Laptop cooling pad provides too much air?!

[Xist]

Soldiers only report problems trying to do SSD1. I did not finish it until 2030, got a haircut, ate dinner, came home, packed, and since I had just been told to complete Accident Avoidance yesterday, I stayed up until midnight doing that, so I only slept a couple of house, because of Accident Avoidance training.

Now that's what you'd call ironic.

[Xist]

I slept 2.75 hours before reporting to drill. Due to the lack of time and sleep, I left my cell phone charger as well as my driver's license in the car, and to my great surprise, we rode a charter bus four hours to Fort Huachuca. After spending three days doing little more than try to prepare for drill, we worked sixty hours in four days, and I did not have a full night's sleep until I came home.

I keep telling people about the "too much air idea," I brought my laptop to three more stores and two guys at each said the concept was absurd. A guy at the second place suggested doing a hard drive test through CMOS, but my HP hides the bootup behind a splash screen, I tried hitting F2, F8, and Del, but it just loaded Windows.

Dad always bought HP, so Mom knew Staples was an authorized repair center, but the guy there said that every manufacturer gave them problems, they would send in, the products would be gone for months, and then they would say they did not cover whatever it was. It sounded like if the warranty ran out, the customer was out of luck, even if they sent it in in-time. He ran a PC-Doctor hard drive test, which came back without errors. I installed BurnInTest 7.1 and it did not show any errors. I ran it a second time, moving the computer, and then a third time, in my lap, constantly moving my legs, and nothing!

Does it make a difference that I have not used it in two weeks?

[Cobb]

MS releases updates every Tuesday, so its likely the recent update fixed your problems.

[Arragonis]

My best guess would be that the cooling system in your lappy is clogged which can cause your system and wifi to go slow - the PC internals detect when they are getting hot and "pause" to prevent damage.

My boss had a 2004 Sony Vaio laptop and the fan would go all the time. He finally relented and took it apart, removed 10 years of dust from the fans and they stayed quiet all the time after that.

I did the same on my Dell XPS M1530 when the fan stuck on - and I live in very clean house (I have Asthma as does A-Junior so it is cleaned regularly). The cooling system consisted of copper pipes and a fan but the intake to the fan was blocked - cleaning from the inside fixed it (and removed a giant dust bunny) plus replacing the thermal paste which I disturbed removing it. Totally silent fans too.

This is the cooling on a M1530.



I also have an SSD. Mine is about 3 years old and no problems at all - and I stress it with Virtual Machines and Database work, it is in the PC I'm typing this fr... Heat can kill them though, so a cleanout might be beneficial.

If you post the model I can see if there is a dismantle / reassemble tutorial - there is for most models including Mrs A's old crappy HP "salesman" laptop which I wish I hadn't fixed.

EDIT - your recent reprieve might be just that - maybe the dust got dislodged but it will be back.

[Cobb]

Yeah, its likely all that smoke, dust, nictoine, mites, dust bunnies, crumbs and who knows what else.

Also your thermal paste can dry out causing a bad contact with the heat sink, cooling tubes, etc from working properly. I know cause I have a optiplex 280 with a pentinum pro 4 flame thrower that uses a blower due to its low profile. It sounds like a 777 roaring over head at full speed.

Inaddition to being clogged with nicotine, resin, bong juice,etc the thermal paste had dried out. I used some white lithium grease and reseated the heat sink. Now I cant hear it.

[Xist]

For what it is worth, none of my computers should have been exposed to any form of smoke. Everybody says the "manager" of the computer repair place was stupid, but none of the other computer repair people responded directly to the original suggestion, that the hard drive moved its read heads in anticipation of a crash.

Whenever I get a new computer, I go through the stuff installed on it, and get rid of the junk, especially anything that automatically runs, although I worry less about programs from the operating system or hardware manufacturers. I have HP 3D Driveguard on my task bar, but double-clicking does not do anything, right-clicking gives me two options, About and Information, which do not really tell me anything. Doing a Windows search just shows results on the web, not any installed programs, nor could I find it under Task Manager. It seems useful, I just want to make it less sensitive!

However, that is eclipsed by my touch screen going crazy, apparently in honor of the original one, which cracked from corner to corner. This one does not show any damage, but I will put it to sleep and find it awake and playing with itself, acting like I am rapidly tapping the same spot with two fingers. I could not make it shut down, just put it to sleep by holding the power button.

Obviously, that power button only has one job, and fails.

I use Dad's laptop more, it is an HP, but does not have Driveguard, so it works fine. However, whenever it boots up, it insists that it needs to shut down because the fan is malfunctioning.

My laptop cooling pad must have burned it out, with too much air!

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Xist

...none of the other computer repair people responded directly to the original suggestion, that the hard drive moved its read heads in anticipation of a crash.

Maybe because it's likely that the hard drive was actually powered off at the time. Unless you're running a program that does a lot of disk I/O, the OS typically reads the program into memory, then shuts off the hard drive to save power.

Obviously, that power button only has one job, and fails.

Shut it down with the shutdown command - I'm not sure of the Windoze equivalent, but I think it's on the "Start Menu". That makes sure everything in memory is properly saved to disk &c.

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by Xist

For what it is worth, none of my computers should have been exposed to any form of smoke.

As I tapped above, I have asthma and live in a "super clean" house. It didn't prevent the dust bunnies forming - remember static (like moving parts, e.g. fans) attracts dust you can't see. Don't assume until you have checked inside.

Originally Posted by Xist

Obviously, that power button only has one job, and fails.

Press it continuously for 10 seconds, it will turn off fully - this is a hardware thing and nothing to do with the OS. Ignore what is on the screen, hold the beggar down and wait for the click.

Be brave son, take a deep breath and keep pressing...

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Maybe because it's likely that the hard drive was actually powered off at the time. Unless you're running a program that does a lot of disk I/O, the OS typically reads the program into memory, then shuts off the hard drive to save power.

In Windows this is configurable in the power settings in control panel. They are only enabled if the BIOS and drivers allow it. I generally set it to "Do Nothing" as I have an SSD and an SSD uses less power. Otherwise HDDs are left spinning probably due to swap file use of the search service running in the background - yeah that is a Windows pain.

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Shut it down with the shutdown command - I'm not sure of the Windoze equivalent, but I think it's on the "Start Menu". That makes sure everything in memory is properly saved to disk &c.

Start Menu and then click on the arrow to the right hand side of the option displayed in the lower right of the menu pane. That will display a menu - shut down will be in there.

Scarily to Linux geeks there is really a shutdown command in Windows : open a command prompt (Windows key + R, enter CMD and press enter). Then enter "Shutdown /s" and press enter.

Shutdown /r

for a reboot.

It may moan about needing to be run as Administrator (yeah Windows is so insecure...) in which case close the command window and then go to the start menu, select Accessories and right-click on command window and select "Run as Administrator" - enter

Shutdown /S

and all should be well.

Sorted ?

[Xist]

I imagine the hard drive did not show any problems when they tested it because it was motionless on their table, although I tested it for fifteen minutes while moving my legs, which only goes to prove that machines already began their uprising!

It did start freezing again after the testing. I would redo the tests, but I need to fix or disable the touchscreen, which clicks very rapidly all by itself.

Would you believe that I cannot tell it to do anything while it is doing that? I just hold down the power button until it feigns death and plots my downfall.

[Arragonis]

I agree - the machines are taking over, so you need to hide now. Flee, run for the hills...

Or

So your touch screen is knackered and thats it really ?