I hate notebooks (just a rant)

[flexy]

This is really just a rant....

Ever single Notebook we (my wife, that is) ever had had SERIOUS overheating problems.

The current one, A Packard Bell Easynote with an i5 and a HD5650, the CPU would easily go to 100C during gaming, resulting in emergency shut-offs because the CPU reaches its critical temp. (Former Toshiba was the same).

Of course we use a cooling pad etc. with a fan, the fact we live in hot Spain does NOT help either.

Any time at some point I am forced to entire open the notebook, in this case I had to remove the entire effing PCB since the thermal unit is on the underside of the PCB.

Remove thermal unit, apply new MX5 thermal paste, do routine cleaning etc. which is major PITA.

I "hate" them because to me it seems that all those "affordable laptops" which are halfway suitable for gaming are ENTIRELY unsuitable when it comes their cooling capacities....as opposed to desktops. They have inky-dinky heatsinks and weak fans which are BARELY able to disperse the heat modern CPUs or GPUs can generate. Even with everything cleaned out and then new thermal-paste on the HSF..they are still running "borderline" temps at least when benchmarking....all it takes is usually a little dust or increased temps and the problems start, eg. throttling of CPU or in worst-case scenario thermal shut-off due to overheating. I wouldn't rant if I wouldn't observe this ALL THE TIME.

 

[Hero1711]

"You pay what you get"

 

[Sheep221]

It is true for quite alot of laptops, yet most of the time the issue starts to occur when too much dust is collected on the heatsink grill. I also agree that thermal compounds pre-applied on laptop heatsinks are of poor quality compared to off-shelf syringes.

Another thing is, why you don't buy a desktop than? Modern laptops can handle games well but it's the portable form factor that is not really suitable for gaming.

 

[dma0991]

If the laptop is overheating at stock, its a sign of poor design by the manufacturer. If yours overheats does not mean that every laptop is similar. There are several brands which are badly designed. To my knowledge, Compaq laptops are notorious for overheating, and I avoid them like the plague.

Clogged vents is a common problem, which does happen to desktops as well. The only redeeming feature is to find ones that are easily cleaned. It was pretty easy to remove and clean the vents of my Acer but I had to dismantle every screw/part of a Dell M1730 just to reach its vents, clogged with condensed dust and hair, forming a barrier the density of cotton pad.

 

[flexy]

It's not even so much the vents, although that problem usually comes up later at some point. I think the HSF etc. are designed badly from the beginning, you are correct "you get what you pay", I assume. Then things like poor TIM used and also bad contact HSF/CPU..

Note: Even with me now having done an entirely new job of applying MX5 and re-assembling the thing...in OCCT the temp still reach 95C after 10 mins. It's just that the entire design/concept of a "cheap" laptop and then high performance itself is already an oxymoron..those two things go not together well.

At least I am able to stop it from throttling now, I am using "throttlestop". Those are just crazy temps for stock speeds, IMO.

 

[dma0991]

I think its down to poor design by Packard Bell. There was a time ThrottleStop was used on the Dell M1730 because it was overheating to 100C on both CPU and GPU while playing Resident Evil 5, causing either an abrupt shutdown or thermal throttling.

To make things clear, the Dell isn't mine. It belonged to a friend and it had this issue when I borrowed it and I fixed it(dismantled, remove the dust ball between the vent and fan, applied new TIM). After doing just that, temps dropped to below 60C and never went up higher. It also no longer sounded like a jet engine.

The Dell M1730 has three sets of fans and heatsinks. I doubt your Packard Bell had that many to accommodate that much heat dissipation, a clear sign of cost cutting measures and bad design.

 

[smakme7757]

I had the same problem with a few of my laptops, but I was always buying laptops with good hardware that were cheap. Obviously they were cutting costs on build quility.

my latest laptop cost me around 2500 USD and its been going strong for around 2 years. Fantastic laptop.

so I'm a strong believer that you get what you pay for I, the laptop world.

however there are some nice price laptops which are good quality. My wifes laptop is an Asus laptop which cost around 1000 USD and its fantastic for her use.

research is your best friend with laptop purchases.

*mobile post

 

[corkyg]

Packard Bell belongs to Acer. That puts them pretty far down on the food chain.

 

[Sheep221]

Packard Bell belongs to Acer. That puts them pretty far down on the food chain.

Acer went with quality very much up, I have 2x Aspire 5732Z from 2009 and they are unbeatable, still durable, fully working, batteries still usable as well, there were some minor problems with blocked vent on one and the other had broken webcam wiring, both of the problems I fixed myself and they are still working. Compared to what I previously owned, the Aspire 5003WLMI from 2006 which was really expensive and crap device.

 

[Zodiark1593]

I have an HP DV7 from 2010, and I have not had any sort of heating issues. At worst (got lazy with the cleaning for awhile) temps would max out at 91C on the cpu and 81 on the GPU, though with regular cleaning, CPU stays below 82C and GPU at about 74C.

In terms of hardware, the laptop has an i5-460M and a Radeon 5470, a bit low on the hardware side (and a lack of research on my part), but I never had an HP laptop last me so long. Obviously, I did something right. :awe:

 

[Enigmoid]

Depends really on the model. I had a dell that was horrible (98 degrees on CPU with skyrim) and now a lenovo which maxes out at ~86 degrees under sustained load with boost.

 

[Mide]

Get a Thinkpad T series and you won't have any problems at all.

 

[KentState]

Never had a problem with a laptop overheating, then again isn't Compaq the bargain bin brand?