Laptop getting hot

Bristolian

Bristolian

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Hi folks,

I didn't want to hijack gman's thread again so thought I'd better start a fresh one myself.

I have an HP G72 laptop which has been getting hotter as time goes by. I've read this is most likely to be caused by an accumulation of dust, etc. blocking the vents. I've used a rocket blower to blow back into the case and sur enough a fair amount of dust came out through the fan holes - maybe not enough though. I'm going to monitor it for a few days and see if more drastic action is needed.

eading gman's thread I saw that a number of you are able to tell what the temperature is inside the computer. How is that done? If there's a piece of software that does it (I can see several on Google) which is the best?

TIA :)
 
Bristolian said:
Hi folks,

I didn't want to hijack gman's thread again so thought I'd better start a fresh one myself.

I have an HP G72 laptop which has been getting hotter as time goes by. I've read this is most likely to be caused by an accumulation of dust, etc. blocking the vents. I've used a rocket blower to blow back into the case and sur enough a fair amount of dust came out through the fan holes - maybe not enough though. I'm going to monitor it for a few days and see if more drastic action is needed.

eading gman's thread I saw that a number of you are able to tell what the temperature is inside the computer. How is that done? If there's a piece of software that does it (I can see several on Google) which is the best?

TIA :)
Click to expand...


if you feel brave, open up your laptop, its not hard. my wifes HP kept overheating to a worrying level so i opened it up since i repair laptops and computers in my spare time.

what i found was a think half inch thick layer of dust, this was dust that had accumulated to a point it solidified till it almost half an inch thick. this was lodged between the blower fan and heatsink therefore stopping airflow completely. once i had removed it it was fine and dandy.

in terms of software based temperture monitoring i am not sure how accurate they may be.

for example my recently built gaming computer uses the motherboard software and physical probes on the board itself to monitor the temps.
 
A rocket blower may help Steve, but for a bit of oomph a tin of 'Airduster' from Maplins (other brands/shops are available) will shift it unless it's been packed down like ghummy experienced.
 
Dust could be an issue, but due rule out that the CPU isn't being sent into overdrive, perhaps by a crashed or rogue program.

CTRL+ALT+DEL and then run task manager. What is your CPU reading like on the performance tab when it is gunning hot?

You can normally spot a problem if CPU activity is at or near 100% in its entirety, or for a single core.
 
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Thanks to all who have responded. After giving the vents a good blow out with a rocket blower the temperature at "rest" was still in the 40-45oC region but when I looked on the monitor I installed - see Andy's post above - I could see that with nothing happening the CPU cores were still running at 25-30%. When I fired up the Resource Monitor I could see a couple of services that were accounting for this and a quick check on t'interweb suggested they could be disabled safely so I did.

At idle the CPU useage is now hovering in the 5-10% region and the temperature has dropped to 24-30oC, which is much better. The fan is barely running and the exhaust port is notably cooler.

Ghummy - I'm quite happy to take the laptop to pieces if I have to but was hoping it won't come to that. Only time will tell I guess.

Gramps - I was gonna pop into Maplins (other brands/shops may be available but not within 500m of my house :D) tomorrow and grab a can of compressed air. I think I'll still do this and see how much more muck that blows out :)

Once again, thanks for your ideas and help:)
 
Sometimes it's worth taking it apart to check the fan as the dust can build up on the blades, but with the heatsinks these days it's incredible how much dust gets sucked in.
 
Bristolian said:
Thanks to all who have responded. After giving the vents a good blow out with a rocket blower the temperature at "rest" was still in the 40-45oC region but when I looked on the monitor I installed - see Andy's post above - I could see that with nothing happening the CPU cores were still running at 25-30%. When I fired up the Resource Monitor I could see a couple of services that were accounting for this and a quick check on t'interweb suggested they could be disabled safely so I did.
Click to expand...
There's no substitute to knowledge of what's actually going on on your PC....
 
neil_g said:
Also when you're using it make sure you're not blocking the underside vents. "Laptops" are not really designed to be used on laps as legs can block things.
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Neil,

I used to have it on my lap when using it but as it's got hotter I've used to having a lap table. It's entirely possible, I suppose, that the vents have sucked up fluff, etc., from my trousers :)
 
MarcM said:
Dust could be an issue, but due rule out that the CPU isn't being sent into overdrive, perhaps by a crashed or rogue program.

CTRL+ALT+DEL and then run task manager. What is your CPU reading like on the performance tab when it is gunning hot?

You can normally spot a problem if CPU activity is at or near 100% in its entirety, or for a single core.
Click to expand...

Hi Marc,

If you see post 7 you'll see that I found some naughty services that were running all the time when they didn't need to be.

I did a test earlier: The laptop had been sat all afternoon idling and the temperature and CPU useage had remained nice and low. I then opened Nikon ViewNX2 and set the computer to convert 50 NEF files into hi-res jpg. I knew from experience that this is a processor intensive operation so wasn't surprised to see between 80 & 100% CPU use. Each conversion takes about 15s to run so in total the test lasted for about 12m - and the temperature stayed below 60oC :D and returned to normal (i.e. 25-30oC) pretty quickly.

All-in-all I'm pretty pleased with the way things are shaping up but will still do the strip down and clean-up tomorrow.
 
Yes, that ViewNX sends one of our HP laptops into meltdown!

I really wouldn't strip it down if it is your first time inside a laptop. You can easily fill a large dining table with all of the parts. Stripping it down is easy, putting it all together is the tricky bit!

However, if you are feeling brave, make sure you have an anti static mat and wristband that are properly earthed. Also have a camera handy to take photos, a selection of small screwdrivers and some tweezers. You'll need them to fish out the screws that will fall into the most awkward places. They are also handy for starting off very small screws. Another trick is to use plasticine on the end of a screwdriver. All you do, never use a magnetic head inside of a computer.
 
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When using my laptop for intensive processing I generally put it on an Akasa cooling plate - whether it's on a desk or on a Belkin cushion. It makes a huge difference, even without the fans on (the plate has two cooling fans).
 
MarcM said:
Yes, that ViewNX sends one of our HP laptops into meltdown!
Click to expand...

I know. The laptop has an i3 processor - not the best, I know but still not a slouch either - and it reguraly maxes the processor out.

I really wouldn't strip it down if it is your first time inside a laptop. You can easily fill a large dining table with all of the parts. Stripping it down is easy, putting it all together is the tricky bit!
Click to expand...

I'm comfortable working on computers and I've stripped down other laptops before so feel confident I can do this one. I've found a couple of videos on YouTube as well so now what has to come out and what doesn't. If I don't do it then it's gonna bother me until I do, so I'll bite the bullet tomorrow :)

However, if you are feeling brave, make sure you have an anti static mat and wristband that are properly earthed. Also have a camera handy to take photos, a selection of small screwdrivers and some tweezers. You'll need them to fish out the screws that will fall into the most awkward places. They are also handy for starting off very small screws. Another trick is to use plasticine on the end of a screwdriver. All you do, never use a magnetic head inside of a computer.
Click to expand...

Yep, all the kit here and ready for use :thumbs:
 
get a vac nozzle onto the fans and suck the crap out - need to make sure you get a good seal around the vents to get max suction

mine was so hot i had to leave it on the tile hearth overnight, wasn't comfortable leaving it anywhere else in case it set the house on fire

now..........it's cooooooooo:)oooooooool
 
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Alastair said:
When using my laptop for intensive processing I generally put it on an Akasa cooling plate - whether it's on a desk or on a Belkin cushion. It makes a huge difference, even without the fans on (the plate has two cooling fans).
Click to expand...

Alistair, that's an interesting bit of kit. I'll look into getting one :thumbs:
 
Bristolian said:
I know. The laptop has an i3 processor - not the best, I know but still not a slouch either - and it reguraly maxes the processor out.

I'm comfortable working on computers and I've stripped down other laptops before so feel confident I can do this one. I've found a couple of videos on YouTube as well so now what has to come out and what doesn't. If I don't do it then it's gonna bother me until I do, so I'll bite the bullet tomorrow :)

Yep, all the kit here and ready for use :thumbs:
Click to expand...


Oops, suck, eggs :-)

Sorry about that!
 
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MnM said:
get a vac nozzle onto the fans and suck the crap out - need to make sure you get a good seal around the vents to get max suction

mine was so hot i had to leave it on the tile hearth overnight, wasn't comfortable leaving it anywhere else in case it set the house on fire

now..........it's cooooooooo:)oooooooool
Click to expand...

Don't use a Hoover, they're very good at generating large amounts of static.
 
Just a quick final update to this thread.

I stripped the laptop down yesterday and gave it a good clean out with a can of compressed air. Boy was there plenty of dust in there! I could see where the rocket blower had blown a gap in the dust but it was pretty hard caked onto the exit vent from the fan. I would say about 80% was blocked :thumbsdown:

So, everything is now back together and it's been running for the past 10 hours without the temperature rising above 40oC. At idle (processor use less than 10%) it's happy at 30oC and converting NEF files to jpg (which uses 100% processor power) doesn't get above 50oC.

Result :thumbs::clap:

Another plus is that the original battery, which I had replaced about 6 weeks ago because it's life was down to about 30 mins, is now back to giving about 2.5 hours of life. Double result :D:clap::thumbs:

Thanks to everyone that took the trouble to help - much appreciated.
 
Good news Steve, we all need a good blow-out sometimes :D
 
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