How to help prevent laptop from overheating?

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fxckitsdillan

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Nov 20, 2012
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Hey, I'm experiencing worrying temperature problems with my laptop, it's only about two years old from when I bought it, and there has been a few things that have changed with its behaviour that I am unsure of

Firstly is obviously the heating, the laptops temps increase very, very rapidly, and for what I would think is unreasonable circumstances to cause such heat.
For example, RealTemp shows that the cpu idles at about 50-55 celsius, however when playing a game like Aion (which this setup is rated to be able to run it set to high~ settings) the laptop will shut off within 30 minutes or so, giving a reboot warning that the system overheated (reporting 90+ celsius) even when the game is set to run on the lowest settings possible for everything.
Standard use heats it to about 65~ which I think is unreasonable (when I say standard use I mean things like running music off iTunes while browsing 2-3 tabs on Chrome)
If I'm doing anything with my usb external hdd then periods of copying files of about 3gb+ in size will cause the cpu to reach about 70~

Also I'm not sure if it's related, but I've noticed when Aion is starting to make the laptop feel quite warm (obviously now I quit the game and give it a rest) I have alt+tabbed to check the temperature and have noticed the cpu is only running at 1333Mhz which is half of it's rated speed

Any suggestions would be much appreciated, thanks.

Laptop Specs here:

Compaq Presario CQ62
Intel Core i3 M350 @ 2.27Ghz
ATI Radeon Mobility HD 4300/4500 series (That's how every program identifies it, I can't find the actual model anywhere)
HDD is 320GB which I try to keep at least 50GB free.

Edit: Forgot, it's also running 4GB ram
 

azathoth

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Jun 25, 2011
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If giving the laptop a thorough cleaning still did not fix the temperature issue, you may wish to replace the Thermal Paste between your processor and heatsink.

I had the same problem with my Lenovo Y570, temperatures began to get out of hand and I decided to replace the thermal paste. Opening up the device I noticed that the paste WAS properly applied, however since I purchased my laptop the Paste had become dried and cracked up.

I replaced the thermal paste using the spread method, simply covering it entirely with a thin spread of Artic Silver. (Yes there is better methods, but this is consistent for me)

Replacement with AS5 yielded MUCH better results than I had expected, I instantly got a 25C temperature drop from the replacement, and my laptop no longer instantly 'spiked' in temperature, rather it now warmed up slowly to it's new maximum.

This WILL void your warranty however. I still advise doing it though.
 

OX-49

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Nov 19, 2012
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Azathoth you are right i had a several laptops with this problem the first thing i did cleaned it fully, every card (of course if you can) second i replaced thermal paste. third
if it still don't work properly i got new FAN

P.S. I had mention that i had several laptops pecouse i like to assemble them and advance or repair
 

MC_K7

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Aug 31, 2008
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^ +1 for the cooling pad

Of course re-applying thermal paste will probably help a lot in your case since your temps do not seem normal. But a cooling pad can be a nice addition afterwards. I got the following one for my home laptop:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A3148328

I don't even plug the USB to make the fans spin most of the time. But just the fact that it elevates the laptop it creates more space underneath so the internal fans of the laptop can get air more easily, especially when you have the laptop on your lap.
 

unclewebb

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Sep 11, 2007
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Lots of laptops have very poor heatsinks and fans. This becomes obvious as soon as you start trying to load the CPU and GPU at the same time, such as when gaming.

If cleaning up your laptop doesn't solve this issue, you might need to try running ThrottleStop. You can use this program to adjust the speed of your CPU. Some users have had better gaming experiences by running their CPU a little slower so it doesn't over heat and shut down the laptop.

ThrottleStop 5.00
http://www.techinferno.com/downloads/

RealTemp T|I Edition
http://www.techinferno.com/downloads/?did=53
 
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