desktop internet and laptop cooling

[Thunderwolf]

i have 2 issues right now that i could do with some advice on.

 

 

first and most important is the laptop i'm running atm is getting far too hot (about 70c), even hotter if i start watching youtube video or something, its not actually mine so i don't want to fry it (which is what killed the cpu in my old lappy)

 

and advice on keeping it cool? i'm going to clean out the fan (which won't turn off) to help air flow, and its sitting on a hard surface atm, any thoughts? are them fan board things to can sit them on actually anygood?

 

 

 

2nd problem is my desktop, can you get wireless adapters for them? used to be wired but thats no longer an option to me due to the rought being on the ground floor at the front of the house and my room being on the third floor at the back, so need to be fairly decent.

 

any links to some, don't want to be paying an arm and a leg for one though, just enough to get it online and able to upload and download videos from youtube and the likes.

 

thanks for the help lads

[Madmini]

Cooling trays IMO are pointless.

USB wireless dongle is what you want. Millions to choose from easy to use...

[Thunderwolf]

Cooling trays IMO are pointless.

USB wireless dongle is what you want. Millions to choose from easy to use...

 

why you think that?

 

 

any idea which ones are decent?

[Madmini]

Never seen a temp drop of any note with any cooling tray (and I tried a fair few) at most 1 or 2 degrees.

Can't recomend any single product as I haven't used one in many years. But go for a names brand and you won't go far wrong I tend to use netgear stuff for unmanaged switches and haven't had one fail....

[Stoka]

Agreed, cooling trays are a waste of money. I tried a few different ones too and noticed no improvement on temps. Open it up regularly and keep it free of any dust.

[Trophy]

Cooling trays are useless as they block the airflow direction, fans are designed to blow the air out, trays keep it in and add more air. I am still shocked they are allowed to sell them with trading standards.

 

If the fan is staying full throttle then you have one of two issues, either the heatsink/fan is covered in dust and is blocked or the thermal paste on the processor has dried out, More than likely the first though.

 

This is an easy fix, take it to your local petrol station, go to the air pumps, put the nozzle right against any vents you see on the lappy and blast it with air, if a massive plume of dust blast out like an exploding bomb then you have cleared the blockage. If the lappy has small backplates then take them all off as well to be able to blast the air into any tiny hole you can find. to do all this will take about 3-4 mins.

 

as for the lappy overheating and getting fried, that wont happen, all motherboards on any computer have a built in fail-safe for overheating, if it gets to a critical temp the lappy will auto shut off and will refuse to turn on until it has cooled, this wont kill the laptop but it can do software damage if the lappy turns off mid program, that is rare but it can happen.

 

RE : Wifi for desktop, yes you can get a USB dongle but I would not recommend one due to their length, the way to go in a desktop would be to use a "wifi PCIe card" (ask in any shop that sells PC accessories, cheap as chips at about 10-15 quid max, don't pay more than that.) . Fitting the card is a piece of cake, take the side panel off the tower and you will see several long slots which are white, slide the card into any of those slots, unimportant which one although the top one is preferred due to the aerial that will be protruding out of the back.

 

If you need any further advice then I will be glad to help, this is the first problem on the forum I have the experience to be able to help as I am a computer repair engineer that works from removing viruses to complete custom gaming machines. if you have any RC problems then don't come to me..lol

[Thunderwolf]

Cooling trays are useless as they block the airflow direction, fans are designed to blow the air out, trays keep it in and add more air. I am still shocked they are allowed to sell them with trading standards.

 

If the fan is staying full throttle then you have one of two issues, either the heatsink/fan is covered in dust and is blocked or the thermal paste on the processor has dried out, More than likely the first though.

 

This is an easy fix, take it to your local petrol station, go to the air pumps, put the nozzle right against any vents you see on the lappy and blast it with air, if a massive plume of dust blast out like an exploding bomb then you have cleared the blockage. If the lappy has small backplates then take them all off as well to be able to blast the air into any tiny hole you can find. to do all this will take about 3-4 mins.

 

as for the lappy overheating and getting fried, that wont happen, all motherboards on any computer have a built in fail-safe for overheating, if it gets to a critical temp the lappy will auto shut off and will refuse to turn on until it has cooled, this wont kill the laptop but it can do software damage if the lappy turns off mid program, that is rare but it can happen.

 

RE : Wifi for desktop, yes you can get a USB dongle but I would not recommend one due to their length, the way to go in a desktop would be to use a "wifi PCIe card" (ask in any shop that sells PC accessories, cheap as chips at about 10-15 quid max, don't pay more than that.) . Fitting the card is a piece of cake, take the side panel off the tower and you will see several long slots which are white, slide the card into any of those slots, unimportant which one although the top one is preferred due to the aerial that will be protruding out of the back.

 

If you need any further advice then I will be glad to help, this is the first problem on the forum I have the experience to be able to help as I am a computer repair engineer that works from removing viruses to complete custom gaming machines. if you have any RC problems then don't come to me..lol

 

 

thanks for the advice, im no stranger to putting bits in a pc though

 

 

this mother board doesn't have a pci-e slot, just normal pci slots (it fairly old)

 

 

 

 

as you repair them, i'll send you a pm regarding fixing my other laptop.

[Trophy]

you can get PCI wifi cards as well.

 

clicky click, 12 quid on ebay

[david-6]

As above, the cooling trays for laptops are pretty useless. I have a Compaq laptop, and I can get the CPU to 75-80c without much load.

 

For the dongle, I have one of these:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-WN821N-300Mbps-Wireless-Adapter/dp/B00194XKXA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1407838308&sr=8-2&keywords=tp+link+usb

 

I've had it for over a year so far, and hasn't once lost connection. I use my PC for gaming and youtube etc, which i know uses a fair bit of bandwidth.

 

Also, my router's range is a bit crap, so I bought a 5m USB extension lead so I can have the USB adapter closer to it. Plus it's much easier to fit

 

HTH

Dave

Edited August 12, 2014 by david-6