is my notebook in danger of overheating?

hello, bit of a lengthy one im afraid. i have posted here because, although the notebook is a vaio z1sp, i dont think it is a specific sony issue, so appologies if i have posted in the wrong forum.

anyway. i've had the notebook for about 3yrs and had no problems. but one day within the last month i had a terrible noise, like a lawnmower, which i assumed was the fan, so i shut down, and eventually used some compressed air to clear the vents etc. ive not had the noise since, be it coincidence or due to the cleaning, and using mobile monitor i have noticed the cpu temp has dropped to about 60-70ish when in full use.

yesterday i realised that although i had cleaned the vents underneath, i had not done the side vent, which lets out hot air.so i did that,and using mobile monitor again, i noticed the hdd graph at the bottom. in using mobile monitor previously i had never looked at the hdd temps, but for some reason this time i did, and noticed that when my cpu temp was causing the fan to kick in, that the hdd temp was bein shown as 0c and once i closed the applications etc the hdd temp then came up as being 51. this seemed high, although i dont realy know that much about temps lol

anyway, i began to think that i shud try and see the hdd itself and check there wasnt lots of dust that had perhaps been blown from elsewhere. not sure how to fully open my notebook up i settled forlocating the hdd visually by flipping the keyboard back and used the air.

once the notebook had started up , the idle temp was 34c, which seemed good even tho i didnt know what it was before the last burst of air. however, even left idle, it seemed to rise steadily, if quite slowly, and even if the cpu temp rose and fell, the hdd temp did not, it either levelled or carried on rising.

currently , whilst i type this, i have 3 browser windows, itunes, and msn running, and the hdd temp is 51c. it does seem to have levelled off, but is it normal for the hdd temp to not drop? or does it mean ive a prob somewhere?

sorry if its a bit long winded, but i thought i'd start from the beginning.

thank you for your time

jj

 

I'm glad to hear that you cleared out the vents. 51C is not a dangerous HDD temp. My e1505 used to idle in the area of 45-50C. Usually the hard disk will be cool when the computer is first turned on. As the disk is read and accessed it will begin to heat up. There really isn't too much to do about hard drive temperatures, except get a cooling pad/mat if the heat becomes bothersome.


Welcome to the forums!

 

Thats not a bad temp. HDD get insanely hot. I know desktop drives get too hot to touch for more than a second or two. Hottest part of a PC next to the processor (and maybe video card).

 

Your hard disk is a little too hot. It shouldn't go above 50 degrees, even for a 7200 RPM drive. My 4200 RPM drive never goes above 30 degrees. Also, you are at the top end of your CPU temps. Laptop CPUs shouldn't go above 70 to 75 degrees. Higher than that, and you will start to get instability. I would look into a cooling pad:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1359853#post1359853

My Sempron never goes above 70 degrees with the overclock while running a Prime95 torture test.

 

thanks for the replies. i was thinking of a cooling pad but found that quite a few would not help as my vaio seems to suck cooler air from underneath and pushes the hot air out to the side. a few of the ones i looked at would have ended up fighting for the same cool air as the notebook itself so i wasn't sure which i should get.

i will look at your link though matt.modica, thank you.

my model, z1sp, doesn't seem to have much web presence but it is a very thin/light model, so i would imagine it is pretty cramped inside. would this cause higher temperatures than some notebooks?

 

wow... I must have a freaky drive then. Mine idles a hair over 35C. I haven't looked to see what it is under load, but it's not too much more. The fan is kinda noisy at times, but... oh well

Either way, yes, the smaller machines do get less airflow, so individual components can get hotter, especially like hard drives. It's within operating specs though, so I wouldn't worry about it. If it goes up 10 degress, then I'd start worrying.

 

today, i decided to place the laptop on top of 4 coasters to see if that would make any difference. it does seem to have, although the room i'm in currently is colder than it has been for a while so i dont know which has had more effect. after startup it idled at about 38-40ish and after a virus scan it was at 54c, but for the first time, the hdd temp has dropped back to 43 currently. as i say, i dont kno if its the coasters or my environment .

i think i need to get out more though, im getting obsessed lol