Laptop overheating?

[Jeronkey]

Hey!

I hope I'm not asking too many questions.. but I've got to learn somehow, right?

I've discovered a little program by the name of Battery Care. I've since installed it on our own laptops and as well as those of a friend just to do a little bit of monitoring. My friend contacted me today as their laptop was reaching temperatures of around 75°C for the CPU.

They originally told me earlier in the day that it was staying at about 62-65°C.. then later in the day it hit 75°C.
They weren't even charging or using the laptop heavily at the time. They said they were just browsing the internet and that it had been on all day.. it also wasn't sitting on top of bed or anything, so as far as I know the vents weren't blocked.

Any idea what would cause this? The laptop isn't very old or anything.. and any way to fix it? Can you buy and replace it with a better fan or some sort of cooling.. ?

(Oh, and I just checked the laptop I'm typing from.. it stays at a lovely 36-40°C)

Thanks,
Jeronkey

 

[Pada]

I normally use CPUID's HWMonitor application to monitor temperatures & fan speeds.

If the CPU (monitor with like SysInternal's Process Explorer/Microsoft's Task Manager) & GPU (CPUID's GPU-z) was idling and the temperature of the CPU was at 75'C, then you should have a look at the thermal paste & heatsink.
I won't recommend opening the laptop unless you have experience with this sort of thing, or if the laptop is still under warranty.

40-50'C is still OK for a laptop. Just make sure that nothing is blocking the vents for incoming & outgoing air. Like I've seen people placing the laptop on books, or tilting the screen to such an angle that it blocks the vents.
I know my brother's laptop's nVidia Quadro graphics card ran very hot during games and then it switched over to a slow profile. He had to buy a cooling pad to address his problem.

I've had a case where my colleague had his laptop repaired by his previous company's IT guy, and afterwards his laptop overheated the whole time. When I opened up his laptop, the WiFi module's tag was inbetween the CPU and the heatsink of the CPU! So I fixed that issue and then all was well

 

[unskinnybob]

I've just had my HP notebook stripped and fresh heat paste applied. Seems sometimes the cooing sinks come loose. Notebook should idle at around 50 degrees - 70 degrees under load. Mine was idling at 70 and shut down above 90.

 

[SouthBit]

Check the heatsink/fans aren't covered in dog hair/cat hair/dust/other fluffy stuff.

 

[dd1313]

Might be the GPU needs a copper shim, check on Youtube for heating issues on HP pavilion and copper shims.

 

[Libertas Computers]

HP Laptops have silly cooling pads that's between the heatsink and the CPU and GPU chipsets.

A lot of times some regular cooling paste takes care of the problem, otherwise a shim as stated also works (This is only recommended for laptops way past warranty)..

What I'd first do though would be to see if the vents aren't blocked by some dust/dirt/hair/grime and try and clear that out, and try and find a nice cooling pad off BidOrBuy on the Crazy Wednesday R1 auctions tomorrow.

If that doesn't work then I'd start looking at applying some cooling paste or the shim or something...