Overheating Laptop

[chin85]

Hi, the fan on my laptop has stopped turning itself on apart for a brief second when the computer boots up, which is making it overheat and switch itself off. Up until recently the fan was on almost constantly. It's a one year old Acer Aspire 5051AWXMi. What do I need to do to fix this? My warrantee ran out last month. Thanks.

[Ethel]

Buy a tin of compressed air - pcworld and computer shops sell it.

Read your manual - there is one on your hard drive - and clean the fan.

[ChuckFickens]

just to add to Ethel's good advice, when you get it only use the the compressed air in short blasts, otherwise condensation will build up and laptops really don't like that.

[ACtheTROLL]

here we go

agree in principle ... the fan needs cleaning ...
but unlike with a desktop ... when this is an absolute no no

because a laptop is a sealed box ... you don't want to be blowing fluff deeper into the works.

use a vacuum cleaner and suck it out.
the static threat that is present in a desktop isn't a problem because the nozzle can't get close enough to the components.

[axeman3254]

i placed my laptop on a upturned, wire-mesh, cutlery tray. This gave an unrestricted air-flow, try it it works for me, cleaning helps too