Do lapstop stands actually prevent overheating?

geeman

I had a three year old laptop. For the past six months or so, it's been overheating when playing games. It will just shut down. I used to always keep it on a cushion which isn't ideal so I started putting it on top of a box. This solved the problem for older games but newer games will still make it overheat.

I've taken it apart several times. Very little dust. What little dust there is, I removed and I used that air spray. I don't think dust is the problem.

I think it's also reasonably up-to-date. From what I saw online of new computer, I haven't noticed any massive leap forward in technology. I have a dual core 2.26GHz processor and 4GB or RAM. The 3d graphics card or whatever isn't great but it's problem within reason. I don't know what it is exactly. Anyway, I don't want to buy a new computer because I think the one I have now is still perfectly fine other than the overheating issue.

Temperatures are around 65-70 usually according to some software I downloaded. When playing a recently-released game, it will get up to 100 degrees fairly quickly and shut down. Even with my box trick.

So do these stands actually work? Or what else can I do? Everything looks fine inside. It has one fan which seems inadequate but it's in working order.

Wezoin

If you're talking about the stands with fans built in, from what I've heard they are awful. Most are USB powered and take power from your computer and the first thing the computer turns off? Its fans. More likely to cause overheating than solve it.

If you find one with external power maybe it'll work.

Jasconius

it kind of depends on where your fans are located and where the heat is being concentrated to

Laptops shed heat in a variety of ways.

If the stand has openings for air to flow through, and the laptop has bottom-mounted fans, then the stand does promote air flow and it CAN help

but if you have an upward venting (like a Macbook Pro) or something else, then no it probably doesn't so much unless its made of some space age material (it isn't)

Essee

What I personally do with my laptop, which is also going on 3 years now but has never overheated even once (your idle temps are basically my max temps under load), is prop it up with something (like, say, the box you were using I guess; I have a lot of textbooks lying around and those are perfectly sized for this stuff) while also positioning it such that as many bottom vents as possible are open, and the side vent is always totally open. I dunno how difficult that might be for you; I can personally get 1-2 bottom vents open depending on how tall what I put underneath it is (this can include having a vent half-open). Now, I will grant that this is just my own personal attempt at keeping my temps down and might not be the best way to go about it. But I've definitely noticed a difference when I realize I haven't had max possible vents open and then move or tilt my laptop up so the vents are both open for a while, because it'll become cooler to the touch pretty quickly, and it certainly seems better to me than setting it down on its feet without giving ANY vent any clearance. Anyway, my temps never really get out of hand with this setup... I don't monitor my temp through software all the time, but I would definitely know because my particular laptop (a VAIO) transmits heat VERY WELL through the area where your left hand usually rests while gaming or typing if it gets hot. Sony seems to have a problem with that, because my last VAIO and this one both have a dark blotch in that area from the heat gathering there. That only really happens when I've moved my laptop such that the vents AREN'T open like usual. So yeah.

But then again, I've never bought a laptop stand at all. I've heard that certain brands are good, certain brands are crap. This is similar to what I've heard about those "cooling pads" for consoles, where several of them straight up CAUSED overheating. Except I'm not actually sure ANY of the console pads actually work right. Anyway, as for laptop coolers, my dad bought his girlfriend one and it seems to be working out alright, but I don't remember what brand it is. Sorry!

AgentBryant

It depends on your laptop and current setup. Any sort of stand should be a help if you're using the laptop on a surface that will restrict airflow through the bottom of the case. I don't believe Wezoin is correct to say it will have an opposite effect from its power consumption (with fans). This *might* be the case if you're playing games with the laptop unplugged and it's trying to conserve power, but even so, the fans should be configured to run constantly when the CPU/GPU breaks a certain temperature threshold. 65-70C is way too high for an idle temperature, which is what you seem to be saying. The CPU shouldn't even be allowed to reach 100C. Usually most will automatically throttle down, or shut down the system within 80-90C.

I know I'm stating the obvious, but when you clean the dust from the laptop, be absolutely sure you clean all the vents. When I had overheating problems, it was always from excess dust, most of which wasn't easily visible. The fan itself didn't look dusty at all, and even when taking the panel off the bottom, there was no dust visible until I removed the copper heat pipes running from the CPU and GPU to the fan.

Additionally, you could try cleaning off the old thermal paste from the CPU and GPU and reapplying more. I would only recommend this if you're comfortable rooting around in the case. You need to remove all heatsinks/heat pipes/whatever your laptop has to get at the bare CPU. Clean all the old thermal paste from the CPU gently with a lint-free material (such as a coffee filter or lens cloth) and rubbing alcohol, and do the same with the surface of the heatsink that will come into contact with the CPU. You want it to be as clean as possible before reapplying new thermal paste, as any foreign matter will hurt its efficiency. For about $10 (maybe less now), you can get a small tube of Arctic Silver. Whatever you use, it is recommended that you apply the amount of a grain of rice, less is more.. etc.

geeman

Thanks for the replies. I was looking at either the ones with fans or just a stand that would prop it up. It seems awkward to type that way but I could use an external keyboard.

I've tried using DVD cases to prop it up but it's a pain and I saw no improvement.

There are vents all along the bottom but the main event is out the back. The heat sink is in the center, I took it out, and there's no dust anywhere on it. I guess there could be something in the fan but I blew into it, it spun around, and no sign of dust. I couldn't get to the fan itself.

This must have been happening for more than six months because I remember this was an issue last year. But only in the summer. So what if I just took a big box fan and aimed it on the computer?

bowen

You might want to open it up and check the internal fans. Most cases of overheating I've found were because the exhaust vents were caked in cat fur and dust.

Joe Camacho MKII

Yes, it depends on how your laptop gets rid of hot air in the first place; and the stand's setup

I had an overheating problem a couple of months ago, I didn't dare to open my laptop, so I bought a can of air and tried to clean as much dust as I could from ALL the vents, sadly I couldn't use the "insert a pin to stop the fan from movin trick" because I couldn't reach it, so even after blowing some air for a while, I decided to buy a small cooling stand, with 3 pc fans that directly push are to the laptop.

I haven't had any issues since then, then again, when I want to play games I usually just wait until I'm using the stand.

What I would recommend is that you take your laptop to the place where you are buying the stand, or if you are ordering online, look at your laptop's setup and see if the airflow from the cooling stand will help your laptop.

Like, my stand has two fans that are right below areas that usually got really hot and would make my laptop shutdown, now they are nice and cool.

So yeah, it might help prevent overheating, but remember to clean as much as you can first and get the best stand (Airflow or heating wise) for your laptop.

shutz

I've been using this for more than a year, and it definitely makes a huge difference.

The way my laptop is setup, if it's plugged-in, the fans run when it's hot, independently of whether they need to conserve power. I don't take that cooler with me when I leave my place, but then again, when I use my laptop away from my desk, it's for light duty only, so I usually switch to battery-save mode so it doesn't heat up so much.

I like this particular cooler because it's one huge fan which spins more slowly than the others I've had in the past, so it' much quieter, and it actually moves a lot more air.

I run software that causes my laptop to do number-crunching most of the time, so it's usually running hot. Without that cooler, the laptop eventually shuts down from overheating after an hour or two. With the cooler, it only shuts down if it's really hot in my place.

Brolo

Just raising the bottom of the laptop off of whatever surface it's on will do quite a bit for shedding heat, particularly if it's a laptop with a bottom-mounted fan. If the cooling pad it has an active fan that's even better, and I agree that Wezoin isn't correct when he says it will increase the temperature, fans don't require a whole lot of power and dissipate heat much faster than they accumulate.

see317

bowen wrote: »

You might want to open it up and check the internal fans. Most cases of overheating I've found were because the exhaust vents were caked in cat fur and dust.

To the OP, I know you said you'd opened the case and checked for dust, I'm just curious how far you've opened the case? I've seen some laptops where no dust'll blow out, but it's caked over the vents so thick that no air is able to get through and your able to pull chunks of the crap out with a pair of tweezers.

AgentBryant

Yeah, if you can't actually get to the fan to take it out, you probably haven't looked far enough. You can blow on the fan all you want, but its not going to remove dust that is really caked in there. If it is blocked by dust, extra fans or a stand won't be much of a help if there's a bottleneck in the airflow.

jwideman

When you took the heat sink out, what did you replace the thermal grease with?

geeman

I bought a stand with a little cooling fan in it. It's just a board with a slight dip in the middle. So at it's lowest point, the laptop is maybe half an inch off the stand. I wasn't impressed in the store but they had a limited selection and they were all the same design. This thing reduces the idle temperature five or ten degrees so 55-60 degrees. It still quickly gets to 100 degrees when playing this game, though.

I also got some thermal paste but I forgot to get any cloth so it will have to wait.

The problem with checking out the fan is illustrated here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdtyUtS_3cs

If you don't want to watch a 20 minute video of a guy replacing a fan, he takes apart the entire computer to get to the fan. I have the same computer. The monitor comes off, the keyboard, the hard drives, he peels the lining around the keyboard off, he's disconnecting loads of wires, the whole thing has to be taken apart. If I did all of that and found a dust-free fan I'd be somewhat annoyed.

bowen

see317 wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

You might want to open it up and check the internal fans. Most cases of overheating I've found were because the exhaust vents were caked in cat fur and dust.

To the OP, I know you said you'd opened the case and checked for dust, I'm just curious how far you've opened the case? I've seen some laptops where no dust'll blow out, but it's caked over the vents so thick that no air is able to get through and your able to pull chunks of the crap out with a pair of tweezers.

I've been able to pull it off with my fingers and roll it into a ball.

AgentBryant

Did you get as far as removing the heat pipes at 1:40 of that video?

geeman

Yeah, I removed the heat sink and the pipes. No dust anywhere on it. I then looked in fan which was partially exposed and there was some dust in some crevices that I pulled out but not much.

As for this stand, it was basically a waste of money for poorly-constructed garbage. It started off totally quiet but after 30 minutes of use, it's already unbearably loud. I'm seeing if using it just as a stand with the fan off still makes a difference in temperature.

geeman

I took it apart again sprayed all up in the fan some dust came out but nothing significant. Then I reapplied some of that thermal paste. Booted it up and I'm idling at 40-45 degrees and when playing the game it never goes above 55 degrees. That's amazing. I think it's the paste that did it and I didn't even do a good job putting it on. From what I saw afterwards, you're supposed to spread this stuff across the whole CPU. I just put a bit on it and rubbed the heatsink to smear it around a bit.

Anyway, I was about to throw this laptop out so thanks everyone.

bowen

That's actually the better way to do it. A little dollop, then push it straight down on top of it.

Shadowfire

AgentBryant wrote: »

It depends on your laptop and current setup. Any sort of stand should be a help if you're using the laptop on a surface that will restrict airflow through the bottom of the case. I don't believe Wezoin is correct to say it will have an opposite effect from its power consumption (with fans). This *might* be the case if you're playing games with the laptop unplugged and it's trying to conserve power, but even so, the fans should be configured to run constantly when the CPU/GPU breaks a certain temperature threshold. 65-70C is way too high for an idle temperature, which is what you seem to be saying. The CPU shouldn't even be allowed to reach 100C. Usually most will automatically throttle down, or shut down the system within 80-90C.

This is true of desktop CPUs, but laptop CPUs are specced to run far higher. My laptop routinely runs 70-80C, sometimes as high as 90 if I'm playing a game for too long, and Intel specs their i3/5/7 line up to 100C.

_J_

I use an Antec Laptop Cooler for normal laptop use. It has two fans and an aluminum top to aid with heat distribution. It's reasonably priced and works well.

I tend to be really anal about my laptop's heat, so I strongly recommend at least using a cooling pad.

When I'm going to be gaming for long periods, I'll prop the back of the laptop up on some old hard drives and then set a mini desktop fan behind it to help blow air.

I also have a window air conditioner, so if things get really warm I'll put my laptop atop a few boxes so that the air conditioner blows directly into the air intake. I've also found that if you wrap ice packs in paper towel and put them over the hard drive that can help to cool things quite a bit.


Anything you can do to reduce the heat of your laptop is beneficial.

SummaryJudgment

I have an Asus G51JX, which produces a goddamn lot of heat, being a mid/top tier gaming laptop from 2ish years ago. Best fix I've found so far is a wire baking tray - it's like a 9x13 wire framework. Heat exhausts right through it, and it gets the laptop some clearance off of the desk to vent.