And another computer question???

[Kevin Palmer]

What was my primary laptop until two days ago, (bought a replacement), has been getting VERY hot under heavy internet use. To the point that it would get hot enough that it would affect memory and shut down the computer.



Just wondering what you think may be the cause of this?



Also, the power supply gets hot as the computer gets hot. If the computer is cool the power supply is cool...



I would like to solve this and give it to my daughter.



Thanks...

 

[Jacob Dryer]

Did you blow it out with compressed air? Could be dust/pet hair build up in the fans.

 

[blert]

Dust and crud built up inside. If it's out of warranty crack it open and clean it out.



Is the cooling system working properly?



Did you check to see if your battery is one of the recalled ones? They had a bit of a heating/exploding issue for the past couple of years on tons of different laptop models. Contact the manuf to find out.

 

[Richard Kolb]

Mine did that, the thermal grease between the cpu and the heatsink had dried out. I replaced that and added a laptop cooler and it worked fine. Then my HD went south on it.

 

[Kevin Palmer]

I did open it all up. Fan is working fine. I physically removed the heat sync and clean both it and the fan. The grease is dryer than it should be. What can I use in it's place?



(I used compressed air on the items once I pulled them out of the computer shell).

 

[Jacob Dryer]

Thermal Paste sold from any computer store. Artic Silver is the brand of choice but a little more expensive.

 

[Kevin Palmer]

Sounds good, I will do some digging tomorrow to find some.



I know how critical the grease was under control modules inside distributors, this must be equally important based on how it uses the grease to pull the heat to the heat sync.



Thanks for the info...

 

[blert]

I know how critical the grease was under control modules inside distributors, this must be equally important based on how it uses the grease to pull the heat to the heat sync.

YES YES! Never install the heat sink back onto the CPU without reapplying a quality thermal compound. There are tons of different compounds around. Stay away from the epoxy type stuff unless you never want it to come off again. As suggested, Arctic Silver is of good quality and is what I use currently (as I still have one and a half tubes of the stuff). Generally, you can use whatever you can get your hands on from your local PC shop (don't use the little sticky pad things that call themselves TIMs or Thermal Interface Materials as it is offensive to your heat sink). It's critical that you apply the thermal grease correctly. If you don't already know how to do it then I suggest you Google for a tut.