This is a commonly asked question (not on here, but still) and I read trough lots of threads about solving this.. but I don't want to buy a cooling-pad or something similar.

Well, I got a "HP Pavilion dv6 Noteboox PC" with a performance index of 5.9.
Now my problem is, when having a CPU of over 35% the laptop shuts down due overheating after around 20 to 30 minutes. The temperature even goes up to 100°.

Now, I guess the cooling system is too dusty, but I've opened it and tried to get the dust away. There wasn't much though...

What can I do to get the cooling system working properly again?
Would a vacuum cleaner be any good? Could it do any harm?

Please, help.

PS: I also don't think about building a cooling pad myself.

Prop it up on some books, so more air can get underneath. You always want to keep your laptop on a flat had surface.

Turn up your air conditioning or open a window.

Sit it on an ice pack.

Run fewer applications. Search your startup programs list and see if there is anything useless you can tell it to stop running.

100 degrees Fahrenheit is nothing. That's only 37.8c which is what you want your cpu to be running at. Especially the i3s that your laptop comes with.

If you're running at 37c then overheating isn't your issue. My i7 runs at 40c-60c at any given time (overclocked to 4.5Ghz though). So either your computer has something else wrong with it, or you're running at a lot higher temps than 37c.

An Core i3 has a Tj Max (Max Temp) of roughly 85c t0 90c. That's when the cpu can melt or your pc should shut down to prevent catastrophic damage to your parts.

I would suggest running a core temp program such as CoreTemp (Click Me) or OCCT (Click Me) to see what your actual temps are before you put the blame on over heating.

I would also run Cpu-Z:




If overheating turns out to be the issue then get a can of air and clean out all the exhaust covers. Never take the laptop apart yourself, it takes a lot of skill and practice to be able to take a laptop apart and get it back together properly. Other than that, there's not much you can do aside from a few things Don Von listed above. Just make sure your exhaust covers are clean and un restricted. Or take it into a shop and have them take it apart and look at it's thermal compound and replace it if need be.

Don Von Free Credits wrote:

Run fewer applications. Search your startup programs list and see if there is anything useless you can tell it to stop running.

He is running a default i3 in his laptop, nothing in his startup folder would use enough cpu to cause him to overheat. He would have to run multiple games or other intensive tasks for long periods of time. Unless his cpu has been tampered with and all the voltages are shot up. But that would require someone to edit them in BIOS.

I take my laptop apart and clean it out myself once every 3 months; let it go for 3 years once and it started overheating.

Don Von Free Credits wrote:

I take my laptop apart and clean it out myself once every 3 months; let it go for 3 years once and it started overheating.

You have some experience though.

But how much of it do you take apart? Do you take the motherboard out of the case, re apply thermal compound and unhook all the wires etc..? If so then you are very good at keeping all the screws together, not breaking the pcb boards and have small fingers for re plugging in the ribbon cables/wires etc...

Still though, it's not something you want to do if you don't have some experience in it.

Ð▪ℳ wrote:

Don Von Free Credits wrote:

I take my laptop apart and clean it out myself once every 3 months; let it go for 3 years once and it started overheating.

You have some experience though.

But how much of it do you take apart? Do you take the motherboard out of the case, re apply thermal compound and unhook all the wires etc..? If so then you are very good at keeping all the screws together, not breaking the pcb boards and have small fingers for re plugging in the ribbon cables/wires etc...

Still though, it's not something you want to do if you don't have some experience in it.

I take everything out of the case and then I take a can of air to the inside; however I do not touch any of the parts at all.

Hmm, all of my friends who work on computers say it not such an easy task. The laptops always don't go back together perfectly. I think they take them apart more though.

Ð▪ℳ wrote:

Hmm, all of my friends who work on computers say it not such an easy task. The laptops always don't go back together perfectly. I think they take them apart more though.

I have to take out about a dozen screws, but other than that ... getting into the case is not so hard.

Don Von Free Credits wrote:

Ð▪ℳ wrote:

Hmm, all of my friends who work on computers say it not such an easy task. The laptops always don't go back together perfectly. I think they take them apart more though.

I have to take out about a dozen screws, but other than that ... getting into the case is not so hard.

Opening it is easy, putting it back together and have it properly working is the difficult part.

Oh my, forgot to add "Celsius" to the °, so that would be 212 degrees Fahrenheit actually. The problem is indead overheating, as even on startup there's a warning message on the screen referring to it.

Well, here's what I did last night after posting this. I decided to take the laptop apart and work around a bit. After 12 screws, of which 4 were very hard to screw off (probably I wasn't using the right tool, but I had to use what my dad had in his old tool box), I realized that my job wasn't done in a long time. I would have to unscrew the keyboard, then another part, then the main part (which had many parts I didn't wanna touch due to breaking something) to get to the cooling system. However, I would not have to touch any of the material, such as the motherboard. I'll run the programs you listed for comparing, though.

Now, with my nerves being strangulated, I put all the screws back and get the vacuum cleaner. I catched a lot of dust through the little "air holes" from the ventilator and then went on on checking the temperatures again. They were much lower and I gave it a test. After 2 hours of working on a CPU of 40% and not overheating, my job was done. It got really warm anyways, but not as much as it would have otherwise. So to let it cool off faster I put two DVD cases under the laptop on each side, like you mentioned now, Don. The temperatures were again a bit lower.