Leaving laptop lid closed while on

My friend has a Dell laptop which he hooks up to a flatscreen monitor. He likes to play games with the laptop closed, but it seems to me that the laptop would overheat easier this way....

Buy maybe not because the screen isn't on? What do you guys say?

 

Very little heat escapes through the keyboard. It really depends on the laptop (you didnt way what he has) but in most cases it should be more than fine.

 

When I first got my laptop, I used to leave the lid closed. One day, I turned on my pc, and the laptop screen was really dim. Finally it decided to turn on to max brightness, but nevertheless, I keep the lid open now and it hasn't happened since.
Once, my screen felt very warm to the touch. I don't take any chances now.

 

I have heard rumors of Dell laptops melting their LCD when it is closed and the laptop is being used.

 

Well from my experience of dell laptops (latitudes however), we would deploy each laptop with a docking station and an external monitor. The docking stations do not allow the laptop to have the lcd open. I have never seen a problem from a laptop sitting in a docking station.

That said, these laptops arent being used by users who are overclocking the heck out of them as many on this forum do.

 

Sometimes when working or studying, I leave my Inspiron 1520 turned on with the lid closed so I can listen to my music. However, I have noticed that in just a few minutes, my fan starts blowing and a lot of hot air is being exhausted from the side vent. When I open the lid, I feel the keyboard is quite warm.

I don't think it's that dangerous because it never gots warmer than that, but I do try to keep my lid open at all times now.

 

Don't close the lid and leave it running, period.

Heat is damaging to the LCD. Heat rises. Where does the heat rise to? The LCD.

When the heat hits the LCD it bounces off the Liquid crystals back down to the system, then bounces off the shiny steel surface the keyboard typically sits on back up to the LCD. So you see, it traps the heat and usually doesn't have good results over time.

My now a paperweight Alienware's video card (7950GTX) use to heat up so bad the chassis is deformed now after time, and I use to close the lid with it on, now when you turn it on the LCD honestly has a big blotch where is really dark and dim where the video card is located on the machine. So it's retired and promoted to fancy paperweight.

Regardless, you won't see issues right-away, but give it time and you'll be kicking yourself. Just leave the lid open a crack.

 

I retract my statement; it is very dangerous to leave your lid closed.

 

LOL!

Not to say all laptops heat up the same. But regardless they all get warm and heat is bad for LCD's.

Ah well..

I should take a LCD panel and lite it on fire.. It would prove nothing but it'd be cool. Honestly I don't know what that has to do with anything but it would be fun.

 

I second that. I used to work in the Tech Support and most of the laptops we deploy to the employees have docking station and the lid MUST be closed. Never had an issue like melting LCD, dimmed LCD, etc..etc. But then again, it was a Thinkpad, not Dell.

However, with my Dell 1520, when I closed the lid the machine gets terribly hot. So my solution now is just closed it 3/4 to let some air out. Dell should've made their system like Thinkpad...

 

You guys are also missing the fact that the LCD generates heat itself. You should feel the glow that my 24" BenQ gives off. If I'm close enough I can get a good tan while gaming

If you have the screen on then yeah there is going to be some heat buildup in there. I bet you it would run cooler if you turn the screen off first.

 

Problem I have with my Dell is that when the lid is closed AND the LCD is off, it still generate heat more heat than normal, unlike my Thinkpad. Maybe Dell is thinking that Inspiron would not have a docking station?

 

Thinkpads are business systems, they have special shielding and insulation to deflect the heat, how do you think they get them so small?

We're comparing a business system to a consumer system..

Soulburner, brings up a good point but my screen shuts off automatically when the lid is closed. All laptops should..

 

never ever had any problems and i keep my laptop connected to a big hdtv a lot of the time and use the big screen, i keep the lid shut right up if just downloading or idle and not using much power , but when gaming/lot of use i keep it open enough so the screen turns off and heat can escape just to always be safe

 

I have a Dell6400 and I don't know about the others but Dell made it so when you close the laptop lid, the hot air could still escape through the little gaps.

 

But consumer also use docking stations, hence the LCD lid will be closed.

I don't know if this is an E1505 only issue, but I have tested over and over again and it shutdown if I leave the laptop on with lid closed (without running heavy programs like games). Tech Support says it's normal and I shouldn't close the lid.