I type with embarrassed, red face.............I think that I discovered and solved the problem.
If you remember, I mentioned that I had cleaned the fan area with canned air. Well, I did do that. What I had done was to take the outer covering off and directed the air toward the fans, etc. Yes, dust blew out. I thought that I was taking care of that.
Well, I just removed that cover again AND, this time, I unseated the fan(s) -- that's plural -- there are two of them, as one unit. I didn't remember that from before. This time, I could see there was major dust bunnies between the fan blades of one of the fans and the rear vent fins on the fan unit. I was able to remove it all with tweezers and there was a lot of it! I couldn't see it before since I didn't unseat the fan unit.
I put it back together and you guessed it -- it is working like it should. Woohoo............
I actually thought that I took good care with my laptop. I cannot believe how much dust debris that I removed today.
At any rate, as I typed before, thank you, all, for your thoughts and for sharing your knowledge. I do appreciate it.
I just fixed my neighbors Dell laptop that was having the same problem, processor and fan running overtime. This may sound crazy, but it was his problem and this fix worked. He also only had 512 MB of memory. After running a free program called Startup Manager, he had 101 MB of memory being used by needless programs running in the background of his computer. His HP printer was using 31.4MB of memory alone. There is no reason for printer software to be running in the background if your not printing. If you have not cleaned up the start programs in your task bar, you cannot believe how much memory is being used needlessly. Here is the program Startup Manager that works great. Startup Manager His computer also took 5 minutes to boot up, now it boots up in one minute. Hope this helps.
I guess I was a second to late with this post, but it may help someone else. Glad you found your problem.
Chuck
02 Travel Supreme, 2 street side slides
02 Jeep Liberty Toad
After my post I took my fans out and cleaned everything with a brush and the heat sinks under running water. I'm good to go for another 6 months.
I have 3 fans. The 3rd one is a small one on my CPU. I unclipped that one also and cleaned it.
Fans pulling dirt into your computer is the major reason to shut your computer off when not being used. Many people leave their desktops running 24/7, which is not good.
-Tom
On edit my 3rd fan is not on my CPU. It is on my video chip. Yes, my laptop is a Gateway M675 P4 3.2mhz and is known as a desktop replacement. Cost a few years ago was ~$3000. I do lots of multitasking and need the power.
Bottom line is to have all laptops cleaned occasionally.
-Tom
* This post was
edited 06/02/08 08:49am by Tom N *
"The people that don't believe in evolution are the ones who need it most!"
Sarver, PA/Crystal River, FL/Indiana, PA
2005 Itasca Suncruiser 38R 38' 11"
W24, Allison 2100MH, full body paint
2008 Honda Odyssey EX-L, Roadmaster Sterling bar
FMCA 335149
A 3 GHz or faster P4 chip is operating at the limits of technology, at the time it was built, and will always run hot. Intel made contemporary CPUs specifically for laptops that ran a lot cooler, only a little slower, and would slow down when not being heavily used.
You've apparently got a "maximum power desktop replacement" type of laptop, and heat is something that goes with that choice. Most laptops in that category have two cooling fans, I've seen them with three. If you have only one, that's Gateway.
Your husband's smaller laptop probably has a slower, maybe more modern, processor that uses less power and produces less heat. "Core", the next CPU generation after Pentium 4, cut processor speeds and power consumption in half for the same level of performance; he may have one of those.
Even after a cleaning my Toshiba Laptop (known for heat problems) wanted to run hot, so I built a cardboard shroud and attached a muffin fan to the rear and the whole thing sits 2 inches above the desk surface on 2 narrow wire baskets, like you see in office supply stores. It runs at around 28 Celsius under full load. I use mine as a desktop.
Shields wrote: Tom N -- I really have three, also. The third is much smaller in size and sits off to the side of the two that are connected, as one unit.
I have a question, though....what is and where is the heat sink?
Gs
on my Compaq it is a fairly massive piece of aluminum cast with fins, etc. and contacts the top of the CPU to "suck" heat away and disburse it. I had to smear some of that silver goop on top of the CPU to conduct heat to it. I would assume most laptops have a similar setup?
bumpy
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I type with embarrassed, red face.............I think that I discovered and solved the problem.
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