Want to run Folding@Home on a laptop?

[Razgriz]

Can I do it, without risking hardware failure? I don't really have any money for a laptop cooler at this point in time. I've run Folding@Home before so I'm not completely new to folding. This laptop is a dual-core AMD Turion, would running the regular client be better than the SMP client in terms of heat, etc? Thanks, just wanting to make a contribution to folding again by putting this dual core machine to work! 🙂

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: Razgriz
Can I do it, without risking hardware failure? I don't really have any money for a laptop cooler at this point in time. I've run Folding@Home before so I'm not completely new to folding. This laptop is a dual-core AMD Turion, would running the regular client be better than the SMP client in terms of heat, etc? Thanks, just wanting to make a contribution to folding again by putting this dual core machine to work! 🙂

Welcome Razgriz 🙂

I ran F@H pretty much 24/7 for 3 years straight on an older Dell laptop P3 @ 1.0.

I kept it flat on a hard surface without anything around it so it could get all the air it wanted. I also would blow out the fans every so often.

 

[bryanW1995]

what kind of noise did your fan make while running f@h? I've run seti@home a few times on my wife's laptop, but every time she gets mad b/c the fan gets so loud.

 

[legoman666]

My R61 thinkpad has been crunching SMP WU's 24/7 for the past 4 months without a problem. Earns ~1100 PPD. I can't hear the fan.

 

[bryanW1995]

sounds like I need to clean her cpu fan... it's only been 3 years...

that's good to hear btw, I've got a turion x2 TL-56 dell on the way. Sounds like that unit is going to have something to do in its spare time...

 

[Razgriz]

Oh well, I'm going to give it a test run for a few days, I don't run this laptop 24/7 but I do keep it on for most of the day. Thanks all!

 

[Uppsala9496]

I've been running it on a pentium mobile 1.6 for the past 3 years. No issues.
I do shut down the F@H client for a few days every other month, just to give the machine a chance to cool down a little.
With the weather getting warmer out, I think I'll give the machine a break for a month or two. I have enough other machines where the ppd output is minimal.

 

[Neurodog]

I've killed my batteries running DC on my laptops.

2 1/2 year old Dell Inspiron 9300 (battery will only last 5 minutes)
3 year old IBM Thinkpad x31(battery will now only last 5-10 minutes)

If you decide to run it anyways, I would recommend removing the battery.

 

[Assimilator1]

Was it plugged into the charger all the time?

Originally posted by: Razgriz
Oh well, I'm going to give it a test run for a few days, I don't run this laptop 24/7 but I do keep it on for most of the day. Thanks all!

You could install some temperature monitoring software to watch temps, speedfan &/or Coretemp.

 

[jonesthewine]

Originally posted by: Neurodog
I've killed my batteries running DC on my laptops.

2 1/2 year old Dell Inspiron 9300 (battery will only last 5 minutes)
3 year old IBM Thinkpad x31(battery will now only last 5-10 minutes)

If you decide to run it anyways, I would recommend removing the battery.

Li-ion batteries have around 2 years worth of charge/discharge cycling, I 've found. Just had to purchase new batteries for my XPS M1210 after 20 months of using the batteries.