Wanting to avoid problems from excessive heat in z70va

Ok, so since my z70va has always been running hot (according to my experience which is just an old IBM and my current HP), I was looking for a cooler and came across this thread: Justin's thread on a melted z70va

To take proper care: there seem to be 5 vents altogether: (1)the one on the side shown clogged in Justin's picture, (2)the one on the cover over the fan he removed, (3)one on the other cover next to the one he removed, (4)one out the back matching the one at the other end, and then (5)one near the center, near the harddrive. The surface over the hard drive and all those areas get extremely hot.

So what vents do I blow the canned air through, all of them?

And did I understand you correctly, Justin, that removing the cover and the fan as you did in the pictures you showed is not a violation of the warranty? That is something I can easily do. (Don't panic ) I would like to check that there hasn't been build-up in the last 3 months of ownership. Though the ASUS has not been used that much this spring, I will start to use it now a lot for my writing, now that the semester is over. I want to be as diligent as Cori and use pressured air once a week or so, but with cleaned passage ways.


Also I want to get a cooler in addition to the cans of air. I have perused extensively the threads here and all over the net to figure out what kind of cooler would be best. But there are conflicting reports on all that I have found and it seems compatibility with the design of the laptop is a major factor.

Does anyone have any suggestions given the design of the ASUS.

One I am considering is the TARGUS Notebook Chill Mat Model PA248U which pulls the heat away from the notebook and out the back (as opposed to down.) But I wonder if it would be competing with the ASUS' sucking up the air from the same place in the opposite direction to cool the system. That unit may be counter productive. On the other hand it would take heat away from the rest of the machine that are generating heat and not sucking up air and it sems like only vent #2 is sucking up air and I think it woudl not be directly over the fans -- but I am not sure of any of this.
The other seems to be Ilap 15W - Laptop Stand By Rain Design which is deliberately designed for people who want to work in bed or on their sofas. But there is no fan involved, just aluminum and keeping the laptop elevated over any hard surface.

I am open to other suggestions.

 

this thread has a lot of different cooler suggestions and people's opinions of them:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=54164

 

Actually, that was one of the first threads I read on this site. But people there are just as confused and seem to have no better idea than anyone else. The reviews of the various coolers suggested there (and I think there are about 15) are all over the place.

However, I decided to re-read it, given that I have been thinking about the various issues for about a week now, and I re-read this review: Jetart Xcool NP6900 Foldable Notebook Cooler It sounded great like a great cooler until he got to the part where he said: As the fans suck the air up from below and blow it up onto the laptop to cool it, your laptop will accumulate dust on the bottom."

That answered a question that has been nagging most people who are considering coolers... at least with respect to the z70va. And that is: is it better to have a cooler that blows air on the laptop or one that sucks it away?

Clearly with the above reviewer's observation.. there is only one answer for the ASUS, given the meltdown Justin showed us on his thread and geared2play's observation that he has dealt with quite a few similar cases. Since the ASUS does its intake for cooling from the bottom, one does not want a cooler that is going to blow dust up that way.

So it seems that the only kind of coolers one wants to get for the z70va are either the aluminum ones with no fans, like the second one I linked to in my first post or ones that suck the air away and hopefully laterally out the back or to the sides and not down on your lap or table or what ever, like the first one I linked to.

So there it is, gang... no cooler that blows air up to the lappy for the ASUS...

And Maintainance, Maintainance, Maintainance is critical here, including learning how to do it correctly.

I also found setting the Power Gear to High performance, instead of Super Performance really cools down the laptop considerably, without any loss in illumination of the screen, which would otherwise be a problem for me. I don't need the Super Performance on a regular basis.

It's too bad that the one I have linked to in this post doesn't do that... It was really a nifty design otherwise... folded up real tiny, very light weight but sturdy, etc.

 

It's better to have a laptop cooler that blows cool air in rather than sucks it out. Chances are your Z70Va has an intake fan on the bottom, meaning if you put a fan that sucks air out, it'll fight against the current and make it worse. The problem with dust going in your computer, just buy compressed air (5-15$ per can) and spray every few weeks. It will last you years and it's worth it.

 

i'm not 100% sure, but i'm i think that you probably want it to blow air into the intakes. you have air intakes to bring in cool air to cool the notebook. having a cooler that blows air into the intakes would allow that cooling to happen more quickly by increasing the flow of air in. someone please correct me if i'm wrong though. also, maybe something like this would work. i have heard several people on the forums using this and liking it, e.g., the moderator chaz.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834996501

 

The problem I am concerned with is the melting computer like in Justin's thread. That is from dust and hair being sucked in through the bottom. Blowing more dust and air in would seem to me to exacerbate the problem. I think the dust and hair blowing in is unavoidable and I am not sure that the compressed air could blow all that out, even on a regular basis. Hair and fibers are very hard to get rid of.

Well the discussion continues.

 

Do you have pets? hair normaly isnt an issue if you dont have any. canned air is really important. it gets the dust mites out. really other than that and taking your laptop apart to clean it. There isnt much you can do.

 

I e-mailed the manufacurer of Jetart Xcool NP6900 Foldable Notebook Cooler and they did say yes, that dust would collect on the cooling fan of the computer -- but they also said not to worry about it.

Maybe I am making too big a deal of this, but fibers from carpet, cloth covered furniture and clothing are always in the air and settling on all surfaces. (Fortunately I don't have pets ... but I am a "girl" .. and as Justin says on his meltdown thread "I think girls shed, period.")

Even Geared2play says that compressed air will not get this out or reach all the areas and it will accumulate. He also suggests that if you live in the city, near constructuction, or a heavy user (i.e., more than 3 hours a day), you should clean out the whole thing every 6-9 months. In order to avoid voiding warrantees, that means sending it in to be cleaned 1-2 times a year, even with regular airblasting.

So maybe the correct thing is to get a cooler that blows in, airblast the vents regularly but open up the computer to clean out what has accumulates by the vents on some regular basis and sending it in for a cleaning regularly (i.e., 1-2 times a year.)

(Also the reviews all over the place of the Targus Chill Pad I linked to, which sucks the air away and blows it out the back say that it works very effectively...but typically breaks down with a year. These are reviews from many different sites, including Newegg, Amazon, and others. so I am still undecided about the 3 I have linked to among the various posts.)

 

Here is a link to wht seems to me an excellent reviewer: Adrian Rojakpot.com. Scroll down to get the list of reviews.

 

Hey Justitia, how hot does it get by the left palmrest where the harddrive is?

Also, when you are using your laptop is it usually plugged in? If it is and you don't have use for the videocard being at full performance try setting it to Optimal Battery or whatever the setting is in your control panel for your videocard. This will cool things down somewhat.

I had an overheating problem with my unit after I got it back and when I sent it in AGAIN, they said it was within specs, but realized the heatsink was damaged from all the swapping of parts since they replaced the motherboard.

Check your temperatures with NHC, or some other program like Systool (great program) and check back with us here.

If your temperatures are idling around 60 degrees give or take a couple degrees, you are fine. This is assuming you haven't messed with undervolting.

As for your harddrive, which one do you have? If you have a Hitachi, then all you can really do is get a notebook cooler.

I have a Western Digital 5200RPM harddrive and it runs fairly warm, but can't be considered hot.

What surface are you using your laptop on? I noticed that if you use your laptop on a wooden desk it can get a little warm, because the wood retains the heat and keeps on heating up your laptop.

If you do use your laptop plugged in most of the time I suggest getting a cooler. Try the Cooler Master Notepal W1 or whatever the widescreen version of that model is. That thing is made of aluminum and cools better than the Vantec coolers, although the Vantec coolers do perform fairly well.

If you do think your unit is still running warmer than it should contact your reseller and see if they can do anything for you. Might be a heatsink issue, but since you said it gets pretty hot on the left palmrest where the harddrive is, I doubt that's your problem.

Cheers,
Mike