overheating problems

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

Basically, my friend recommended to use a laptop stand. How well would that work? I’ve been reduced to lifting my laptop up during loading times to prevent it from overhating…It doesn’t seem to prevent it, but it sure seems to make it overheat a lot later. Obviously, it only overheats when playing a game, which would be fine, but I play games a lot, and my computer shutting down randomly isn’t the preferred way for me to stop playing. Well, basically, what are the differences between a cooling pad and a laptop stand? What would work better to cool down my laptop, and, on average, how much do they cost? And where can I find them? Also, I have no access to a credit card what-so-ever, so I can only buy things in retail. If you have any specific, recommendations, do post them. Thanks for your time!

(copy-pasted from original thread in SPUF)[Also, my thread]

#2

Have you tried cleaning out the fans? Take the case apart and go over it with a soft-bristled attachment for the vacuum cleaner.

#3

In addition to what JayJay said I would suggest an external cooling fan. They sell them for laptops. It runs off of a USB port and you can adjust the speed of the fan. I use one to cool an external HD that was constantly heating up. They cost about 20 bucks. I’m sure they sell them retail at Comp USA. I don’t know if they sell that at Best Buy, but you could ask about them at the Geek Squad counter.

#4

I used to have an overheating problem, So I bought an extra connectable laptop fan.

#5

I use a laptop cooler. My laptop would get so hot, that if you sat your hand next to vent where the fan sucked the heat out, it felt like it would burn my hand off. The laptop cooler fixes this quite a bit. Performance wise, I haven’t seen a difference but the heating problem is gone.

And I’m not trying to be rude here, but remember standard laptops aren’t exactly built to run games. I use one myself but I’m going to be building my first desktop in the coming months. If you’re really serious about your games, you may want to consider building your own desktop. You get complete control on what goes in to it and how they operate. Or you could purchase a good gaming Desktop or laptop such as Alienware. They’re more expensive, but if you don’t like building, they’re fine. Ultrabooks also should be able to run newer games without a stutter too. But they’re around the same price as a desktop. And you don’t get the customization (like with with Alienware laptops) but they’re nice and portable.

I’m not saying to run out and buy parts or anything, but if you’re looking for a computer that packs a punch and doesn’t overheat, computers that are designed with parts such as the Intel Core i7, a good amount of ram, and a good video card, you’ll be very happy. But if you want to stick with your laptop (which I’m assuming you do) just buy a $20-$30 cooling tray/fan. It’ll take care of the heat. :wink:

#6

If you’re playing games like TF2, it’s good to cap the maximum FPS. My GPU used to run TF2 with 300+ FPS, this heated up the GPU big time. Now that I’ve capped the FPS at 85, the temperatures are so much lower without any noticable loss of performance.

#7

I would love to get a desktop for gaming, but I lack the funds to actually get one, unfortunately, so I’m stuck with my laptop, or a new computer, for that matter. So this is the best I have.

#8

I feel your pain. I would love to put together the ultimate machine and be able to game without worrying about if my computer can do it. At least Valve still uses Source so their games can run relatively well on older systems.

#9

I put together a pretty cheap tower a few years back, and I’m still using it today. As long as you do your research, you can get a great lifespan and decent performance out of midrange, cheaper components.

#10

I built my PC around oct 2008 for about 300$ (new Mobo, CPU, used case, RAM, PSU, GPU, HDD) and I’m using most of the same core components today (E6600@3.2Ghz 4GB DDR2, Radeon 6850) runs Skyrim on decent settings at 5040x1050 and very rarely drops under 30FPS (always 60 indoors)

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