Easy, Cheap, Effective Laptop Cooling?

cloudofstrife asks: "I happen to own a laptop that happens to have overheating problems. Frequently during games, the processor will overheat, and the frame rate will drop from over 30 frames per second to under 2 frames per second. Is there a cheap and easy way to prevent my CPU from overheating?"

Comments

pink erasers

[entropi]

Four of those little pink erasers (the ones shaped like a parallelogram) under the four courners of the laptop does a suprisinglly great job. It cut my cpu fan usage down by a good 80-90% for day to day usage.

If erasers are unavailable or you want less traction, mini-post it note pads work great as well. They may be preferred if you want to be able to slide the laptop out of the way when you're not using it.

DIY Feet

[durandal61]

This probably will not solve your issue, but it's kind of neat, so I'll mention it anyway.

You need:

• One glue gun.
• Several glue sticks.
• One small (a bit over 5cc) syringe.
• Saliva or some other water-based lubricant (you do have some, I presume?). Glycerine might also work.
• Various small items that you'll gather as you go.
• Sharp knife.

Take your syringe and cut it in half. My memory is a bit patchy about this bit, I did it a long time ago. 2 to 2.5 cm should be long enough (from the tip). Lubricate the inside of the tube. Again, I can't remember what I lubricated it with, but saliva works well, particularly when it comes to smoothing down imperfections in the glue while it is still hot. Fill the 2 cm of tube. Allow it to cool and pull out the glue plug. Repeat four or 5 times. Cut these cylinders down to size, 1 or 1.5 cm should do it. If for some reason they are not all the same height, instead of hacking away until there's nothing left, take a vice and place them all in it, and tighten slightly. Apply a hairdryer to the whole thing until the glue has adopted it's new shape. Allow to cool and remove the glue feet.

You're done. You now have small, rubbery, cheap feet for your laptop. They will even stick ever so slightly to case if it's warm, convenient if you want to pick it up briefly.

I carry these little feet in my laptop bag, and they help reduce the procesor temp. You don't have to use all four, you can just prop up the back and it will help.

Hope someone finds this useful.

Paul