Laptop Overheating

Monday, September 19th, 2011 at 2:06 pm

Lapdesk Cooling Pad - Laptop Overheating Causes

Operating a laptop at very high temperatures leads to failed hardware components such as video cards, motherboards, memory modules, hard drives and more. The heat decreases the lifespan of your computer and can also be a fire hazard in extreme cases.

Hopefully you have read my article regarding laptop overheating symptoms and have gained a basic understanding of what to look out for if you suspect that your computer is running to hot. Just to make sure here is a short list of signs to look out for that will help you determine the difference between an overheating laptop and one that's just a little hot.

Internal cooling fan is constantly running.
Computer struggling to perform basic tasks like opening a new browser window.
Mysterious error messages popping up in random programs.
Lines on your laptop screen, which is a sign your video card is overheating.
System freezing or the dreaded Blue Screen of Death.
The laptop abruptly shuts down on its own.

Now we are going to look at some of the possible causes of overheating to help you recognize a potential problem before it occurs.

Causes of Laptop Overheating

1. Use a Lapdesk Cooling Pad To Prevent Clogged Air Vents:

The most common cause of overheating is blocked air vents. These are the small grill areas usually found on the underside and at the sides of your laptop. When dust blocks the fans and air vents designed to cool your laptop, overheating results.

In a way, part of a computer works like vacuum cleaner; sucking air form one side and blowing it out from the other. Unfortunately they don't come with filter bags to catch all the dust and debris. After just a few months of use the fans and heatsinks will eventually become coated with dust. If not cleaned, their effectiveness quickly drops and so overheating occurs.

On a standard home PC the CPU heatsink and fan are quite bigger and more powerful than on a laptop. There are also fans on the power supply, on the video card and other areas that can total up to six fans to make sure your PC stays cool. However laptops usually have just one or two smaller fans that have to do it all.

These one or two fans have a tough job ahead of them. Laptops tend to accumulate fine layers of dirt and dust around their air vents after months of use. A laptop needs a steady flow of fresh air in order to cool its internal components that produce a high amount of heat. These components include the processor, hard disk and random access memory (RAM). Clogged air vents prevent the cooling of these components.

2. Use a Lapdesk Cooling Pad To Prevent Malfunctioning Internal Fans:

A laptop uses at least one internal fan to cool its processor and other critical internal components. Most laptops use fans that work according to the workload of the processor. So, if the processor finds itself having to work harder, the fans will work faster to try to keep up with clearing the heat away. You will be able to hear the buzz made by a fan that suddenly changes pitch to match the processor's heavy workload.

Therefore, a malfunctioning fan that is unable to respond to changes in processor workload will cause the processor and other components to overheat quickly. It also can degrade the performance of the operating system severely.

3. Improper Placement:

The placement of your laptop plays a significant role in determining whether or not it overheats. We buy laptops because they are portable giving us the freedom to use them wherever we want. We can work off our laps, on the floor, on the couch, in bed, outside, etc. The problem with this is there is a higher chance of blocking the air vents. Unlike above where the vents were blocked with dust here they may be blocked by the surface area you work from. Here is a definite area where a lapdesk cooling pad will come in handy.

If you use your laptop like a personal computer by accessing it from a fixed position, it should be in a place where it has a good supply of fresh air. Also, its air vents should not be blocked, and it should not be near other electronic components that also generate heat.

4. Software Problems:

Some laptops overheat because the software designed to protect the laptop, specifically by controlling the operation of cooling fans, does not work properly. In other cases, this is due to problems in the computer's BIOS, and can be cured by upgrading to the most recent BIOS.

For example, you may have upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 7 only to find the system software designed to operate the fans no longer works properly.

Software programs also exist to help avoid laptop overheating. They work by checking the computer to locate any unnecessary applications that may be running which are adding a heavier load on the processor. Once located, in order to avoid the conditions that lead to heat build-up the software will automatically shut down or lower the power usage of these applications. They can be a useful tool to restoring your laptop to healthy functioning if a program is available for your laptop.

5. Use a Lapdesk Cooling Pad To Help With Poor Design:

Some laptop overheating is a result of poor design by the computer manufacturers. The CPUs and all other components are crammed into a tight little laptop space leaving very little room for air to circulate. Others simply have failed to provide ventilation and cooling systems appropriate for today's CPU and video chips, which hold many more transistors than in the past and so generate more heat. Once again, this is a prime example of where a lapdesk cooling pad should be used.

6. Use a Lapdesk Cooling Pad To Work In A High Room Temperature:

This may be obvious but you would be surprised as to how much the temperature can rise in a laptop if it is used in a hot environment. Using a laptop inside a hot room or outside in the sun will cause it to overheat quickly. So, choose your work enviornment wisely.

These are just a few of the more popular laptop overheating causes that you may come across. For help on deciding what laptop cooler pad to buy take a look at my website Laptop Cooler Pad.

Now that you know some of the causes go to my next article to discover the Cures for Overheating Laptops.

About the Author

If you are interested in buying a cooler pad to prevent your laptop from overheating then go to http://laptop-cooler-pad.com/compare-cooling-pads.

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