TechnowledgeBase

Why?
Mysterious random reboots? Sluggish performance? There is a long list of things that could cause these symptoms, but with the heat of summer upon us, you may want to add something to the list that you hadn’t considered before: Heat.

Electronics and heat don’t mix well, and computers bring them both in dangerous proximity to one another. In a full-sized machine there are usually enough fans to keep things cool and functional, but laptops can be different. The space is tight, the airflow is restricted, and the users (i.e. YOU) are more likely to do things that can literally cause the heat death of their machine… like block the vents with a book. More on that later. Monitoring the temperature of a perfectly functioning laptop every once in a while is a good idea. But if the machine is acting strange, then taking its temperature is one of the first things you should do.

How?
There’s no hardware needed in most cases. Most laptops already have a temperature sensor on the CPU and the hard drive. All you need is an application that can report the temperatures that are already being measured. I recommend the FREE application MobileMeter. It’s small, light on resources, and its free. Plus, its free. And free.

MobileMeter comes in a zip file as a single executable and a handy HTML file… handy if you read Chinese. Fortunately, the program is self-explanatory. Just running the executable will get you what you want: a window that displays the CPU temp and the hard drive temp, both in Celsius. It also displays current processor frequency (i.e., speed) and battery power, but you can turn those off with a simple right-click visit to the Options screen. I’d leave processor speed on, though, it might be useful.

When to Worry
So what, exactly IS the normal operating temperature for a laptop? Unfortunately, there’s no single answer to that. It varies depending on the specs of the machine AND what the machine happens to be doing at the time you took the temperature. You’ll need to do some research to find out what the temperature of your computer should be when its idle and when its under a heavy processing load. Here I found two good places to start.

If you see a CPU temperature in the 90’s then your laptop is about to take some actions to try and save itself. It will either throttle back on the processor speed (which you will see in the MobileMeter display) or will simply shut itself down, probably without warning. Now, if you see a temperature in the 80’s when the machine is under a heavy load (playing a game or rendering 3D graphics), then you might want to keep your eye on it. If you see temperatures in that same range and the computer is just surfing the internet, then you probably have a problem. Unless its porn. Then it’s okay. Any other numbers are just guesswork without knowing the make, model, speed, and activity level of the machine.

What To Do
Your laptop is hot. Now what?
Here’s the simple stuff first:
WHERE is your laptop?
On the table (or your lap)… or in a closed drawer with no ventilation? Given what you’ve read so far, where do you think your laptop SHOULD be? So move it.

What’s AROUND your laptop?
In addition to being stuffed in a closed drawer, is there a stack of books on top of it? How about underneath it? Or Right up against the side? Here’s a good one: is the laptop sitting on top of a towel or cloth? Laptops have vents that should not be blocked. Ever. Not even for a few minutes. The vents can be anywhere, and can be blocked by anything, so just pay attention. I almost cooked a laptop once just by sitting it on top of a towel. The towel blocked the vents on the bottom and things got frustrating for a while. I also did the exact same thing with a book. Most laptops have little rubber or plastic “feet” on the bottom that prevent them from sitting directly on a flat surface. I had a laptop sitting on top of a book that was smaller than the laptop itself, so the “feet” hung over the edges. The bottom surface was flat against the book cover, blocking the vent. Yes, I am an idiot, and my laptop told me so by repeatedly shutting down at random.

Also, what peripherals do you have nearby? I’m speaking specifically about external hard drives. Some of these… espescially the ones where you take a full-sized IDE hard drive and put it in an external USB enclosure… can generate a lot of heat. A LOT. Position them with care.

How hot is the room?
Any laptop should be able to operate in a warm room with no problem. Should. But “warm” is open to some interpretation. If you’re sweating, then imagine how your laptop feels. Turn on the air conditioning.

You could also try a software solution like speedfan, which allows you to tweak the fan settings.

And now, the bad news;
It’s possible that there is NOTHING you can do, other than take it in for service. Accept that possibility now. Some people are handy with a soldering iron and don’t mind cracking open a laptop and voiding their warranty. THOSE people will recommend that you replace the fan and/or heat-sink yourself. But I live in the real world, and if you don’t know a soldering iron from a ballpoint pen and have never even SEEN the inside of a laptop, then it would be useless, stupid, and irresponsible to recommend that course of action to you, EVEN if I provided you with detailed step-by-step instructions. So I won’t. If you were capable of fixing a bad fan or heat sink, then you already know how do do it. For the rest of us, you may just be in the market for either a repair shop or a new laptop.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 at 7:00 am and is filed under Hardware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.