Overheating

I have a Toshiba Satellite notebook, and after like 30 mins. it starts to get too hot to put on my lap. Is there any way that I can make the fan run more often so the notebook stays a little cooler?

 

how old is it?

when was the last time you cleaned out the dust and gunk inside?

 

I got it around 2 months ago...

 

ok

technically, you're not supposed to use it on your lap (or a blanket or pillow or anything else that blocks the vents and/or retains heat).

you should use it on a hard surface like a desk or cooling pad or some kind of make shift surface that is flat.

if you want to know if there's an actual problem, get some sort of monitoring software to check your temps to make sure it's within recomended operating temps

 

That's why manufacturers started calling them notebooks. To avoid lawsuits due to the laptops being too hot to use on your lap. Now they can use in defense that they are not meant to be used on your lap. Nothing, not even the name, suggests that you use it on your lap.

If you must you it on your lap, be sure to keep the vents unblocked. You can try using one of those coolpads. I have had bad luck with them(the power plug ends up wearing out after a few months, rendering the thing useless) but in most cases it will act as a barrier between the heat and your lap, and it will keep your laptop cooler than if it were on your lap. Some people even use a small panel of some sort(like cardboard) just to keep the fan vents unblocked and to insulate the heat from their legs.

 

I can use my S96J perfectly, it doesnt get too hot at all <3

 

Same goes for my Z96J. But the top right corner gets warm after a while when cpu/gpu is under load. Seems that heat from heatsink gets transferred to the plastic underside. It is a very small area, but it is noticeable if you have the laptop positioned just right. It never gets uncomfortably hot, and is easy to reposition the laptop to avoid feeling any heat at all.

 

Try undrevolting the processor to reduce heat using RM Clock. Also, look into laptop coolers - they work extremely well and drop temps by around 10C off the CPU and HD.

 

It depens if you block the air flow of the vents of the notebook. I can use my acer in my lap, but if I leave it few minutes in the sofa when I pick up the notebook it is hotter than before ( see that acer has the vent inthe right side of the computer)

 

NEVER use a laptop on soft surfaces such as blankets, couches, etc. This is VERY bad. Not only will you be blocking the fan intakes, the surface will insulate the heat and the computer will be VERY hot.

THE WORST THING is that when you use a laptop on a surface like this, it takes in a TON of dust. I have a friend who used it HP laptop on his bed all the time. After about a month, it would power off about 10 minutes after he turned it out. I opened it up for him, pulled out the heatsink and fan grills, and showed them to him. Not only where they covered in dust, but they were completely clogged. Not only could you not see through the heatsink, but you could not even see the heatsink. It was covered in a 1/4" layer of dust all around. And you couldn't see through the fan grills either. There was NO airflow, and the heatsink just held all the heat inside the computer until it built up so much that the thermal sensors shut down the laptop.

You coud look into a laptop cooler, but in most cases they won't really do much for the heat. Some will manage to cool off the bottom of the notebook. But that doesn't matter much because the laptop is not on your lap anyway; the coolpad is. I have found cooling pads to be a pain to carry around, and power cables are damaged easily and stock working after a few months. You'd be better off to do some undervolting, and put a piece of cardboard between your lap and the laptop.