Heat concerns on new laptop

I posted this in the Toshiba forum yesterday but I have had zero responses so I thought I’d try here..

I have a Toshiba L355 with a T5550 processor in a GM965 chipset and it is running really hot. During usage like .. just internet explorer and some program installations the cpu averages around 58-60C. It has so far peaked at 62C. I have it propped way up with great airflow underneath and it helps very little. The HDD has so far maxed at 52C during these basic aps but generally is running in high 40sC. Also the fan sounds odd to me. It is typically silent.. and my hand can’t really feel any air coming out of the side vent. I thought at first maybe it flat wasn't working. However I put my cheek/ear to it and I can feel hot air moving (though certainly not a large amount). The sound is very audible this way, but sounds 'normal' to me. When the computer starts going over 60C the fan speeds up.. it’s still very quiet but it had an odd whirring mechanical sound I've not heard before. Is this normal of the model? I’ve heard of some Toshiba’s running hot but this doesn’t seem okay to me..

 

Have you cleaned out the heatsink and fans? The heatsinks clog with dust very easily, especially if there aren't filters on the ventilation grills. Compressed air works, but I prefer removing the dust by taking apart the laptop (then I know that I didn't just blow the dust to another part of my notebook).

 

Your cpu temp is fine, hdd seems a bit high to me, mine usually stays below 30 though it's a 4200rpm Nothing really to worry about

 

The notebook is brand new.. as in about 24 hours old at this point. It's not a dust problem. Thanks though.

The HDD is about 3 degrees from serious overheating at its max..and like I said this is without doing anything remotely taxing. Is it really typical of this computer not to be able to handle anything above very basic aps? :S Toshiba has really gone downhill if this is the case..

 

angelicvoices you are not in danger not that high. But you are running hot for an Intel, matter of fact running hot for a AMD. Are applications running in the background? Is it a fan as you are considering? Sure could be, let it idle, what does it go down to? If it is Vista I might have an answer.

 

give it some load and see what happens. Your cpu temp is fine, but hdd temp is a bit high IMHO

 

Can u get a notebook cooler?It think that might help.

 

I always have found that toshibas run hotter than other brands.

 

Idle it goes down to about 56-58C when it's propped up on a frame with tons of airflow underneath. Still sits around 60C on a hard surface like a table. No extra aps running.. Disabled all start up processes and unnecessary system processes. Updated all drivers. Also disabled Defender. I turned the power options down to balanced from high performance and it didn't effect the temps at all. Yes, it is Vista.

It's not actually my computer.. it's a friends. She doesn't find it acceptable to have to buy a notebook cooler just so she can surf the internet.. I can't argue with that.

If it comes down to just the design of the machine it goes back.. I know that it's not actually overheating like this.. hard drive should be okay so long as it stays under 55C and cpu can go up to 85C but again this is very basic usage... try to play a dvd or something and the hard drive does overheat and the cpu temps go up too. It does work okay for now (no lockups or restarts) but I know running this hot will shorten the life of the computer, and for no good reason doing nothing but internet surfing isn't acceptable to me.

If anyone has any tips on reducing the temps short of opening it up and reseating it (not going to void warranty) or spending any more money, I will try them. Otherwise I will try exchanging the notebook hoping this one is a fluke.. Lenovo was the better buy anyway. She got it on a whim.

 

I think you should get your friend to return it and by another laptop or get an exchange. I think this is way too high for a brand new laptop.

 

We returned it. Best Buy tech did a scan and had the cpu spike to 72C in about 10minutes. They decided it was defective.

Swapped it for a A125 with a TL-60. CPU has so far maxed at about 44 and right now is at 40C. Hdd is at 44C.. sooo much better. Also the fan is pushing A LOT more air out. I think the other one must have had a bad fan. Also lucked out.. the other one had a SEC screen and this is an LG. Screen is quite nice.

 

good to hear, you should try to stress out the CPU and see how high it goes

 

what's the best way to stress the cpu?

 

I don't know the "best" but Prime95 works and is free!

 

Prime95 is more of a benchmark but it also does stress the CPU

Use ORTHOS cpu loader, this will torture test the RAM and CPU to see the highest temps possible while checking for errors

Edit: wait Prime95 or wPrime? lol im confused

 

Benchmark? It is a stress test. It will run as long as you want it to, days, weeks, months, how that is a benchmark? Are you thinking I said wPrime?

 

sorry my bad, got confused *hides in corner*

prime95 and orthos is similar or even the same i believe.

 

The computer is currently on a plane out of town with the owner. When she gets back I'll tell her I want to stress test the CPU. I think it will be fine though. After 2-3 hours of usage the CPU was hovering 39-41C under internet surfing and some installation of files from a CDROM.. which had the other one at 61C. To be honest she doesn't do much with it so it won't ever see the kind of abuse a stress or even a benchmark test would give it.

The Best Buy tech tried to tell me that the 'normal' operating temperatures for CPUs in laptops were 60C-80C.. He also tried to tell me that 57C for my HDD which manufacturer's stated MAX temp is 55C for was also 'normal'. Sometimes I wonder if those people are really that clueless or are just taught to spew lies.

 

LMAO Yah i think they are seriously clueless at BB. Anyway. I have a question about this. I have heard this temp thing before also. I am wondering HOW do you all check the temps? Is there a program for this? I too have noticed this lappy is hotter than my old one used to be. Curious... Thanks!

 

donwload a program called HWMonitor

 

HWMonitor is what I use too. Sometimes laptops don't have heat sensors on the motherboard and things can't be read.. so if not much shows up this may be the case for you. It depends.. you can get ambient, cpu, gpu and hdd sometimes or some combination of that. At the very least you can typically get hdd temps. The Toshiba had ambient cpu and hdd (no dedicated gpu to get temps off ). My desktop will only show HDD and gpu.

 

Orthos was a beta way of getting prime to load both cores before the new prime did. Essentially, it was a dual prime loader for dual core CPU's before Prime could do it. Now it's not required since the newer prime will load both cores.

 

Delete post before Angelic sees! He already told someone, it is brand new so not the issue. And has already been exchanged for a new one that seems to work. Looks like a bad fan in the 1st one.

 

Now i use HWMonitor also. Notebook Hardware Control is another.

 

Thanks! Ok so when i used this thing it showed this: are these high?
I cant wait to try this on one of my desktops.

 

Its in the good range,

are those your idle temps? if they are, then its a little higher than usual

 

normally my cpu is at around 65-69c
and my hd is at around 55-59c
obviously when not in use these go right down, but the heat production really annoys me lol. so anyways now i've just bought a 4gb ducati compact flash card which i will use with an expresscard to cf adapter in order to install xubuntu 8.04 on to it. i can then check temperatures in linux to see if there is any difference.

 

noo i was online messing around & had recently shut a game down. ALso the puter had been on for about 4 hours. Yeah after I posted this I went browsing & found some answers LOL glad I am not runing hot, my old puter did & that wasnt pretty. Thanks!