How to mitigate my laptop's heat (and crashing)

[Paf]

So, as of late my laptop has been getting hotter and hotter to the point where it's been crashing due to it. I cannot afford to get a new computer and so I'm super worried about ruining this one. CoreTemp has me clocked in at roughly 65c, but since it's freshly installed, I don't really have anything to compare it to.

It was running on my lap on my couch, but after the first crash I quickly transferred it to my loathsome desk. Where it has still crashed. It runs in an open area on top of my desk and as of late I've given it a cookie sheet cooling rack. I clean the inside as well as I can on a regular basis, but it's just too damn crammed that I can't really do anything but make a few silly gestures and pretend like I did something. I do not overclock and my drivers (graphics+audio) are up to date. Graphics for all games are run on low.

Some ideas I've had, but have been afraid to implement them blindly are...

A) Remove a portion of the case. This would expose (notably) the fan and I believe the hard-drive. It would leave all four "pegs" that hold the computer aloft, so the components wouldn't bang against the desk or anything underneath on a regular basis. I don't have any cats (anymore) or anything of that nature that would conjure layers of crud.

B) Delve further for a better clean. The fan is... contained. If I had a camera that wasn't attached to my computer I'd post a picture, but I can't. Without removing something additional, I cannot properly get at the fan or the vent. The best way I can describe is that the fan has its own "case". But only partially, of course. Otherwise it'd just be cooling itself and not the rest of the computer


Please help. I cannot lose my computer and I'm posting everywhere in search of a cure. It's a brick+mortar Asus that's two years and one month old. If you (the community) would like a dxdiag (not sure why) or any other report, just ask.


Edit: 2/23/12 because people only read the first post

I've managed to clean out the fan a bit more (still very limited due to how it's manufactured) and I've put some Google research into my laptop. It's a G60VX Asus laptop. If you Google/Youtube that alone, the top results are cooling mods. Goes to show how not alone I am in the world. I know my limits and what I can do versus what I'm not savvy enough for, but two of them really piqued my interest.


First is opening an actual vent for the fan. It has an "out", but no actual intake for fresh air. So, what the fan currently does is just shove out as much of the heat as it can. The solution is you cut out the little decorative circle that's above the fan and make it more than decorative. Toss on mesh, ta-da! However, if it's so simple yet so effective, I'm wondering why Asus didn't just manufacture the product this way in the first place. Does anyone have experience with something of this nature or could anyone shed some light on possible side effects?

Second is cutting the blue wire for a continuous fan. Simple enough, but once it's done, there's no going back except for a painstaking re-connection. As I said earlier, I know what I can and cannot do. Right now, I don't believe I am good enough to create a switch to revert it. So, with this in mind, what are the differences and dangers between having a continuous fan as opposed to a controlled one?

[chaud]

Get one of those cooling pads with fans to put under it. Also, open it up, take off the keyboard or whatever has to come out to expose the heatsinks and blow the dust out.

[TrueBeastmode]

You probably have a few issues. Overheating in a laptop is normally caused by a few things. Either your heatsink "exhaust" area is clogged with dust(sometimes it cakes inside causing blockage), your thermal paste on the heatsink is old and will need to be replaced, or you have a probably an HP computer who has a terrible history with overheating due to bad heatsink/motherboard design. More than likely, you have a combination of all of these problems. To remedy the situation, you'll need to tear down the laptop until you can access the fan and heatsink to remove it and replace the thermal paste and clean the fan and exhaust area. Other than that you won't be able to do much other than a cooling pad underneath to fix the overheating issue. Fans can break but it's much more likely that you have dust and thermal paste issues. If you don't feel comfortable taking the laptop apart, I would highly recommend going to your local repair shop and explaining your situation. They will probably charge somewhere between 100 and 180 bucks to fix the issue depending on the place you go to.

[Paf]

Get one of those cooling pads with fans to put under it. Also, open it up, take off the keyboard or whatever has to come out to expose the heatsinks and blow the dust out.

I am... quite literally penniless. There is no room for a cooling pad. Alternatives?

Can you clarify what I want to look for when I take the keyboard off (probably what has to happen)?

Also, since I have your attention, how dangerous and how effective would taking off a panel of the laptop be?

[chaud]

That is roughly what a heatsink will look like. Google for a guide if you don't know how to do it. Don't run with it taken apart, that is just asking for trouble.

[googz]

I am... quite literally penniless. There is no room for a cooling pad. Alternatives?

You'll be in worse shape when it overheats just a little to much one day and fries your MoBo. Do yourself a favor and invest in protection for what you have and buy this cooler. Position the fans where the most heat is at (under the cpu, under the memory and the other under your gpu if it has dedicated).

Until you can afford the cooling pad, use a couple bottle caps underneath the back feet to elivate it allowing some airflow. Even though they're called "laptops" they should never be used on your lap for any period of time. Try and keep it on a solid surface so the feet keep it somewhat elivated.

[jmacphee9]

like what googz said, i use a pen to lift mine off the desk usually but any time you can get the bottom free to flow some air out let it do it.

anything that will rise the back end .5-1inch off the table will lower temperatures alot.

[Abominator]

The common problem with laptops is that they intake air form the bottom, if you have your laptop on a flat surface it will A) reduce airflow and B) gradually heat up the surface it's on. My solution to this stopped overheating and reduced the heat by 10-20 degrees.

Simple get 4 things of equal size, they could be bottle caps? I used the little egg compartments off of an egg carton and placed them at each corner. Now my laptop never over heats even on intense games. Although I am still parranoid and keep a cpu temperature monitor open on hot days (45+ degrees celcius) just incase the temperature gets close to the over heating point so I can turn off the game.

[Paf]

As I said in the OP, I have it on a cookie tray cooling rack from Pampered Chef. It's well elevated.

That said, I've managed to clean out the fan a bit more (still very limited due to how it's manufactured) and I've put some Google research into my laptop. It's a G60VX Asus laptop. If you Google/Youtube that alone, the top results are cooling mods. Goes to show how not alone I am in the world. I know my limits and what I can do versus what I'm not savvy enough for, but two of them really piqued my interest.


First is opening an actual vent for the fan. It has an "out", but no actual intake for fresh air. So, what the fan currently does is just shove out as much of the heat as it can. The solution is you cut out the little decorative circle that's above the fan and make it more than decorative. Toss on mesh, ta-da! However, if it's so simple yet so effective, I'm wondering why Asus didn't just manufacture the product this way in the first place. Does anyone have experience with something of this nature or could anyone shed some light on possible side effects?

Second is cutting the blue wire for a continuous fan. Simple enough, but once it's done, there's no going back except for a painstaking re-connection. As I said earlier, I know what I can and cannot do. Right now, I don't believe I am good enough to create a switch to revert it. So, with this in mind, what are the differences and dangers between having a continuous fan as opposed to a controlled one?

[Maereax]

Cooling pad is seriously the best way to go... As a matter of fact, I run a dell XPS 17 and I have the exact pad linked above. If you can't get a cooling pad however, Something I do while gaming at work or somewhere without good ventilation or airflow... Get four of the exact same sized objects (I like tunafish cans, they're not too high but they give it some elevation) and put your laptop on them. Then, get some sort of desk or rotating fan, and put it on the opposite side of your exhaust vents so it's blowing the heat away from it, or in the back of the computer facing forward. Basically just get the heat away from your computer (I position the fan facing myself because I like air blowing on me <insert blowing joke here>)

[Tutonious]

i've had this same problem in the past and the problem was a layer of dust that had collected on the exhaust/intake area of the cpu fan. this doesn't allow proper airflow and causes your computer to overheat and run slow/crash. when i opened my laptop i removed a pretty thick layer of dust from the fan exhaust/intake area and the computer ran smoothly and with more power than when i purchased it used from a friend. i was doing video editing on it and it took like an hour to convert a short video such as a music video before cleaning it. after cleaning the dust out, it took only a few minutes. so i would suggest looking up the manual for your laptop and looking through it on how to clean the fan areas and do that. that should help your computer to stop overheating and perform as it did when you first got it or real close to it.

[Paf]

Unfortunately, neither of those answers actually touch my questions. One of you told me to elevate my computer and get a cooling fan... Which has been said numerous times already and which I have already responded to.

The other said to clear my fans. Which like the above has already been said, already been answered.


I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but I've already established what needs to be done. My computer model is notorious for being a pressure-cooker. Standard maintenance is not the sole answer. I need to make mods and I don't want to do so blindly.