Okay folks, pop quiz:  Next to spilled drinks, what’s the #2 cause of premature laptop death? Anybody guess plush bedding or cozy couch throws? You should have, and here’s why:

The real enemy of laptop longevity is heat. And unlike spilling your drink into your laptop which yields sudden and traumatic failure, heat failure is usually something that takes place over the course of weeks or months and goes practically unnoticed until too late, a ”silent killer” so to speak (See related article HERE on being prepared for laptop spills).

So why condemn the cozy comforter? Why demonize delightful down? And what have plush pillows done to deserve the “killer” rap?

It’s simple really, if you start with the fact that laptops contain about a zillion heat-generating components crammed into a tiny enclosed space, and then add in cooling methods that are barely adequate under the best of circumstances, it doesn’t take much to tilt the odds in favor of overheating.

Most laptop cooling works by sucking air in through vents on the bottom, moving that air past the hotter components, and then expelling it through vents on the side or back of the unit.  So when you cozy up with your laptop on the bed or with that plush “Snuggie” on the couch, the laptop usually sinks down into the bedding just enough to block the cool air intake on the bottom of the unit which starts the process of  “cooking” your CPU and other critical components in their own heat.

Another even less obvious problem is when you’re not using your laptop but leave it powered on and place it on a soft surface like an upholstered chair or couch which again, unless very very firm, will conform to the shape of the laptop bottom and block the cooling intake.

The real shame here is that by the time you notice a heat-related failure like sudden inexplicable shutdowns, “freezing” or lock-up of the operating system, or straight-out failure to boot up, it’s usually too late- the damage has already been done.

Depending on the extent of damage, you may be able to eke out continued use of a mildly heat-damaged laptop through the use of a “cooling mat” which sits underneath your laptop and has its own fans that blow up into the laptop as a supplement to the laptop’s own cooling methods.

The better approach however is to prevent the problem in the first place by using any of the methods described below:

1. Use a “lap desk” with a hard surface. There are many designs available, some made specifically for laptop computers. The benefit of the lap desk is that it usually has a soft underside to make it comfortable on you, but a hard surface towards the laptop means the laptop’s feet can do their job of creating an air-gap beneath the laptop for optimum cooling.
2. Use a laptop cooling pad. As mentioned earlier, these devices actually supplement laptop cooling with additional fans designed to force more cool air into the laptop chassis. The best designs are self-powered meaning they plug into an electrical outlet for power.  The less desirable alternative to this is a design that is powered through a USB cable connected directly to your computer. Less desirable because it puts extra stress on your system’s power supply, and when running on batteries, can significantly reduce battery life.
3. Use your laptop computer on a hard desk or table surface. This isn’t always your first choice for “cozying up” with facebook or online shopping, but certainly helps eliminate cooling problems.
4. And last but certainly not least, be aware of where you’re putting your laptop when you’re not using it! If you toss it onto a soft surface like a bed, couch, pillow, or upholstered furniture, or if you store it in a laptop bag without completely shutting down first, odds are, you’re introducing your laptop to the “silent killer.”

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This article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:

1-877-4PC-GEEK             (1-877-472-4335)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 24th, 2009 at 11:16 am and is filed under By us, Consumer Alerts, Good Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.