Drill a few holes in the chassis?

I've been thinking about drilling a few holies in the bottom the chassis for air intake on my laptop. First I want to hear your opinion about whether I'm thinking soundly or am just plain crazy.

The underside of my 5536G looks like this: http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/8596b264f8.jpg

What appears to be an air-intake right below where the fan should be (right hand side, close to camera), is only a ribbed area in solid plastics. This is where all other laptops I have seen have their main intake holes for air. The 5536G however has to rely on the small intake holes on the hatch to the left (which conseals the RAM) and a another equally small air intake in the front (you can just about see it in the pic).

Now the question is, will I lower the temps by drilling a few holes right below the center of the fan to let some cold air in, or will I completely mess up the chassis airflow which Acers engineers have carefully crafted? As far as I understand, laptops use radial fans, and cold air should be supplied in the center of the fan. The way it is now seems to work against that idea: cold air has to somehow be sucked through the spinning fanblades, not enter it from the center (no hole there!).

I am getting temps around 95 degrees C under load (2.2 GHz Turion), undervolting lowered that to about 83.

Thoughts?

 

try a laptop cooler.
can't sell laptop with holes in it.
consider getting lower watt cpu?

 

Yes, but don't laptop coolers rely on the very air intake hole that my laptop misses? Also, a laptop cooler would be fine for desk work, but at the desk I have my stationary system. I use the laptop all around the house, but usually hooked up to a wall outlet.

Thoughts of resale value are out of the equation if I make this mod

 

I don't think it's a good idea. Though if you do decide to go ahead with the mod, you should take apart your notebook before that--you might hit something in there while drilling. Also, it might not be a good idea to leave the hole gaping open, so glue in a mesh or something there.

 

Yeah that is too hot. Cooler is always better. Running that hot will shorten the life of the parts and thermally stress solder connections on the MB near the hottest areas, eventually causing all kinds of imtermittent problems.

How old is the machine? If the fan is underneath that area there should be holes there. This would be a warranty issue. If it is still under warranty, i would have Acer replace the bottom cover. Looks like you got a bottom cover that wasn't finished.

If it's off warranty, I would definitely take off the bottom cover and drill it out. Don't just drill a few holes but the whole area that was meant to be open. No drilling while it is installed. If there is a fan underneath it, it needs to breathe.

Once you've drilled it out don't bother putting a screen over the holes you drilled. It will contribute to noise and quickly clog with dust and lint.

 

Bad idea. A laptop cooler will sort all out without modifications to your lappie.

I built a home made cooler that lowered my HDD temp on mine from 55 Deg C on a normal day to around 40 Deg C on ANY day. Hot or not. Without drilling holes anywhere.

As long as the plastic is cooled under your lappie....the electronics above...stay way cooler too. Makes sense nah as Acer like to enclose their HDD comparments in a sealed bay.

Don't drill holes. It will end in tears.

Or send it back as Yellow suggested above.....

 

Yeah don't drill holes as I doubt it will make a difference. Get a cooler and keep the fan and the heatsink clear all the time.

Slightly related to your question: I have an overheating HDD in my Asus(constantly hitting 65ºC) and I drilled some holes right below it(17 holes to be exact) and it didn't make any difference, that HDD is still badly overheating.

 

Thanks for the replies!

The machine is brand new, so I should be able to take it back. It's just that I like it, and I wont be able to get another model with the same value for the money. Perhaps a cooler is the way to go after all. I could have it for whenever I game.

Thanks again

I'm off to think this over

 

I can tell who the screwdriver cowards are.

It's brand new so it is Definitely a warranty issue. They should directly swap it for a new one.

Teejay - A laptop cooler alone won't do it because it needs to augment what the cooling system should be already doing, which in this case is nothing. The one you built works so well because you actually have a fan on your laptop that has holes in front of it. Laptop coolers work not by cooling the plastic on the bottom but by moving a higher volume of cooler air under the laptop for the fan to take up. Laptops do not rely on their plastic cases for passive cooling, they are poor heat conductors, they need the active cooling of the fan, heat sink and radiator.

ATG - You don't understand, he has no cooling system to keep clear, there are no actual holes in that grill in front of his fan. Drilling holes to try to vent a hard drive naturally wouldn't make any difference, hard drives have no cooling system to assist. Drilling holes in front of the fan, where there are none now, would make a massive difference by providing this active cooling system cool outside air, not the limited amount of hot air that is currently being drawn from within an already hot case.

Acer should replace it on waranty with the same current model. The store should be able to do it too, If they say they can't give you the same model then deal with Acer.

 

So what if there aren't any holes in front of his fan? There are NO such holes on my Asus or my Acer laptop, but this just means that the laptop takes air from elsewhere not right below the fan, it doesn't necessarily mean he got...faulty chassis. It's just the way these laptops are made.

 

ok high lads been away for a few weeks,but now im back

I have tried/built many laptop cooling pads(loads of time on my hands).
by trial and error i have found using a small cpu fan witha dual power supply, usb for when im out and about. mains power when im at home.
the one thing ive always noticed is the vents/slots under the ram bay.
so i placed my fan under that so it pulls fresh air through the laptop.
and this has had some very good results.

as for drilling holes...most laptop covers have a foil shield on them glued/stuck to the underside........small bits of foil floating about inside your laptop...not the brightest of ideas.

Just a thought
Phil

 

Ok I own a Aspire 4530 what I discovered when I dismantle the laptop is the unique 5 pin fan.
You will notice the is one thermal probe attached to the fan.
Aluminium tape the thermal probe to the hottest component in the laptop usually the GFX or nearer to the CPU this will make the fan work harder to dissipate heat.
Also you can get a copper heat spreader cut to size and attach it to increase the size of the heat sink so temperature will not rise too fast as the total heat capacity is raised.

 

You see, your reply is exactly why I have not bothered with this forum for a long time.

Let me explain something to you....

Laptop coolers work:

Heat rises. Therefore, the cooler the base of a heat producing thing is, the cooler it stays. Bottom sealed compartment or not. Or made from plastic or whatever. Bottom is cool, the upper areas will be cooler too.

That's why my HDD runs well within specs now on a hot day @40 degrees Celcius where it was at times it was +55 degrees Celcius.

In a sealed compartment. No holes.

And yes, I know plastic is not a heat conductor. Duh

 

Here is my mod you can use it for reference no cutting of chassis involved.

 

That's not true because heat doesn't rise, only less dense air does. Most of the heating of the laptop is due to direct contact. The part that is done by hot air would heat the inside all the same everywhere because the air temperature in the laptop would be consistent whether it be top or bottom, unless that air is being exhausted by a fan. Of course blowing cooler air over any warm part of the laptop is going to help. And if heat rose, cooling the top of the laptop would be better as that is where all the heat would go.

 

Interesting! How much have you managed to lower the temperatures? Did you do all the modding at once, or did you add one after another? Does the aluminum tape on the inside of the cover have contact with any heatspreader or heatsink?

I have more questions, but I start with these

 

Like a hot air balloon

Actual stuff. Nuff said. Has worked for me for the past 2 years.

Both screenshots are the same day. With cooler and not. Doing the same stuff.

What do I know though???? Have fun kids.

 

@Trottel. No point in trying to teach you anything because you think you know it all anyway.

Have fun kid. You have loads to learn and understand. Thats all I can say.