Help my laptop chill out!

April 15, 2008 2:43 PM

My widescreen HP laptop has a cooling problem. But most commercial USB cooling pads don't seem to be the right size to fit my machine, and I'm wondering if they'll still work OK if my laptop hangs over the edge.

I have a DV 9000, which I purchased a year and a half ago, and the cooling fan started to get cranky after I had the machine on my lap or a cookie tray one too many times. The laptop measures 15 1/2 by 11 1/4. This cooling pad from Vizo looks pretty nifty, but I'd rather not pay $43 for it. Most the cooling pads for smaller laptops are in the $10 to $25 range. I am aware there are a lot of products out there and I've done a few hours worth of searching for them; I'd really like to hear which models are worth having and what the noise level is.

posted by Happydaz to computers & internet (6 comments total)

I use the Coolpad, and have used just about every size of laptop on it with no trouble. It works great and no plugging anything in or noise. Plus it's height adjustable.
posted by mphuie at 3:02 PM on April 15, 2008

Feel around under your laptop and see where it's getting hot. As long as that area is near a far (not necessarily directly over it, just near) then you're still getting your money's worth.

If you want a cheap solution, my laptop's back feet are propped up on a length of 1x2. No fan, but just allowing air to circulate passively makes a noticeable difference. Might be worth a try before you spend money.
posted by echo target at 3:37 PM on April 15, 2008

Get a can of air and blow out the dust. Get the internal fan fixed. The computer will cook itself without it.

Laptop cooling pads are a waste of time, and can potentially have the opposite of their intended effect- if the computer is trying to suck in air at the same time the cooling pad is sucking air in the opposite direction, you've got no flow.
posted by gjc at 8:15 PM on April 15, 2008

I have to agree with gjc. There is no substitute for a working cooling fan. If you like your computer, get it fixed. In the meantime, do frequent backups.
posted by SPrintF at 8:39 PM on April 15, 2008

If your car was overheating, would you just strap an extra fan to it? Your laptop has been designed to keep itself cool, and if it isn't doing that anymore something is broken and should be fixed. Most likely the fan and ducts are clogged with lint/animal hair; a simple cleaning should do the trick.
posted by bizwank at 8:49 PM on April 15, 2008

I had the same problem but I decided to bite the bullet and buy a cooler designed for the more modest laptop. It works brilliantly, and it also raises the laptop in such a way that typing feels a lot easier.

If you're still not sure, look on the underside of your laptop to see where the main fans are. If you want to be totally sure, you could measure the distance between them (from their outer edges) and see if this is less than the length of the coolers you were looking at.
posted by jhighmore at 5:28 AM on April 16, 2008