Laptop overheats ridiculously fast

[5v3d3b0]

Right, a few months ago my laptop started overheating sometimes. Now it's to the point that if I play CS (1.6!!!) for 5 minutes the computer freezes and I have to turn it off with the button... I bought a laptop cooling pad, and that helps a bit, but still 15-20 minutes of CS and it freezes.
With the pad I can do normal surfing and work, but play no games basically. What the fuck is this for quality? I bought it in September!!
Any ideas or solutions?

[Frost]

Make sure it's not overclocked. Make sure that the fan control isn't set manually in the BIOS so that it can't speed up when needed. Put the laptop on a flat surface when using it. When it's turned off go round all the vents with a hoover and try to get some of the dust and hair out of it!

[Albion]

[The Artist]

My old laptop overheated a lot, even when balanced on something with plenty of air space underneath.

I took the keyboard out and got to the cpu fan and heat sink and it was packed full of dust and crap. Cleaned it out with a cotton bud and it ran soo much better afterwards.

[panrider_uk]

The fan on my netbook used to run constantly.

I took the plastic mesh out of the air vents and it now runs about 20 degrees cooler.

Mark
____________________
Current bikes: Honda ST1100 Pan European. Moto Guzzi V85 TT Travel

[Ingah]

Remove battery, can of compressed air through the all the venting.

Easy, cheap, and might just do the trick.
____________________
-- Ingah

[Charlie]

Clean all the venting out, chances are it will be stuffed full of dust and preventing good airflow..
____________________
Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[SoND]

Paste has burnt off overtime.

Remove heatsink, clean with rubbing alcohol and reapply. Blow fins out while you are in there.
____________________
Go back to bed - You have no rights - "Streetfighters ~ Mainstream motorcycling's crackwhore sister."

[temeluchus]

[dextersaurus]

I got a laptop in that had this problem, thought by some miracle it would be a software problem because it wouldn't do it when sitting in the BIOS, only when the OS was loaded.

But halfway through an XP install it died.

I took the cover off, took the fan off, and the CPU heatink, cleaned them up, put new paste on, sealed them back on again, and had a look at the cooling fan.

N00b mistake on my part as it was clogged up with dust so badly that it wasn't even turning. took out a bit of dust the size of my thumb and popped it back in, worked like a charm.

Compressed air might do the trick but that might just blow it inside the laptop, you'd be better just taking the cover off and cleaning the dust out.

Turn the laptop on, does the fan turn? if not, get it out and turn the fan by hand... should push the dust out.
DON'T blow in it as this could turn the fan too fast, which damages the motor blah blah blah, probably a slim chance of actually breaking it but heyho.

Dunc

[5v3d3b0]

I don't think I'm comfortable taking the fucker apart and applying heat paste and stuff Not really that experienced
I'll try to open it up and get all the dust out
And it's a dv6

[SoND]

If you can open it up to get the dust out you can do the heat paste too. Cleaning the dust out will be pointless when you find the paste is gone.

Before you start prying and tugging at bits be absolutely sure you haven't missed a screw. Take your time and do it carefully, it shouldn't take force.

The heatsink will be held on with a few screws and a wire. When you remove the screws it may be stuck to the chip a bit because of the paste, twist it and that should break its grip.

A small amount of alcohol and a soft cloth should clean the paste off easy enough with a little scrub. Put a blob the size of a pea on the middle of the chip and screw the heatsink back on.
____________________
Go back to bed - You have no rights - "Streetfighters ~ Mainstream motorcycling's crackwhore sister."

[5v3d3b0]

Ordered some Arctic Silver 5 off ebay
Should arrive tomorrow or thursday, watched a few vids to see how it's done. Only hard thing is disassembling that far

[dextersaurus]

If you take every screw and take pics of whatever of where each screw goes, everything should just clip apart.

I've not worked on many home laptops and the likes, but business laptops are generally pretty easy to work on.

Dunc

[5v3d3b0]

Did it! Took me ages to figure out how to take some things apart, but I got there in the end, and the laptop is now running supercool
While I was at it I removed the almost centimeter thick layer of dust from the fan's cooling fins
Thanks a lot for the help