Laptop running too hot? CPU not running full speed? READ HERE!

[pugsley1218]

Is your laptop running too hot? is the bottom extremely hot to the touch and you wish to make it cooler? Have problems with the CPU not running at full speed all the time when you want it to? Read on.


Notebook Hardware Control
www.pbus-167.com/

NHC is a great program which will allow you to undervolt your cpu in order to make it run a lot cooler. I lowered my temps by over 20c. If you aren't sure on exactly what you are doing when it comes to undervolting, post questions here. This program also has an option of running your laptop in max performance mode, to ensure there will be no CPU throttling.

I8KFanGui (Dell)
http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html

This program will allow you to adjust the fan speeds of your Dell laptop. If you're like me and don't care about the noise, you can set it to run all the fans at max speed all of the time, and keep your laptop much cooler.



RMClock
http://cpu.rightmark.org/download/rmclock_225_bin.rar

Very useful program that will allow you to see the "Real" speed your cpu is running at whenever you want. Also shows cpu temps, multiplier settings, and cpu voltage.

This program also allows you to turn off the thermal throttling features on your CPU.


CLEAN OUT YOUR LAPTOP!
Take your laptop apart, and keyboard off, and use a can of compressed air, or an air compressor and blow out the inside of the laptop. Also blow out every vent hole on the laptop. This lowered my ambient temps by over 20c.


Laptop Cooling Pads
You can find many laptop cooling pads, usually under $30. These can make the bottom of your laptop a lot cooler, and generally reduce your temps by about 5-15c.




My final result was going from a cpu that ran 75c at fulll load, to now running 42c at full load. My ambient temps went from 65c to 40c, and my graphics card temps went from 80-90c full load to never over the low 70s. This is on an XPS M1710. I can play games for hours now, and the bottom of my laptop doesn't even feel warm!

Feel free to add to this topic, if you have any other ways to make your laptop run cooler.

 

[Hypernova]

"Notebook Hardware Control"

Does it work on P4 CPU's, from the site it looks like it's for Centrinos only

 

[pugsley1218]

"Notebook Hardware Control"

Does it work on P4 CPU's, from the site it looks like it's for Centrinos only

I think it should. Not positive though. Worth trying though.

 

[444]

NHC is Pentium M/Core Duo only, for undervolting (the other features work but I don't care about them). P4's don't support the fine-grained SpeedStep they have. With AMDs you have to use RMClock. On cleaning, the most important think is the heatsink if you can reach it. They sometimes have a thick layer of dust inside that can't be blown out from the outside vents.