Computer Repair Tips

Overheating and related shutdown problems are very common in laptops, especially in home use.  Common symptoms include some or all from this list;
- Laptop is extremely hot to the touch, especially around the fan area
- Fan seems to be running constantly, and at high speed
- Laptop shuts off by itself when doing nothing
- Laptop shuts off when playing games
- These heating or shutdown problems become worse over time, rather than getting better.

In around 1 in 10 cases, there is a fault with the cooling hardware. By this I mean either a mechanical failure with the fan where it can no longer spin, or spins slowly, or a motherboard electrical fault which exhibits itself by not telling the fan to spin fast enough to cool the laptop.

However 9 out of 10 cases of overheating are caused by an airflow blockage. In these cases, the fan is spinning as fast as it can, but if the hot air is obstructed from reaching the outside world, a heat build-up occurs and the laptop takes the safety precaution of turning itself off, rather than allowing permenant damage to occur. (more…)

Technorati Tags: laptop repair, laptop ventilation

Ever think your laptop is heating up too much? Do you, like most others, use your laptop on your knee? If so, the laptop is likely not getting proper ventilation. This can lead to expensive hardware problems and even health problems.

Q. Why does a laptop get hot?

A. Laptops are precision pieces of equipment. Just imagine, a bunch of clever engineers had to design a way of cramming all the equipment of a desktop PC into the tiny space of a laptop body. When the laptop is on, the CPU is generating heat, just like your desktop PC. The difference is that the heat has to be handled differently. (more…)

Technorati Tags: laptop advice, laptop help, laptop ventilation