Can Laptop Coolers damage your laptop???

I just bought an Asus G50VT-X6 along with a Zalman NC2000 Laptop Cooler from Newegg which should be coming next week. However, I have a few questions:
-Since the laptop cooler is slanted, would it damage the HDD or the Optical Drive when it is in use??? (the cooler's upper part is leveled about 25 degrees up from the surface.) I want to install some video games with the cooler attached to the laptop but I am afraid that it will scratch the lens etc...
-When I receive the brand new laptop, do I have to charge the battery for at least 6 hours for the first time without turning it on?? Or is it okay to just go ahead and boot up/install the PC?
-Let say one component fails such as the video card. Is it easy to replace/fix??
-Is it safe to overclock your laptop?? (The Asus has a software built in to overclock from 2.5GHz to 2.7GHz)
-Do 9800M GS have PhysX??

-What other precaution/tips do you guys have?


Thanks, that's all I got to ask for now.

 

nonononononnonnoo

 

RE the cooler, it's perfectly ok to leave the laptop on an angle, so long as you don't wave it about to fiercly when a drive is being accessed (you'll hear it if it happens)

Li-Ion batteries don't have any specific charging requiresments apart from not being allowed to drop below 3 volts (it makes them die completely, but the battery has internal monitoring to prevent that from happening when used correctly).

Tech support (ASUS', anyway) usually recommends you let your battery die (run til your laptop shuts down) three times in a row once every three months, but it's not strictly necessary.

 

Lithium Ion batteries do not like being below 40%

 

The only way a laptop cooler can damage a laptop is if it suddenly goes haywire where either it causes a huge electrical surge to flow somehow (if it's metal) or the fan is too flimsy and suddenly just flies out of the cooler itself. Though those are exaggerated (and totally impossible), there should be no damage whatsoever caused by a cooler.

 

What about your laptop being slanted??? Would the optical drive get damaged such as the lens being scratched by the disc?? What about the HDD?

 

No, it would not damage the laptop. I've seen people mount their laptops vertically, and play a DVD. It's no issue at all, unless you're talking about a slot-loading drive, which I am not so confident about.

 

Let's just say you could use your laptop to burn a dvd on your lap on a train or bus that is moving and not have any problems, but you can't wave it around like a paper fan.

 

It shouldn't. If it's mounted properly, it shouldn't be moving and scratching anything at all

When I got my laptop fresh out of the box, I just plugged in the battery, plugged it into the AC adapter, turned it on, and charged it as I used it.

It depends on the component. Processors, RAM, keyboards, hard drives, wireless cards, and optical drives are usually pretty straightforward. LCD displays are trickier to access but can also be user-replaceable if necessary. Graphics cards, if they're soldered to the motherboard like mine, are impossible to replace on your own. If my GPU died I would have to get a whole new motherboard.

If ASUS included its own overclocking software, then you can assume it's safe to use, especially with a good cooler. 2.5 to 2.7GHz isn't an extreme overclock anyway. I OC'd my old dual-core desktop from 2.0 to 2.7GHz and saw an average temperature difference of 5 degrees Celsius at idle, 6 degrees under load.

The desktop version does, I'm not sure about the mobile. Nvidia's website is bound to have information about it.

If you're installing the cooler yourself, make sure you screw everything in securely. You don't want a cooler bouncing around inside your laptop case. Also, don't forget the thermal paste/grease. A cooler is useless without thermal compound to transfer heat from the CPU.

Slot-loading drives aren't flimsy at all. My Dell Studio 15 has one, and it works just fine flat on a table, sideways, on its back, upside down...

(Don't ask why I've tested it in all these situations )

 

Why do people assume they need those coolers? I mean sure some laptops do run hotter than others but I just never saw a use for those things. I guess some people just like using them

 

If you're going to overclock, then it makes sense. Laptops already cram a bunch of hot-running components into tight spaces. Overclocking just exacerbates the situation. The cooler you can keep it, the better.

Hell, my Dell Studio sometimes gets too hot to keep on my lap, and it's not exactly a powerhouse, and overclocking of any kind is disabled.

 

Having the laptop on a slight angle does not cause any damage to the system.
Some laptop coolers can cause damage to your laptop. That Zalman will not.

My laptop cooler for example, outputs around 100x the airflow of most standard coolers. Even when my laptop cooler is on low, the fans in my laptop spin at 4400rpm when the fans themselves are not powered. If I turn the fans on, the fan speed drops to 4060rpm, which means the maximum fan speed is slower than the fans in my cooler are turning my fan
So I make sure to shut my laptop fans off when using my laptop cooler. If I keep them on, I will damage the fan in my laptop.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=350462

K-TRON

 

there u go, i fixed it for u.

 

depending on it, they can damage the internal fans of the laptop. If they spin the internal fans too fast they can damage the fans internal bearings. Take a high powered air compressor to your laptop fan and blow on it and see how fast it spins. I doubt any laptop cooler is that powerful though.

 

In my opinion if the laptop was designed right it will be cool enough. Sure my 10 year old dell laptop gets warm on the legs sometimes but that was old technology and it is still running great. So i don't understand why "prolonged life" is a benefit. Right now i have a Vaio SR and its fine. You can think what you want and buy what you want but in the end i saved myself the cost of a laptop cooler The only reason i see someone buying a cooler is if they overclock or have sensitive legs and/or a poorly designed laptop.

 

Well i can tell by the specs of your computer your not a hard core user Gaming causes laptops to run really hot especially if you game for prolonged periods of time. The summer heat doesn't help either as not all people run the air conditioning.

 

For me, I have kep a plastic base below the cooler just to be safe.

 

I don't have a cooler...

My Sony SZ is at most "comfortably warm" when used on the Intel X3100.

Never too hot.

Run the NVidia 8400GS and it gets very warm/hot...

(But then I used the NVidia a little in summer when I got the Vaio, 2 games, and since, not at all as I don't need it even though SZs are good at keeping the NVidias running despite the flawed design - and I want this laptop to last a long time...)

 

My studio runs really cool too. I was really surprised. I think some laptops are better at cooling than others. Its all in their design. Unfortunately, cosmetics often superceed functionality. We can all blame this on apple really. They continually push the boundaries and force the rest of the industry to do it with them due to popular demand.

 

lol the only thing a laptop cooler can do to your laptop is only help it in a positive manner. And that is making it cooler.

 

i have my laptop tilted 45 degrees
that should be okay right?

i get like 4 degrees difference on the GPU by tilting it

edit: actually i dunno why i would be worried
external hard drives are usually mounted vertical and they're fine, haha

 

Without cooler pad your laptop will be good,with cooler pad it will be best.

 

You lucky son of a gun.

I have a Studio 15 with pretty much exactly the same specs as yours, and it gets unbearably hot after being on for about two hours. The palm rest burns to keep my wrist on, so I have to awkwardly elevate my hands to type, and not rest them on the palm rest.

And I can't keep it on my lap if I'm wearing anything thinner than snowpants.

 

haha..that was funny..just ask for a replacement then with Dell.

 

Have all you guys installed a game from a disc while it was on a tilted on a laptop cooler?? And have no problems at all? I think that optical drive are suppose to be completely flat for it to be safe to use on a laptop.

 

I've burned a DVD on a bus with no problems at all.

 

Yes I've installed programs from a tilted laptop.

No it should not be an issue at all.

Look at a lot of desktop systems that have the optical drive placed vertically; they still work.

 

A laptop cooler could most definitely damage your laptop. That Zalaman NC1000 I have is very solid and dense its like a giant shuriken with slightly dulled edged.

Give that a quick fling of the wrist into your lcd or something and it could probably cut it in half.

 

I turned my laptop upside down while installing something and it did not damage my laptop

 

lolz....ifit would damage laptop then why are they made????

 

I really must pose the obvious question... why?

 

Hey, you never know when inverted program installation is going to come in handy...

"Jeff, the plane is out of control and upside down!! What will we do??"

"Hang on, let me reinstall the software for the controls! There, that ought to do it!"

 

Only because the inchyfingers thought tilting the laptop damage the hdd/cd drive while in use. This shows turning it upside does not damage the drives