Second Fan on Laptop

Hi,
My laptop has a reputation for thermal shutdowns because of bad heat flow design. My CPU temps reach 85-90 C and GPU temps ~ 85 C. I've tried quite a few things : Cleaning the fan,reapplying thermal paste [not Arctic Silver though], software hacks etc. I want to install a second fan in place of my DVD drive. It's just lying there anyway! Will this help? How would I go about this? Any compatible fans of the size? I've opened my laptop a few times but I didn't really look at whether the DVD drive is continuous with the open space inside. My laptop is a K55VM-SX086D

Can't really comment on the extra fan. Trying it may help.

That laptop does not seem to have any Windows 8.1 drivers. ASUS seems to be backward in this area since many of their systems are still being sold with Windows 8 installed. The fact there are no 8.1 drivers might mean the 8.1 included drivers may work, but may not work as well as one designed for your system. One of the drivers for the Windows 8 was an ATKACPI driver which states if upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8, you would need.

To tell if the ACPI for your fan may be involved, could you tell us about you fan and how it operates. On my Dell, it speeds up about every 10 minutes and runs for a few minutes. I would think from your description, yours was running at full speed all the time. If the fan is not running a full speed all the time, the problem may involve the ACPI system, and the fan may be listed in the Device Manager.

Also, in the cooling path there is a heat exchanger. I have seen dust build up on that which prevents air flow. Did you see anything in the channel that might indicate such a thing? There was a time we would try to backflow the cooling channel, but that was before access was available with special panels. You might even try putting some type of vacuum on the exhaust to see if it would help. Probably not a good idea to get some type of motor close to the computer, so you would need a long hose for testing and don't use high volume, just enough to aid the air flow.

What about a laptop cooling pad?

Sometimes update to the latest BIOS firmware might help. In addition, with laptop where all the heat comes from is: CPU and Mechanical HD. You might want to replace the HD with an SSD which genarates almost no heat.

Not so sure a fan in that location would help much especially if isolated from the rest of the motherboard components like graphics chip and CPU. There are plastic barriers in the way.

puneeth9b said:

Hi,
My laptop has a reputation for thermal shutdowns because of bad heat flow design. My CPU temps reach 85-90 C and GPU temps ~ 85 C. I've tried quite a few things : Cleaning the fan,reapplying thermal paste [not Arctic Silver though], software hacks etc. I want to install a second fan in place of my DVD drive. It's just lying there anyway! Will this help? How would I go about this? Any compatible fans of the size? I've opened my laptop a few times but I didn't really look at whether the DVD drive is continuous with the open space inside. My laptop is a K55VM-SX086D

Click to expand...

Been over this before. A laptop cooler pad is not going to correct a clogged up heatsink on a laptop. You need to get all of the junk cleaned off of the fan and heat sink, to correct this problem.

puneeth9b said:

Hi,
I've tried quite a few things : Cleaning the fan,reapplying thermal paste [not Arctic Silver though], software hacks etc.

Click to expand...

A clogged fan is not the problem, so a cooling pad may help.

Sounds like a Lenovo laptop with extra video card. Should choose a cooling pad that has fan right under the air intake.

A cooling pad would be my recommendation too. I'm thinking of getting one for my ASUS K75DE. It hasn't overheated but it does get quit hot at times. The little rubber feet on the bottom, that raise it up so the air can get underneath, don't raise it very much. I actually made a little U shaped base out of scrap wood to set it on, and raise it up when I use it out on my decks patio table. In the house I use a laptop tray when I'm in my lazy boy chair. I never ever set it running on anything with a soft surface.

alphanumeric said:

A cooling pad would be my recommendation too. I'm thinking of getting one for my ASUS K75DE. It hasn't overheated but it does get quit hot at times. The little rubber feet on the bottom, that raise it up so the air can get underneath, don't raise it very much. I actually made a little U shaped base out of scrap wood set it on and raise it up when I use it out on my decks patio table. In the house I use a laptop tray in I'm in my lazy boy chair. I never ever set it running on anything with a soft surface.

Click to expand...

Some can get quite hot without shutting down, my girlfriend left hers on a glass table and glass shattered from heat.

The hot air ,most of it anyway, exits out the left side of my ASUS K75DE. I'm right handed so when I'm using my laptop, I tend to drink my coffee (or beer) with my left hand. I can feel the hot air when I reach for my mug. Its not something I'm overly concerned about but I do keep it in mind when I use my laptop.