Computer question

[719matt3796]

First I want to say thank you to the people who have helped me with other questions as I finally got my show up and running last night (first year). Any way My lap top when I enable my show it started to overheat shutting my laptop down. I had no problems with it running the show for 4 hours. After about 30 minutes when the show shut down my laptop over heated again. I was going to purchase one of those mats with the fans to help try to keep it cool. Do you guys leave your system running the entire day so you dont have to mess with it or do most of you guys turn it on every night?

[scubado]

Mines a desktop running 24/7/365. Runs landscaping lights year round.

[dgtlpro]

I have a spare desktop I use for my show pc and I leave it running for the season. I don't have it connected to the internet and make sure windows update doesn't run.

[LOR Staff]

Laptops are notorious for sucking in dust and dirt and oveheating like that. That's because the air passages and heat sinks have to be much smaller to fit into a compact package.

If you are suffering from overheating issues, take your computer to a computer guy who works on laptops. For $50-$75 they'll take it apart, clean the fan/etc. and put it back together.

[Caleb Linburg]

I don't know if I would suggest it if you do not know what you are doing, but I take the vacuum cleaner hose and suck the dust out of the vent of the laptop. It seems to do the trick for awhile.

[dgrant]

_{Blow air into both the intake and exhaust vents of the laptop to move as much dust as possible. Past that, the CPU has something called Thermal Grease on it between the CPU and its heatsink. A lot of times, if the laptop is older, this heat transfer grease tends to dry out and no longer conduct heat as well as it did. Most of the rest of the time, its either dust or the fan has quit working...happens a lot and heat is the one thing your laptop does not need.}

Edited November 20, 2012 by dgrant