc usage is = heat produced.

Laptops will also run warmer when on a lap rather than a desk, the desk will act as a heatsink, whereas your lap is already warm and can't dissipate heat as well.

The MacBook Pros can get very hot sometimes too.

free4440273

If my laptop 'hangs' (Windows :mad:), I often notice the fan kicking in and staying on almost indefinitely (which means also that the power adapter gets extremely hot): I have to close some windows down, wait till the cpu cycle has dropped from 100 per cent (:eek:) and then things get back to 'normal' (the fan stops). It's somewhat ironic that people seem concerned when the fan kicks in; in fact I think it's just doing its job

Debt_Free_Chick

steveo3002 wrote: »

is that 3 hrs constant use or any idle time...with or without charger?

noticed mine isnt quiet so how when running on just the battery, but then it slows the performance etc to save power

3 hours constant ... surfing .... with the adapter plugged in.

I don't even notice the fan kicking in (which I assume it does) as it's ssssoooo quiet.

Frozenace

I know someone who had a Quad Xeon laptop with 2 graphics chips in it from Fujitsu-Siemens. It caught fire because it was so hot

Amalea

Its not so much what brand the laptop is, more what components are inside (eg better spec graphics card run can run hotter), and what it is being used for. Controlling heat can also extend the lifespan of the laptop as components are less likely to be damaged. Personally I use an Akasa cooler: http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=1177&category_id=282
The top of laptop still gets warm, but the underside doesn't-even when playing games. Its fairly quiet too.