Depends on what specs the laptop has (gaming laptops for instance can heat up a lot) and what you do with it. And the temperature of the environment. So not a no or a yes, but a 'depends'.
I've voted yes. An Acer laptop I've familiarized with becomes hot after watching youtube (or any flash based online streaming services) for ~15 minutes, the machine simply shuts down itself to protect the processor. Fans are noisy as hell too. As a general principle I use a laptop cooler even when the vent/fan design is good enough.
Quite possibly the cooling vents are clogged with dust and need to be cleaned. Depending on the model of laptop, it may be quite easy to access the fan and remove the dust yourself, if not using a can of compressed air may help.
+1, I was playing games on my notebook in the summer with temperatures over 30 degrees Celcius, so the temperature in the room was high as well and the notebook became too hot to touch. I used a program to check internal temperatures and CPU and GPU were higher than 90 degrees C! I cleaned the fan, all the dust in the 'blades' from the heatsink and all air openings from the notebook and got some quality thermal paste/grease, after that it ran 15 degrees C cooler with heavy games.
I've come across a few laptops lately which would stay powered on only for a minute or two before shutting down due to overheating due to being clogged up from dust. Also the hard drives often get damaged due to the heat it would seem. An electric duster will be useful for blowing away excess dust on laptops which don't provide easy access to the fan and vents, as posted here. I will be buying one of these soon.
Yes, it's better than nothing, but only as last resort... just blowing the dust to the inside of the laptop is malpractice (the air flow will pull the dust back to the heatsink, and sometimes it will get stuck in the cooler).
Thanks for the advise. However, upon studying the vent. system I figure I have to open it up completely to gain access and I know from experience that some laptops are a hell to perform even a minor surgery on. I think they do this on purpose..
This. Gaming during hot summers (with OC'ed GPU oc ) required to keep my gear dust free. With an old PC fan, 12-v GSM charger and something like a wooden wine box, 4 nails, hammer, some tape and a small electric saw, you can 'MacGyver' a laptop cooler (with customized laptop-specific air vents) in less than 14 minutes. At least, that's my current record.
Sadly most laptops are like this, which i annoying as I don't like having to disassemble a laptop just to clean out the dust.
Well there are some laptops which have easy access to the fans, e.g. Asus laptops. I'm not sure if this is the case for all models, but the ones I have looked at you just have to undo a few screws. The same is true for my Compal (no, not Compaq) laptop, which is good since when I was using it daily, I had to clean out the dust every few months. While the fans are not easily accessible on my Thinkpads, I have not yet had to clean them, even though I use my T400 7 days a week.
I'm going to check again and see if disassemble is possible after all. I've never had any problems with older models and heat dissipating devices & fans such as an old Thinkpad R40 that I used for many years, but then again an old Pentium M processor is pretty cool. The Acer laptop in question isn't a monster, can't remember the specs but it's just off the shelves "average" stuff e.g. for browsing, word processing and some light photo editing etc.
On the whole, I would say that laptops are prone to overheating unless dust is taken care of from time to time. But Thinkpads do seem to be an exception. That doesn't matter - it is usual for laptops to get clogged with dust and overheat. However the last Acer laptop I had to deal with which had problems - I only had to unscrew two screws to give me access to the fan and vents - and this was and older low end model.
I'm more motivated to have a closer look as soon as I have access to the laptop. If memory serves well, some of the vents are on the bottom side. Not sure if those are intake vents but the vents on the side are definitely pouring out heat. I'll report my findings later!
The laptop is impossible to open. All screws were removed but it feels like the bottom cover is welded in certain areas. I can lift the cover ~ half inch, that's it.
Not Sure you should have a laptop. Why carry a laptop when a tablet or mobile phone can do most things a laptop can do. I have a mobile phone with 1 TB storage available, office suite, and other office type apps.
A typical mobile phone has too small of a screen to be worthwhile laptop replacement. The phablets are better, but even a 6.5" phablet is too small in my opinion to replace a laptop. As for tablets, I would prefer to use a laptop any day to a tablet. I'd much rather be using an office suite on a PC than a phone or tablet.
I don't remember the model reference, can check it up. It's not my laptop, I'm just its administrator.
Perhaps this will make me look weird (anyone remembers the article that claimed if you don't have a FB account, you're deemed weird by many) - I don't own a smartphone or tablet! I've tried familiarizing with my family members' tab / smartphones and found them utterly useless and frustrating to use compared to what you can do with a decent laptop or better - a real desktop PC. Can't understand the hype at all. Sure those could be convinient to have - being able to browse the web when you just have to look up something important or peek at interesting feeds or youtube clips etc but for writing longer sentences they're simply not up to the task. Also security is an issue not easily solved on smartphones. I'm really doing my best avoiding anything "smart" as long as possible. I never carry around a laptop unless it's work related. The laptop I use at work is never moved from its spot.
Thanks Roger, not sure when I will be able to have access to that laptop but I will revert with model ref.
The option 'System cooling policy' is set to 'Passive in both 'on battery' and 'plugged in'. Should I set them to 'Active' to further cool down the pc?
Brothers and Sisters - We voted Yes for using a cooler for Laptops/Notebooks because... So far no one has mentioned the battery temperature and lifespan. The battery must needs be kept cool in order to enjoy a longer life. This will not happen if used with your computer but steps can be taken to mitigate the situation such as mentioned above by placing some small object under the computer to elevate it while using it. Of course if one rarely uses a battery then it is the wisest to store the battery at 40% charge in a cool location dis-attached from the computer. Do not leave the computer with battery (or the battery itself) in your auto or boot (trunk) because of the heat. The heat a battery endures makes a tremendous difference in the life of a Li-Ion battery. According to Battery University, a battery-specific knowledge site affiliated with Cadex Electronics the temperature a battery endures can either lessen greatly or extend the life of a Li-Ion Laptop/Notebook battery tremendously. For all the technical details as well as independent testing and results with beautiful graphs please refer to the following site: http://blog.consumerpla.net/2011/04/prolong-laptop-batteries-life.html Best Regards
