Laptop Cooling

Shelster

Shelster

Shelster

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Joined
3 Aug 2003
Posts
2,028
Location
Plymouth, UK
Am getting rather concerned for the state of my familiy jewels and also the stability of my laptop. Just ran speed fan and am getting a CPU temp of +59 degrees and that is just after running iTunes for 1 hour :eek:

Have a cooler plate that works ok, but doesnt get the temps right down. Oh its an Athlon +2500 XPM in the lappie BTW.

There are hundreds of alternative cooling options fro desktops, but has anyone produced an alternative for a laptop? Have to replace my DVD drive next month, so will reseat the HSF already fitted and re-TIM it. Hopefully that will sort it out a bit.

Have thought of custom buiding a water-block and then making a w/c rig, but that sort of defeats the portability of the lappie. Would make for a wicked looking mod though

Cheers all
 
I really wouldn't worry about it that much. The old socket A XP chips were specced upto 85/90C in most cases IIRC.

You'll appreciate the warmth in the winter ;)
 
Laptops always run hotter than desktops. Limited space = limited airflow. Of course, not all laptops are made equal. I too wouldn't worry that much about it unless it's causing problems.

If, however, you're desperate, you could try something called a chillow. They're meant for cooling overclocked human heads (:p), but a guy selling them on a TV shopping channel I won't name showed one under a laptop. Don't know how effective it was (or even if it was effective at all).

Just be careful if you do. They're flexible, so you might risk blocking ventilation slots, which would make the problem worse (especially with an Athlon inside there).

And yes, before Bundles gets in, they're water cooled. :D
 
Unfortunately, it is becoming something of a problem. Most annoying itterance was after flying (yep i'm a FS2004 geek) from Plymouth to Glasgow, in real time and then after lining up fo a spotty dog landing in rather bouncy weather, the scrren goes very dark and the little 0's and 1's that make this magic box work, stopped moving around and doing their thang.

Also use it for watching DVDs while lying in my bed, so need to keep temps down.

Saw an article on a nopther OCing site, and the guy on there tried lapping his stock cooler, filling the gap between the heatpipe and the cpu plate with thermal epoxy and then stuck a great big 120mm sunon fan on the back in a rather fetching pink foam box type construction. Didnt lower his temps by much, but every little helps, as was said by the woman as she wee'd in the sea
 
Moral of this story - using a huge fan to shift air through a small space usually doesn't work. :)

Does sound like you have a problem though. Some laptops are just badly designed and can't cope with high load for extended periods (typically the cheap ones that use desktop chips instead of their mobile equivalents). Other than that, the usual checks apply - foreign objects, dust, broken fan, etc.
 
guess i am just the victim of someones bad designs then. Will do the lapping and filling though. Deep doen i know it wont make that much difference, but for my own peace of mind i will know i have done what i can do.

Guess i will start saving up and replace this mobile cooker soon. Have eyes set on a rather shiny 17" with a tasty SLi setup. Think that may run a tad warm too, but hopefully they will have thought of that and put a decent cooling solution in there.

May try the watercooling mod after i get new lappie. Pics promised if it happens
 
Hmm.. if you're going to get of the SLi Lappy it'll run cooler than you expect, though with my experience of the things they keep 'em only so cool as so they don't distort the plastic casing.

The SLi = the good, and they're very well designed and will shift heat better than most lapptops. IMO Get a Savrow they're expensive, but my god, you get what you pay for :)
 
Update

Have had my lappie in bits again. Got some very scared looks from the people in work. But it looks like my problem has been resolved.

Had the heatpipe out and polished up the CPU pad with brasso. Not as flat as lapping, i know, but was impractical to lap the pad. Whilst the whole HSF was out, noticed that where the fan sat, there is a plastic well for the fan to sit in. My engineering brain says 'Fan must suck in air to be able to blow air, so, if this well is solid, where doea the air come from?'

As far as i could see, there was only a very small pokey grill on the front bottom of the lappie. Could this be that main cause of the fault?, lack of air flow over the heatpipe.

This is wher the scary part happened. Thought 'What the hell!' and out came the drill and fan well now sports some rather sexy air holes.

Rebuilt laptop (twice as forgot to reconnect cables for mouse/speakers 1st time and then keyboard second time. I was tired). Flashed up and all things worked. Ran Speedfan and reported CPU temp as 31 degrees. PLayed on the lappie for a good few hours and in that time the CPU temp hadnt moved and the HD temp had risen by only 10 degrees.

So i have either 1-Fritzed the temp sensor, 2-managed to make the best cooling mod in the world all with a 2mm drill bit or 3-the temp sensor is mounted close to the fan/exhaust and is reading an ambient temp.

Who nows or cares. Is working fopr now and can get to the end of a game without it crashing. It will probably melt now, but thats another problem to resolve
 
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