How hot should a laptop get?
 

I have a Toshiba laptop which fouled up in a big way recently. To cut a long story short it failed to the tune of a new main board, a new DVD drive and a new soundcard :Yikes: . Luckily it was still in guarantee but it made me realise how hot these things get. So, now that I have it back I stuck some temperature sensitive labels onto the base, just to see how hot it got.

I spent the evening doing things on my laptop and I made sure it was kept on a flat uncluttered surface all the time while the labels registered the temperature

Well the hottest place registered a minimum temperature of 54oC. Is that good? The thing I bother about is the temperature of the bits inside. If it gets that hot on the outside, how hot are the bits inside I wonder

Does anyone know anything about this subject? :(

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

If I place my laptop on my knees for more than an hour, the temperature underneath the laptop can get unbearable on my legs and I have to place the laptop on a cushion. So, for me, 54oC seems quite normal.

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

how about something like motherboard monitor , maybe that will help :)

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

you could always buy a cooler that your lappy sits on powered buy a usb port, more info on one here hope it helps :)

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

I hope your laptop doesn't have vent holes on the bottom then - if it does by sitting it on a cushion it'll block them - this is bad :)

My laptop does get quite warm underneath - but not too hot to sit on me legs.



Meld51 - I suppose it could depend on the manufacturor. Is your internal fan going ok? What speed is the laptop (Mines a 2.8ghz and the fan only really speeds up when I've been playing a game for a while). My dad has a Toshiba laptop and his doesn't even get as warm underneath as my Dell one does.

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

More than likely, oops can see the smoke from here .... lol, I remember a mates lappy used to get overwarm to have on his knee's comfortably, not a nice thing if your planning on some serious gameing over a network, doing little dances sporadically tends to get you shot....:D

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

I have a nice black bit of mdf that I put my laptop on before I sit it anywhere :) - it keeps the bottom clear of the surface and avoids any 'heating of important areas' issues :)

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

LOL... do have vent holes drilled in it :shrug:

A little heat never did any harm....... :p:

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

The processor gets arounds 60C on mine, leaving my hand on it long anough can burn it, my hard drive stays around 40C aswell. I got an AMD AthlonXP 1900+ in mine though, and Iv'e heard AMD's get hot quickly (which I have found out in this one) :p:

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Mine can get quite warm - i remember once leaving a box of malteasers on it for half an hour - you can imagine what they looked like .... :disturbd:

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Like putting them in a microwave for 30 seconds :p:

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

I opened the hottest compartment up and put a temperature sensitive label in there. It happened to be the place where the ram goes so that's a bit worrying....

I'll report the temperature later when I get chance to open it and have a look.

Interesting the RAM chips have a thick mylar covered copper circuit board resting on top of them. Obviously put there to conduct heat away.....

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

I don't like the idea of a usb powered cooler. These laptops should do the job without that. I don't want to carry some other clutter around with me as well. I have enough already. Anyhoo....it's the innards I'm worried about.


BTW Dilli 'important heated areas'...the laptop or you :p:

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

um.... er..... ;):D

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

This reminded me of a story a couple of years back on El Reg. A quick search later and voila.

My laptop gets very hot, particularly if on the mains and the battery charger hasn't figured out that the battery has achieved full charge. Can't do much for the reliability.

Alan

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

....it was a dell too :Yikes: (I have a dell).....

I am SO glad I've got my mdf board to stick it on - I'm not burning any bits I have - I like them all :D

The part that gets the hottest on my laptop is the power adaptor - that get's REALLY hot.

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

well i have a dell inspiron 1100. the problems about overheating with this model and the 5100 are widely documented and known by dell but they do not do anything about it.

the fan is placed on the bottom of the laptop and sucks air inwards, blows it over a heatpipe and back out over a heatsink. it is known as a "vacuum fan" nowadays ;)

the official line from dell regarding my lappy is to take it apart once a month, remove the heatsink/heatpipe/fan combo, and clean it out. this is because the heatsink becomes clogged with dust bunnies that are positively monster-sized. wouldnt surprise me if this voids the guarantee but it is a bad design flaw. maybe it is the same on your toshiba, dust is being sucked up clogging the airflow and causing heat to build up?

before dust treatment, my processor reaches anything up to 70C (it shuts off automatically at this temperature), but after treatment hovers around 45-50C when doing load-intensive stuff in photoshop.

so, check your heatink and invest in a screwdriver and compressed air ;)

solution to my problem is here by the way >> http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...sage.id=147208

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Thanks for that - I have a 5100.

Although I've yet to experience any issues that were mentioned. But if it starts doing - then it's something to look at :)

....And it has a link for a program that lets me control the fan and read the temp on my 5100 too.....

That is SO cool :)

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Download the motherboardmoniter that Paulyoung666 recommended. It's better than sticking labels everywhere :tu:

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

it mainly happened to me playing DVDs and doing heavy photoshopping. i guess it got extra dusty with me though cos, well, i live in student accommodation and vacuum cleaners are an unknown entity. result = atmosphere not breathable without dust masks ;)

oh, and MBM doesn't work on my computer so until i found that dell-specific fan program i thought my computer was seriously dodgy...

watch out for controlling the fan speed though, i once left it off by accident. 10 minutes later into a rather important assignment, P4 temperature controls kicked in and i lost that 10 mins work :Yikes:

look at the fan speed too, if it is anything like mine on top speed it will reach nearly 180,000 rpm ;)

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Hm, I have a Toshiba Satellite which will occasionally shut down automatically (though it will boot normally after that). I thought it was a problem with media player, as it usually occurs when streaming audio. I'm starting to wonder if this may be a temperature issue (though I hadn't noticed it becoming very hot, but then again I don't usually sit it on my lap)

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

http://hardware.mcse.ms/message4270.html

hey look, overheating is a problem with some toshiba satellites too... common design flaw with laptop cooling mechanisms maybe? :shrug:

i dread to think what alienwares are like, they must either sound like a 747 or burn your pants off :shocked:

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Cheers for that. I'm off to get myself some 'dust cleaner' :)

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Good thread this.
Mine is a Toshiba Satelite S5100-201

I just downloaded MBM and mucked around a bit. It seems this model is not supported. I get some info from it and maybe I will get some more when I optimise MBM.....it seems a little complex and geeky.... :dunce:

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Luckily I already had some air duster (I use it when I service systems :)) - and my idle temp on my laptop is 40oC and rises up to 49oC - So i'm quite happy with that I think :)

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Hey, we're not the ones sticking temperature strips all over our laptops :p: :D

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Yes I know. Sad isn't it!

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Anyhow, I just had another look in the memory compartment. The label fixed to the heat sink reached 60C over the weekend, so the chips must be quite a lot hotter. :afire:

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

did you have a look at mbm5 ??????????? :)

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Yes I did but it seems not to work too well with this board. However I can tell you that sensor 1 (wherever that is) reads 59C and Sensor 2 (wherever that is!) reads 68C. Not surprising that because wherever they are they are junction temperatures close to where some of the heat is generated.

MBM can't see any more sensors....shame

Re: How hot should a laptop get?
 

Oooh! the fan just came on and the S2 went down to 59C! So at least it does it's job!