Laptop Cooling Stands

SlasherIT said:

Even though it goes on the laptop, it shouldn't heat up much really. Could you tell me the laptop model and make?

Slasher, it's a Compac Presario CQ70. I DL'd SIW and the temps are all within the normal range.

SIW? Never heard of that program before. Can you try checking your temperature with HWMonitor CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting and posting the results you are getting when:

a) Laptop is on desk.
b) Laptop is on lap.

Btw, can you flip the laptop face down and take a picture of the rear and attach it so that I my figure out how you may go about cleaning the fan/heatsink.

One of my HP laptops overheated from day1 - so there was nothing to clean. I ran it for a year with a coolpad which lowered the temp by appr. 5C. Then I replaced the HDD with an SSD which finally fixed the problem.

Well of course it depends on the laptop, but his laptop seems to be 2-3 years old, therefore it must have plenty of dust to be cleaned. Besides, some OEM's do a pretty bad job of applying thermal paste to the laptop, which is bad for the laptop in general, so manually removing and replacing the thermal paste is recommended. Switching a HDD for a SSD is a very good idea but is quite costly and not everyone can do the switch, not to the amount of GB they would want in their drives anyway.

Slasher, here's the SIW program. I've been using it for years along with HWMonitor, CPUID, etc... I trust it. Good basic program.

This is a screenshot of the laptop on the desk soon after idle:

Here's the pics you requested:


Here's a snip after use still sitting on desk. Not gaming, but general surfing, etc...


Here's the temps while sitting on a towel for 1/2 hour:

whs said:

One of my HP laptops overheated from day1 - so there was nothing to clean. I ran it for a year with a coolpad which lowered the temp by appr. 5C. Then I replaced the HDD with an SSD which finally fixed the problem.

I don't think the laptop is overheating. Just too hot to sit on Patty's lap for a long period of time. She lets it hang over her left leg to keep from blocking the screens. I'd love to throw an SSD in there.

linnemeyerhere said:

Beau,
Then this is the baby for your wife. This little bad boy is just flat out awesome.
Logitech - Lapdesk N700 with Speakers

Thanks Alan and everyone else! :)

I bought her one of these from Newegg. Free shipping and $64.99. I'll just return it if she doesn't like it.

Slasher, I'm still interested in your thoughts (and anyone else's) on the temps and opening this thing up. I have some Arctic Silver and I'll put new on the CPU if I can.

WartHog said:

whs said:

One of my HP laptops overheated from day1 - so there was nothing to clean. I ran it for a year with a coolpad which lowered the temp by appr. 5C. Then I replaced the HDD with an SSD which finally fixed the problem.

I don't think the laptop is overheating. Just too hot to sit on Patty's lap for a long period of time. She lets it hang over her left leg to keep from blocking the screens. I'd love to throw an SSD in there.

LOL, although it is called a "laptop", you should not really use it in your lap without a solid surface under it. A better suggestion for that kind of usage would be a tablet - e.g. a RiM Playbook (my preference) or a Motorola Xoom. They produce quasi no heat at all.

The switch to the SSD cost me appr. $100 for an OCZ Vertex2 and I had an enclosure lying around into which I stuck the HDD for external storage. But USB2 enclosures are cheap anyhow.

@whs, Ya $100... for 60GB. To me its just not worth my $100 for just 60GB of disk space, even though it is way faster and doesn't produce heat.

Well, your temperatures are actually really good for a laptop, my laptop idles at 50 C, gonna fix it soon, but this HP is very complex in the insides (have to disassemble EVERYTHING from the laptop to get into the heatsink ).

Ok, I finally managed to find a tutorial (consists of 4 vids) to disassemble your laptop (in the tutorial, its a CQ60, but its really similar to the CQ70, so it should be ok).

Watch the videos, then go ahead and clean the fans/heatsink and then if you want go ahead and place Arctic Silver on the CPU. :). Good luck.

Here is the tutorial:

YouTube - ‪Part 1 of 4 How to take apart/disassemble a Compaq presario CQ60 laptop‬‏
YouTube - ‪Part 2 of 4 How to take aprat/disassemble Compaq presario CQ60 laptop‬‏
YouTube - ‪Part 3 of 4 How to take off your Compaq presario CQ 60 monitor, and remove the keyboard.‬‏
YouTube - ‪Part 4 of 4 How to take aprat/disassemble Compaq presario CQ laptop full take down.‬‏

whs said:

WartHog said:

whs said:

One of my HP laptops overheated from day1 - so there was nothing to clean. I ran it for a year with a coolpad which lowered the temp by appr. 5C. Then I replaced the HDD with an SSD which finally fixed the problem.

I don't think the laptop is overheating. Just too hot to sit on Patty's lap for a long period of time. She lets it hang over her left leg to keep from blocking the screens. I'd love to throw an SSD in there.

LOL, although it is called a "laptop", you should not really use it in your lap without a solid surface under it. A better suggestion for that kind of usage would be a tablet - e.g. a RiM Playbook (my preference) or a Motorola Xoom. They produce quasi no heat at all.


The switch to the SSD cost me appr. $100 for an OCZ Vertex2 and I had an enclosure lying around into which I stuck the HDD for external storage. But USB2 enclosures are cheap anyhow.

whs, $100 for an SSD is a great price. However, since zi just spent $65 don't think I'll be spending the $100 any time soon.

SlasherIT said:

@whs, Ya $100... for 60GB. To me its just not worth my $100 for just 60GB of disk space, even though it is way faster and doesn't produce heat.

Well, your temperatures are actually really good for a laptop, my laptop idles at 50 C, gonna fix it soon, but this HP is very complex in the insides (have to disassemble EVERYTHING from the laptop to get into the heatsink ).

Ok, I finally managed to find a tutorial (consists of 4 vids) to disassemble your laptop (in the tutorial, its a CQ60, but its really similar to the CQ70, so it should be ok).

Watch the videos, then go ahead and clean the fans/heatsink and then if you want go ahead and place Arctic Silver on the CPU. :). Good luck.

Here is the tutorial:

YouTube - ‪Part 1 of 4 How to take apart/disassemble a Compaq presario CQ60 laptop‬‏
YouTube - ‪Part 2 of 4 How to take aprat/disassemble Compaq presario CQ60 laptop‬‏
YouTube - ‪Part 3 of 4 How to take off your Compaq presario CQ 60 monitor, and remove the keyboard.‬‏
YouTube - ‪Part 4 of 4 How to take aprat/disassemble Compaq presario CQ laptop full take down.‬‏

WOW Slasher!!!! You sure spent some time doing this research. Thank you very much!