Tips on cooling laptops

[userfriendly]

Few days ago, my old laptop, a 6 year old HP NX6125 with Turion ML28 1.6 processor was running very hot. I was doing a virus scan. No room Ac. Ran CPUID and it showed the processor was at over 74C. Tried to cool it down by pointing a electric fan directly at it. It lowered the temp a little but it was still too hot for me.

Went to CDRking and got a cheap notebook cooling pad. Not much help.

Then I remembered undervolting. Had this laptop undervolted before and it worked great. Forgot to do it when I last reformatted. What is undervolting? Undervolting is a process wherin you lower the voltage to the processor. Not all processors are created the saame. Most can work at a lower voltage than what the laptop manufacturer sets. Its kinda like overclocking but instead of making the processor run faster, you make it run at a lower voltage.

So i downloaded RMclock and Prime95. RMclock is a freeware that lets you undervolt. Prime95 is a freeware that will stress your computer, it will show any instability or weakness.

Ran RMclock. It showed that my laptop was set at to run at 1.35 vid or volts at 8x fid or 1.6ghz. Min was 1vid at 4x fid or 800mhz. I unchecked the options to run rmclock at start up. I adjusted the vid from 1.35 down a notch and ran prime95. It was stable. Lowered the vid again and retested. Did this all the way down to 1 volt at 8x fid. I then tried to lower it to .95 volts at 8x but got a reboot. Retested for over 30 mins at 100% cpu and os load at 1 volt. It was stable. Temp was holding at 60 to 61C. Thats a drop of over 12C and its hotter today, no AC, no cooling pad, no electric fan! And best of all its free.

I was able to lower my voltage by .4 volts or about 28.5% and my temp by 13C or by arund 18%

I'm now testing how low I can go with the 4x fid. So far its stable at .875 volts at 800 mhz. Now trying .85 volts. Its been 10 mins at .85 volts and temp is holding at 46 to 47C. Will update later.

RMclock will work with older processors. It will not work with the i series of processors. It also does not work with vista64.

Advantages of undervolting. Cooler running processor. Heat is your computers enemy. Since the processor runs cooler, the other components should also run cooler. Its safe. The worst things that can happen if you lower the voltage too much is you get reboots or BSOD. If it happens just increase the voltage. It can make your laptop last longer since its not as hot.

[userfriendly]

Update: Was stable at .85 volts but there was hardly any difference inthe temp between .875 volts and .85 volts. Got a BSOD at .825 volts. So I just returned it to .875 volts. Temp is at 46C with 100% OS and CPU load at 800mhz.

As a comparisson, I'm typing this on my i3 380um or ultra low voltage processor. Its on top of a cooling pad and I have a electric fan pointed directly at me and the laptop. CPUID shows that max temp was at 68C and min temp at 42C. I guess the high temp was when I had the laptop on my lap or on the bed with out the extra cooling of the fans. So the undervolted Turion is running at almost the same temp as a current i3. And HP and AMD are notorious for running hot. Not bad at all.

BTW, the HP was never opened for cleaning in the 6 years that I had it. My wife's 2 or 3 year old Asus with a 2.4ghz c2d processor also had a heat isssue. It would randomly shut down while surfing. I opened it up, just a few screws gave me access to the heatsink, and fan. Turns out it was all junked up with dirt. I removed the fan and cleaned it with a new paint brush. Reinstalled and its now running fine. Cant undervolt as it runs on a vista64.

[NightRock]

Same thing happened to my old HP its almost 7 years now..I normally used it with AC plug on.. I have notice talagang sobrang init na. then I tried to use battery alone and I found out that battery is getting drained so fast.. I bought a new battery and problem solve hehehe I dont burn my lap anymore hehehe

[oj88]

Nice!

Another tip is to always place your mobile PC on a flat, solid surface... Never on the bed, sofa, or anything that can block the air vents or act as a "thermos" that will prevent heat on the bottom surface from dissipating.

I never had an HP but I did have four Dell laptops/notebooks/netbooks in the span of 10 years. Never had any stability problems even when pushed to the edge. At one point, I even accidentally left an 8-year old D510 in the bag, installing updates. When I realized my mistake more than half an hour later (I felt the bag was warm on the outside when I took it out of the car), the laptop was already very hot to the touch, hot enough to make the bag lining very sticky (it was close to melting). The computer was still running when I opened the lid. This is one of the many reasons I was sold to Dell. I currently have an i5, Dell E5510. It's running World Community Grid at 24x7 without any problems.

[greatauror28]

Used an MSI c2d notebook for about 2 years but never had to undervolt mine though I use skype almost 24/7. Temp is usually around 70deg. I just put something under the lappy just below the sreen hinge just to raise it a bit for ventilation purposes.

I'm now using an i7 mbp 15" and its very tolerant with high temp amounting up to 80deg. Thanks to its dual fan that kicks in should the need arises. And also I downloaded an app to manually adjust the fans should I deemed needed.

[userfriendly]

This is just my opinion. I am not an expert. my rule of thumb for laptops:

up to 50C cool
51 to 69C normal
70 to 80C hot I dont want to be in this temp range. Will consider cooling, elevating, moving to a flat surface etc...
81C above shut down or take a break danger zone

I once read somewhere that a processor max temp is 90 or 100C, Cant recall the exact number.

Also, if your laptop's fan is working at full blast and your computer shuts down by itself = overheat I think the shut down is preprogramed to protect your computer.

How about laptop hard drives, what is the normal operating temp?