Average temperature for a laptop?

bidoof · Joined: Jul 27, 2007 Posts: 6

I have an Everex StepNote XT5000T laptop and I've noticed that it's getting hot recently, I downloaded SpeedFan and it idles around 60C and when I tend to play a few games for a while it tends to go up to 80C. Is that normal or bad? Would you reccomend a laptop cooler or anything? Thanks in advance.

Werebo · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 6:24 am Post subject:

Allo Bidoof and welcome to the Lockergnome Forum

Yes!! 60-80C is a bit too hot

Despite being called Laptops, the certainly aren't, unless you have asbestos kneecaps Wink

Do you use your lappie on a smooth even surface??? Ideally, you need a smooth surface beneath the laptop for the warm/hot air to ventilate smoothly, but depending on the location etc. all sorts of stuff can block the air-flow either in or out.

If possible, check the inlet vents (usually on the side of the case and the outlet vent (usually underneath) and brush out as much dust as possible, a can of compressed air can also help a lot for this. A powered laptop cooler would certainly help too. If possible, use a cooler that has it's own power source, rather than plugging into the USB socket. The USB ones aren't very powerful, and drawing power from the laptop just makes it warmer! Wink

When I had my old Sony VAIO sent to me from SC, USA, my pal was most surprised when I asked the name of his new black cat. There was a wad of approx 2" of cat fur jammed inside against the cooling fins!!! I had to dismantle the laptop to remove it all, then the temperature dropped by approx 10-15 degrees.

bidoof · Joined: Jul 27, 2007 Posts: 6

Yeah it's on a smooth surface, not to mention I only bought it about a couple weeks ago so I doubt that it could be dust but I'll check anyways. Or maybe it's just the laptop? I can go on newegg and show you the link for the specs if you need.

Werebo

If it's that new, it's unlikely to be dusty enough within a normal household environment to cause any serious airflow restrictions (yet Wink

)

I read on the review (via Google) that it has a 'Silent' button, which reduces power to the CPU and reduces the fan speed if possible, does this have an effect on it???

Otherwise, it would seem to be a lot of software running in the background and nibbling the nibbling the processes away, causing it to run hotter. What A/V and other start-up stuff do you have running???

bidoof · Joined: Jul 27, 2007 Posts: 6

Yeah I use the button when I just go browse around, and only turn it off when I'm playing games. When in Silent mode it tends to stay around 60C. I use AVG, and ZoneAlarm in the background along with AIM. I tend to use up around 50% of my 2 GB of RAM, or maybe it's the fact that I rarely turn it off? I mean, it has never been off for more than 3 hours >_>

Werebo

There's nothing very 'heavy duty' running there, except perhaps ZoneAlarm and AIM.

One thing you did mention though, which might cause 'warm-ups' is that it's rarely turned off Confused

Desktop PC's can run nearly 24/7, but laptops aren't designed for that.

2 suggestions with this....

1} A powered laptop cooler would help keep the temps down for sure. It sucks the hot air out, faster than most laptop fans can blow it out.

2} Using different 'User Accounts' for different configurations. i.e. 1 user account for surfing and web-related stuff, using the AVG, ZoneAlarm and whatever. Another account could be used for the laptop in 'Games Mode' which doesn't have any extraneous stuff running in the background.

Is this laptop running WinVista or WinXP??? Vista is known to be a resource hog anyway, and the Nvidia Go 7600 256MB video card in this machine is really the bare minimum to get good gaming performance in modern games. Between the two, this all helps to knock the temperature up.

bidoof · Joined: Jul 27, 2007 Posts: 6

Vista Home Premium 32bit >_> If I had the choice I'd get XP. The most demanding games I'd play would probably be CS:S. So are you saying it's not safe to leave it on all the time? I mean, sometimes some of my downloads take a rather long time which require me to leave it on...

Werebo

It's not that it isn't safe, it's just that it does the laptop AND Windows good to have some 'down-time'. It gives Windows a chance to dump the junk files that collect in various folders and it 'refreshes' the various pointers and threads to the various processes etc.

It also gives the hardware a chance to cool off and relax, for want of a better expression

Rather like a car, when you get to your destination, you switch the engine off and lock the vehicle up. rather than leaving the engine running all the time. Leaving the laptop on while downloading big files certainly won't cause it harm though. Smile

goretsky

Hello,

Given the relative age of the Everex StepNote XT5000T notebook computer, I suspect yours may have a manufacturing defect. Specifically, the heatsink may not be attached properly to the processor, or it does not have the right amount of thermal paste on it (e.g., too much or too little). I would suggest contacting NewEgg and arranging to have it replaced with another one, or failing that, set up an RMA with Everex to have it examined.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

bidoof · Joined: Jul 27, 2007 Posts: 6

Well, good news. I tend to keep it in silent mode for day to day things and it now drops down to 50-60 Usually 51 55 (Don't know exactly what those 2 numbers mean, I use Core Temp) But when I play games it tends to go upwards to 80C.

Werebo

50-60 is good

A powered cooler will certainly help for those gaming sessions, it might well also improve the comfort too, the slightly angled keyboard/display tends to make typing etc. a lot easier on the wrists Wink