Overheating

[sglazier]

My friend's laptop overheats a lot and shuts down. What could be the cause of this?

Could it be the fans need cleaning?

thanks

[mikeyp]

Could be. More likely is that he's accidently covering the fan intake. For example, my laptop draws air in from the underneath. This means that if I place it on my lap, and am not careful to keep the fan uncovered, it'll last about 15 minutes before shutting down. Make sure he uses it on a flat surface. This may not help but is worth a shot.

[sglazier]

Thanks, but he has confirmed he isn't blocking the intake.

[moon_unit]

I had a similar problem where my laptop was brand new but would shut down after 10minutes or so. I thought it was due to overheating but when I sent it to the manufacturer to be repaired it turned out they had to replace the motherboard.

[d0gsb0dy]

Is the fan actually working? Also, using a laptop on your lap is not recommended. Check the CPU usage, and the temperature after it has been running a while. CPU usage should normally be between zero and fifteen percent, although mine runs a little higher on my laptop.

[mikeyp]

Continuing from what dogsbody said, in the case of my laptop. It has two fans, one that's on all the time, and one that only comes on when real cooling is needed. Like during a game. Maybe that one isn't working? The computer would still sound reasonably normal, since the other one would still be on?