CPU Overheat within 10 min. of use

[Mike Wazowski]

Hello Tom's Hardware Community.

I own a Gateway NV55C Laptop with an Intel® Core i3-370M processor and Windows 7 Operating System installed. I have already performed the computer "maintenance" part of it which is clean out the insides of any dust that may cause it to overheat so quickly. I also checked the Task Manager to see if the CPU was already spiking of its use of resources when booting to Windows but it acts normally as it should, for an i3, when launching a game or streaming video from the internet. It has not shutdown, restarted, or even given a blue screen of death with the crazy overheating but I worry the lifespan of the CPU itself wont last that long. I know there isn't any specialized cooling like liquid cooling on laptops but i'm wondering if there is another way to bypass that and minimize the overheating as much as possible. Thanks guys

 

[littleleo]

It sounds like one of the fans for your notebook has stopped working and needs to be replaced. You can also set the notebook on a Notebook cooling pad to provide additional cooling for the notebook. I'm not really a notebook person so I'm sure you'll get some much better things to try shortly.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834953031

 

[13thmonkey]

how do you know it is hot? and how hot is it?

 

[Mike Wazowski]

It sounds like one of the fans for your notebook has stopped working and needs to be replaced. You can also set the notebook on a Notebook cooling pad to provide additional cooling for the notebook. I'm not really a notebook person so I'm sure you'll get some much better things to try shortly.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834953031

Hi littleleo,

Actually the fan runs fine, but you can hear when the fan speeds alot faster when the laptop gets hot. And would a cooling pad affect my battery life alot? I wouldn't want to shorten the lifespan of my battery either. Thanks

 

[Mike Wazowski]

how do you know it is hot? and how hot is it?

Hello 13thmonkey,

I can feel the heat through the case of the laptop on the top left corner of the keyboard as I type. When I try picking up the laptop to move to another area, I can feel the hot air being pushed out by the fan which the air feels uncomfortable in my hands, almost feeling like steam.

 

[littleleo]

Some run off the USB ports on your labtop, some plug into the wall.

 

[dudeman509]

how do you know it is hot? and how hot is it?

Hello 13thmonkey,

I can feel the heat through the case of the laptop on the top left corner of the keyboard as I type. When I try picking up the laptop to move to another area, I can feel the hot air being pushed out by the fan which the air feels uncomfortable in my hands, almost feeling like steam.

Sounds like a normal laptop to me - they move very little air and they're designed with much higher thermal limits than desktop chips. First-gen i-series Intel CPUs ran pretty hot, but it is also at the age where it may need thermal paste re-applied.

Download a program like HWMonitor and keep an eye on CPU temps. As long as you're below 190-200F most of the time, the laptop cooler is working as it should.

 

[Mike Wazowski]

Some run off the USB ports on your labtop, some plug into the wall.

Never heard of any pads that are plugged in to the wall but it sounds like they would provide better cooling than other ones made via USB. I'll look into it for sure. Thanks a bunch

 

[Mike Wazowski]

how do you know it is hot? and how hot is it?

Hello 13thmonkey,

I can feel the heat through the case of the laptop on the top left corner of the keyboard as I type. When I try picking up the laptop to move to another area, I can feel the hot air being pushed out by the fan which the air feels uncomfortable in my hands, almost feeling like steam.

Sounds like a normal laptop to me - they move very little air and they're designed with much higher thermal limits than desktop chips. First-gen i-series Intel CPUs ran pretty hot, but it is also at the age where it may need thermal paste re-applied.

Download a program like HWMonitor and keep an eye on CPU temps. As long as you're below 190-200F most of the time, the laptop cooler is working as it should.

Hello dudeman509,

I reapplied some new thermal paste and it actually brought the heat down a little bit. Its not cool air coming out of the air vent, but the heat is now tolerable. Thanks for the reminder. and i'll be sure to look into that temperature monitoring program you told me. Thanks a bunch

 

[13thmonkey]

if it was cool air then it's not cooling anything, i.e. the heat is trapped in the CPU, it's meant to be hot air that's how you know it's working.

 

[Mike Wazowski]

if it was cool air then it's not cooling anything, i.e. the heat is trapped in the CPU, it's meant to be hot air that's how you know it's working.

Hi 13thmonkey,

Yeah I know, just thought it would be nice to get it as cool as possible. Thanks for the help!