Guide to Cooling Down Your Notebook Computer

You guys need to give yourself a gift and go buy a ToughBook. Mine in particular, a CF-30, has no fans. Totally enclosed cabinet as too not let any outside elements inside. The highest temp I have seen is 128 degrees, and that was while it was sitting in my docking station running a couple of programs in my van, 95 degrees outside with the sun shining in the windshield directly.

My other laptop, an HP, runs around 95 to 100 degrees just sitting on my lap with the vents not covered up. I worry about it alot getting so hot. I dont know where the breaking point is! At least on my Panny I will never have too worry about it overheating.

Great ideas on cooling them down on this thread. I have seen the Zalman in some magazines and it looks pretty nice. Might have to invest in one of those.

 

Hi I am from India, Dell just released their Studio 14. I need to buy one, is this particular model is good for continuous operation? I always keep my laptop switched on 24/7. Pls let me know ur thoughts.

 

I just want to say
THANKS CHAZ!!!!!!!!

This is a great guide that gives all the different ways to cool a laptop all in one place

It's a little old ,but is still helping people today
Great Job

 

thank you so much! i'll probably get a few of those ready even before i recieve my laptop

 

I normally clean the vents and inside of my laptop with canned air, but i want a little bit cooler laptop.

Im trying to get a very good cooler pad, like the Zalman NC2000 to get a better view of my screen.

 

Nice. I have a notepal w1 (one with 3 fans) but it doesn't cool so well.

 

Yeah the old notepal's fan are abit weak, I have the original 2 fan version for 4:3 notebooks. Unless you can line them up with the vents perfectly, their performance is abit meh.

 

you can save a few bucks for the compressed air by using the tire pump at petrol station.

 

• You could save the planet by walking to your station with your disassembled laptop in hand and not driving there to use the air pump.
• To save electricity you could just blow with a plastic straw instead of using the station's pump.
• To cut down on your carbon footprint and to help steer away from using petroleum products, you could use a hollowed out bamboo stick rather than a plastic straw.
• To lessen your use of petroleum products even more, you could get a laptop made of glass and various metals.
• To help save the poor people in Africa, you could buy two "One Laptop Per Child" laptops, one for you and one for a baby Zulu warrior.
• To promote global awareness of the harms of globalization, you could boycott all products made or supported by the major conglomerates and lead a rebellion against the New World Order.

Or you could just buy a $7 can of compressed air with a neat little straw

 

I've been doing some extra cooling myself last week.

Used some canned air to blow out any dust
Applied arctic silver5 on the cpu and had it settle for a while
Bought a AC Ryan Hush-Rush (2x 120mm fans on metal grid, slightly tilted)

Worked wonders for my old Acer aspire 1694. From 71 load to 54 load, quite impressive and well worth the ~35 euros.

 

Followed the guide to a T, and saw reductions of 8 degrees. Much better!

 

I didnt read the whole thread, but a note on blowing the fan out and this applies to any pc. Hold the fan down dont let it spin by the air coming out of the can. This can and will ruin the bearings on the fan due to it spinning the fan faster than what the bearings can handle.


edit: I see it was mentioned several posts down. Yes it is true you can kill your fans by spinning them too fast.

 

I've a plan to buy notebook cooling pad that using usb port as their main power (hardly find a cooling pad using AC power).and maybe,there's a condition where I would add an eksternal dvdrw n HDD (using usb port too of course).

what I want to ask is.....if I'm using these usb periperal,will it makes the laptop power supply decrease??

 

You can get a AC powered USB hub. That will do the trick.

 

I read through the whole thread looking specifically for a hard drive cooling solution. Someone asked for a solution, but none was given, well, except someone suggested setting the drive to spin down, but that doesn't work if the drive is in use constantly, like when downloading.

My solution was to make a USB fan using a nearly silent 120mm internal desktop fan (Ultra Silent Fan SX1, if you must know) and cutting a USB extension cable, then tying red-to-red and black-to-black. I tied the USB wires to a female fan port (cut from a fan adapter cable), so that I didn't have to cut the fan's wires and can trade out the fan as I wish. I could have gone a step further by reattaching the USB port, i.e., the female USB from the extension cable I cut, but I have no shortage of USB ports.

I use this USB fan at the right side, blowing into the PCMCIA slot (which is adjacent to my hard drive), as well as under the notebook and over the keyboard. I jack the rear of the laptop up with a pocket dictionary. This cools amazingly well, dropping my hard drive temperature from 50C+ to 34C.

I guess I should mention that my laptop is an old Dell Inspiron 6000, 1.86 Ghz Pentium M, with a new hot hard drive (Samsung HM160HC.) The Inspiron 6000 has one internal fan at back left, and even if I force the fan to max the hard drive still heats up to 50C+, then the adjacent wireless networking card fails and the system freezes, even though the CPU, GPU, memory and chipset are all at an icy sub-40C.

Positioning the fan underneath or behind the laptop was surprisingly ineffective. This makes me question whether a cooling pad would work as well. On the other hand, repositioning the laptop would probably be easier with a cooling pad, and the 120mm fan cools my hands, which is not always desirable.

I would be interested in any other notebook hard drive cooling ideas. Could you attach a heatpipe or small heatsink or something?

What about SSD's? Are all SSD's cooler than hard drives? Are there any that are cheap enough to justify putting into an old notebook?

 

This.

(edited for length)

 

Garandhero, if you're indirectly replying to me, then thanks, but I already cleaned out my Inspiron 6000 with compressed air and used Arctic Silver on the CPU and GPU. Even with the internal fan forced to max, the hard drive heats up to 50-52C+ and then the wireless card fails and the system freezes. The internal fan just isn't doing squat for the hard drive.

I improved my ghetto cooler solution by double-wrapping a rubber band around the whole laptop base at the right side and then slipping my homemade 120mm USB fan under the rubber band, so that about 80% of the fan is dangling off the right edge (pointed down.) This doesn't cool as well as with the fan blowing across the keyboard, but at least my fingers don't freeze and the hard drive is cool enough (36C) and the laptop can be carried around now (screen open.)

 

hey guys. which do u recommend for a asus G51 laptop?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8850488&type=product&id=1209165868801
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9285604&type=product&id=1218074556359

 

Neither. Have a look at the notebook cooler buyer's guide.

 

<style class='Hidden'>Great guide</style>

 

Umm, about the Targus Chillmat....

I had two in a row, both died on me. The cabling seems really cheap. I had to tape the wires back together, but this only bought me a bit more time.

Stay away.

 

thanks for the great guide.

 

nice guide~

instead of having a cooler under my notebook I have it elevated on a metal grill, just so air can flow under it and it wont build up heat from being on a wooden surface.

 

COOL GUIDEPun intended..Tnxss!!!

 

any hint on using it with a core i7?

 

nice guide

 

Hi guys,
Just wanted to share my experience with cooling of an Asus G71GX BB.
My CPU is undervolted, my GPU also. Till a month ago I used a $10 plastic laptop stand and my extreme load temps were CPU 58C and 82C GPU.

I decided that I want to go lower and since the Cryo LX was N/A for months, I ordered the Zalman aluminium cooler for 17" laptops. It lowered my idle temps by a couple of C , but the load temps were a big dissapointment - they rose by 4C CPU and GPU respectively.

So my advice to everyone is - Don't go for expensive laptop coolers, just undervolt and get a cheap laptop stand that can raise and not block the air intakes. That's the best you can do to lower your temps without reapplying the thermal paste or doing some mods.

 

Thanks for the guide, especially as it relates to laptops. My laptop gets really hot and I have to use a wooden cutting board on my lap when I am using it.

This guide should come in handy.


Thanks,
rg

 

Thanks for this useful guide, got my cooling pad, wich i am using it for my laptop, but its still going to MB-71º | CPU-71º | GPU 64º | HDD 37º. Most of the time is on this temperature, using firefox, winamp, yahoo messenger, etc. I guess its pretty bad.. my laptop is 24/24 on.. but usually after i turn it on goes in just a few to 70º+ on mb and cpu. any other option to cool it down?
The Undervolting method affects the performance?
Thanks

LE: after watching today how went up to 97º both cpu and gpu with few heavy applications opened, decided to add fresh thermal grease, now its on 47-50º <3

 

Fresh thermal grease?? Uh,i might be facing the same problem as you,neeco ! Care to explain more about that please..?

 

I think I'm going to get myself a cooling pad.

 

do you know how to clean the ASUS K42J fan ?
it making pretty loud sound nowadays...

are there alternate way to clean the Fan
any video here ,or step by step pictures?

thanks inadvance

 

In my experience once a fan makes noise, it's time for replacement. Depending on the type of fan it might be able to be fixed. For instance some bearing fans might be able to be lubricated, however, its typically easier to replace it. Also, I'm sure its covered elsewhere, but when using pressurized air, never let the fan spin freely.

 

thanks bc2946088 for replying

the fan is okay i think, its like ,dust blocking the air ,leaving narrow tunnel for the air to flow, causing sound like the air flowing through flute.

if you,for a routine check (4 months once),want to clean the vent fan from the dust, what should you do ?

will you open the back casing?and how to open the Asus K42J 's casing that cover the ventilation fan
(step by step guide, anyone?)

i also read some people using pressurized air to blow the vent from outside without open the casing, but some said it cannot clean most of the dust things inside.

 

I would check here http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...es/517845-asus-k42jv-a42jv-owners-lounge.html
OR post there , someone Should have an take apart guide.
I would recommend taking it apart to clean properly.

 

Well I just added a copper shim mod to my thinkpad T400 and right now both cores are sitting at a 39 C and the HD3470 GPU is sitting at 52 C and I have firefox with 16 tabs open, Seamonkey open with 10 tabs. I'm also watching some HD movies.

 

I just put some AS5 in my laptop.Ran it 29hrs straight before I shut it down & let it cool off for a bit.My temps where mid 60s on light loads before the AS5.
Getting low to mid 40s now under light loads .Just now hit the 42hr mark.My room has been around high 70s to lower 80s @ 60% average humidity.Heres a few pics.1st,vent was pretty much clogged when I cleaned .Next 3 are temp & resource reads with date & times.I hope I applied just the right amount & not to much or to little.I made them pretty thin & level.Does it seem I did good?It is a acer aspire 5551-2036,P320 anthlon 2.1ghz & radeon Hd 4250

 

Figured I would just get the cheapest laptop cooler I could find, but now I gotta decide on the best one

 

Get a box fan, lay it flat on your desk with some spacers so it can pump air. Put the laptop on top and turn the fan on Seriously it'll beat out all the USB powered coolers.

If that's too ugly or causes your eyes to dry out, get a notebook cooler that has 12v fans, can take a wall wart and the fans are the right dimensions and location to do the job. Upgrade the 12V fans to ones that move more air if you need it.

 

Just took a look at this. The undervolting section is horribly outdated. vbios flashing and throttlestop have made undervolting much easier.

 

Hi, has anyone used this product or something similar? Is it any good?

Amazon.com: Thermaltake Mobile Fan II External USB Cooling Fan - Us: Computers & Accessories

 

Very comprehensive guide. I have experienced overheating many times as well and will definitely consider some of those methods in order to fight it! Thanks!

 

I have found some of this (Copper Heatsink for RAM), can anyone advise on what kind of applications I can do with it. I have heard people sticking this on the heatsink if there is space..

 

^ Those look like cpu heat sinks to me. The way ram is usually seated wont allow space for your bottom cover to be put back on. RAM heatsinks usually look like sleeves for the RAM

 

Those probably won't work on Ram, they just look to big to fit in most laptops

 

Excellent guide, but those don't apply to me, cause for some stupid reason in my country this stuff costs like 100$. But i'll try the voltage one!

 

great guide man! +1rep

 

Thank you for the guide, I was just trying to figure out what would be the best way for me. + rep

 

Good guide, I'll look for a cheap cooling pad.

 

You can dedust as much as you want, one day there will be a wall of dust between the heatsink and the fan. I have seen this in a trillion laptops no matter what make... here is a picture that shows this on a Acer TimelineX 1830T