Laptop Heat Issues

[Mr. Tastix]

My laptop as of late has been getting really hot. Too hot (or at least it feels like that). I've actually had to have 3 hard-drive replacements on it because of heating problems which would then fry the HDD.

I've only just got it repaired around the 12th of January and now it's playing up again. It never got this hot, even when my HDD's were failing it didn't. When it's idling I get around 44-49 degrees (Celsius). But as soon as I open a program (most notably: iTunes and even Windows Media Player, not all at once of course) it goes up to around 49-50C.

The highest I've seen was one of my cores at a temperate of 74C (while I was installing drivers, possibly because I hate iTunes running?), which to me, is pretty damn hot.

All that runs when I start up is AVG Free, Comodo Firewall, some program called "Intel User Interface". I had iTunes, Ad-Watch (this was associated with Ad-Aware but I uninstalled it), QuickTime, Windows Defender, Java, AI RoboForm and a Adobe CS4 Service also starting up (just unticked these in msconfig, don't even know why some of these were running).

Also turned off some (non-Microsoft) startup services. Will reboot in just a moment to test these (I use SpeedFan to find out my HDD, Motherboard and CPU temperatures). To me, getting beyond 50C is pretty hot. Regardless if my laptop can handle it (I don't know if it can handle it well though). What I'm running is a Compaq Presario C719TU, latest drivers installed.

What I'm looking for is advice on how to cool this thing down for as cheap as possible. When PayPal finally puts my money into my bank account I plan on buying one of these Cooling Pads (unless anyone knows of better?) and I will also be getting a can (maybe a few) of compressed air to clean out the fans.

As of now, both of those things aren't possible because of funds, simply put, I don't have them at this time. So if anyone can help me for as little as possible then that'd be appreciated. Thanks.

As of writing this my HDD's temperature is 42C, Motherboard is 55C, Core 0 is 50C and Core 2 is 53C.

[Mr. Tastix]

Also, does anyone know any FAIRLY half-decent CPU temperature monitors? Seriously, this one can't be right. 70-80 degrees celsius (158-176 fahrenheit) and it's still running? Sure, it feels really warm to the touch but that can't be right.

Considering this and one guy got a report of 104C, lol. I find this things accuracy to be a little... off? Unless it has some crappy offset on it.

[Dae]

Also, does anyone know any FAIRLY half-decent CPU temperature monitors? Seriously, this one can't be right. 70-80 degrees celsius (158-176 fahrenheit) and it's still running?

Half-decent is about 45 degrees Celsium.

How old is your laptop and what label/model?

[Professor Layton]

Seriously, this one can't be right. 70-80 degrees celsius (158-176 fahrenheit) and it's still running?

My previous computer didn't shut down until it reached 90-100 degrees..

What program did you use to monitor the temperatures?

[Mr. Tastix]

I've used SpeedFan to monitor my temperatures. Going to try out Everest as well. My laptop is a Compaq Presario C719TU, got it about 2 years ago.

What I find odd is when I installed the Windows 7 Beta to try out my laptop's been working quite well (I like Windows 7 so far, overall) and since installing it my laptop has only really seem hot to the touch when I'm playing World of Warcraft (but sometimes I also have WMP/iTunes, MSN and Firefox running, which would increase CPU usage therefore also increasing heat).

[Allan]

I had a similar problem with my old Qosmio, which due to lack of a charger, is being used as a make-shift writing board at present...

It'd get to about 92C playing anything like NFS-Most Wanted and GTA San Andreas for extended time, but would randomly fry itself for no reason at all at 100C just on the desktop. (NOTE: Never buy a Qosmio G20-110 if you intend to not suffer 3rd degree burns on your lap. Though the keyboard is always nice and warm to the touch)

too long; didn't read - Try cleaning your laptop vents, then seeing if you can route extra power to your fans, even if by something like an AA battery. Then try SpeedFan again.

[Mr. Tastix]

I haven't actually tried using SpeedFan since I installed Windows 7 then Windows XP Pro. It's definitely not as hot as it was, that's for sure.

I am thinking about buying this cooling pad however, (which is this).

[~[ß]Lost~]

Core Temp is good for monitoring your CPU temperatures...

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

[~[ß]Lost~]

Also, does anyone know any FAIRLY half-decent CPU temperature monitors? Seriously, this one can't be right. 70-80 degrees celsius (158-176 fahrenheit) and it's still running?

Half-decent is about 45 degrees Celsium.

How old is your laptop and what label/model?

If my graphics card wasn't a fucking sauna, my temperatures would be @ 34-36

[Fatman]

Well about a year ago i had to replace my compaq v2000s fan, mostly full of cat hair... but now its running kind of warm, at 75 C. and i just finished playing like 10 min of DX, and when the fan was failing at 100c it would turn it self off. after normal use, it runs at like 60-70 c, and it dose feel warm, but i have never had issues with the hard drive being warm. I use PC wizard for temps, also my Hard drive is on the other side of the case to the CPU.