Help please

[crabbyman]

My girlfriend has a Toshiba Satellite 2435-S255 laptop. It has a problem forever with it. It has a 2.4 Ghz P4 CPU. The lappy keeps resetting itself randomly. I think its a heat problem. I am wondering if there is any way to lower the the temps on it. I lowered all the settings on the Energy Star screen for the brightness and CPU speed.


Is it possible to replace the CPU with a slower one or a more efficient one? ...or should I just spend the extra money on a new lappy for her?


This laptop has been nothing but a pain for her.

 

[fbrdphreak]

that sounds like either a heat issue or power issue.
To test for the power issue part, I would run it on AC only without the battery in there. Then run it on AC with battery in there. Then run it on battery. If the crashing occurs in all instances, its not power. If it happens while on AC w/out batt, it might be the AC adapter or power circuity on the mainboard. If the crashing occurs w/AC & batt or just batt, it could be the battery.

In terms of heat, download the app Mobile Meter and run it; it should list CPU and HDD temps. Report back w/those. To try to lower temps, make sure the unit is propped up to allow ventilation; you can even blow a fan along the bottom of it to help circulation.

The CPU might be swappable, it depends if you can into the case. either way, its risky and probably not worth it. I would just buy a new Centrino notebook as that will offer equivalent or better performance with a lot less heat and actual usable battery.

 

[crabbyman]

I know its not power because I have ran it in the manner you have suggested.

She also has one of those ventilation things that props up the lappy to get air movement below it. Not a smart design...the fans for the CPU point straight down..so if it is sitting on your lap it chokes. Haha..its funny..she is so used to this POS that when I brought my iBook over one weekend she got all worried that mine would get too hot because I set it on the floor to charge. She was worried it would over heat like hers does all the time.

Yeah, I also told her that its a POS. ..and she doenst believe me. I also told her how bad of a design it was ..and tried to explain it to her. I am thinking of making her jump to Apple...just for the fact of viruses and spyware. I have to take care of her computer every time I am there. ...so its either iBook or cheap Centrino it looks like.

 

[crabbyman]

Oh, and thank you for your help!

Now any suggestions on a cheap Wintel?

 

[Octave]

so what of downloading mobile meter....what are your temps?...let us know if it IS over heating.
If its over heating at its lowest clock speed...then i guess its time for a new chip...or laptop...or whatever
if it ISNT over heating...well a whole lot of things could be the problem...including the chip....
personally..i have a home built PC 2500 barton that windows didnt like for a few months....would reboot randomly....pulled the sound card....and now everything works fine....
let us know

 

[crabbyman]

I will be down at her house this weekend. I will run and post it then. I know it runs hot...but it might just be me. I am used to my iBook. It would probably leave a nice rash on your lap if you were to use it as a "lap"top. Haha.. not like I can pull out the sound card on a lappy either.

 

[eriqesque]

This may sound stupid. And you may have already done it.
But what is the dust level in the machine? If you can open it up and give it some
good blasts with some compressed air. It could just be that the fans are really dusty.

 

[fbrdphreak]

That is a good idea, but make sure you stick a thin straw or something small through the vents to stop the fans from spinning. If the fans are remotely recent you will easily burn out the motors by spinning them too fast.

Let us know about the Toshiba's temps

In regards to a cheap Windows notebook, checkout the HP dv1000. it is a 14" widescreen Centrino and gets 6-8 hours of batt life w/the 12-cell. You can read an in-depth review on it at the website in my sig. Looking for something like that? If not, let us know
GL!

 

[crabbyman]

I tried MobileMeter last night. It says it cannot read the temps because its not ACPI(?) enabled. Then it mentioned something about desktops being not ACPI enabled and only laptops. I am wondering if it just a really small desktop mobo made to fit a laptop case. Haha...I do know the HDD is about 36 degrees Celsius..

Also look more into the cooling design...2 fans on the bottom suck up air and push it out one vent in the back. First off...stupid move to put the fans on the bottom to pull air up into the machine.. and the temps coming out of back of the vent from the processor on idle was hotter than my iBook has ever gotten under hours of 100% cpu usage on its highest setting.. Sheesh!