I'm starting to fear that I may have done quite a bit of damage to my laptop over the last few months through overheating...

Today I left it on a timber board on top of my bed, as I do during the day (it provides the wi-fi feed for my room), and turned everything off about an hour ago. I lifted it off the timber, and dropped it again. It was literally too hot to touch. The timber was the same. The heat had actually gone through the timber (~2 inches thick) and the bed was toasty. An hour later, after nursing it by using various fans and stuff, speedfan is showing both CPU cores (Centrino Duo 1.6Ghz) at ~55 degrees, the HDD at 45 degrees, and the general temperature at 32 degrees.

The problem is, I don't know for how long it's been doing damage. It always ran fairly hot, and I scalded my leg off it once after falling asleep watching a movie (incredibly painful FWIW). Is running at around 50 degrees going to cause permanent damage? I was advised to get a cooler when I got it, but I forgot about it

It's been running fairly slow recently, but it's clear of virii. The HDD is fairly full though, 10GB free on a 160GB drive...

Any help would be fantastic, although not so fantastic if my laptop is toast...

Get Intel TAT on it, see how hot it gets. My laptop gets to 80 (if not 90 if it has poor cooling) under load, but the chip is rated for 100° C by Intel so it's probably ok.

Look here and find your CPU (use CPU-Z to find your stepping on an Intel) and be amazed!

... The hottest I think I've ever seen my Macbook Pro is about 60 degrees. 45 - 50 is standard operating temperatures if I'm gaming, and it's been as cool as 26 with the fans manually jacked up to full. Mine's also an Intel chip, rated at 100 degrees Centigrade.

The only ways that laptops can cool is by disappating heat through the case, so if the case feels "hot", it's reasonably safe becuase the case is doing it's job (Aluminium FTW!). Other laptops I've seen use ugly fan outlets, that jet air out that can (and have [GF]) burned people. Just don't use it on your lap, unless you enjoy being infertile.

Thermal spec is 100° according to the processor listing. Does it mean it's perfectly fine to go to 100, or that it'll fry at 100? I've turned the laptop on about 30 mins ago , in it's usual place, and it's been idling since. Temps are still at 50-55. For a quick test, I got the TAT to underclock them by 85%, down to 350Mhz each, and they still idle at around 48-50. So that means it's fine at this temperature?

@Dustin: It has a fan on the side. That's the one I fell asleep with on my leg, and woke up several hours later with a scalded leg. The case normally doesn't get hot, but I had the lid closed on it all day, which probably didn't help and trapped the heat...

Sorry for being a nub but how do you actually find the temperature that your computer is running at.

Quote from JO53PHS :

Sorry for being a nub but how do you actually find the temperature that your computer is running at.

someone said "motherboard monitor" to me, but your motherboard has to be compatible

This thing?:

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311

Quote from JO53PHS :

This thing?:

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311

I think

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/392/mirrors.php

Motherboard Monitor sucks imo.

I use SpeedFan, but it can be inaccurate (but you can check if it is or not, if is accurate then it rocks), CoreTemp / RealTemp are both good, Intel TAT is better still but only works with Intel chips.

Quote from dougie-lampkin :

I'm starting to fear that I may have done quite a bit of damage to my laptop over the last few months through overheating...

Today I left it on a timber board on top of my bed, as I do during the day (it provides the wi-fi feed for my room), and turned everything off about an hour ago. I lifted it off the timber, and dropped it again. It was literally too hot to touch. The timber was the same. The heat had actually gone through the timber (~2 inches thick) and the bed was toasty.

There is you're solution.....use it to warm you're bed up in the cold winter months before going to sleep. Nothing worse than a cold bed.

Definitely worked a treat last night, I have the coldest room in the house normally

Speedfan is way off on my new PC, it shows one of the sensors as -2 always, and the other as 0. It works fine with the main case temp, the HDDs and the CPU though

Which sensors? I have a 122° reading, but that's common.

PS - Electric Blankets ftw!

I think the 0 isn't actually a sensor, but -2 is the auxiliary case sensor. No idea where it is exactly, I think it's up near the PSU though...

It's brilliant, my PC's fan acts like a freezer, my laptop's fan acts like a heater. Climate control

Quote from dougie-lampkin :

It's brilliant, my PC's fan acts like a freezer, my laptop's fan acts like a heater. Climate control

And with all you multimedia needs at a touch of a button. Scotish gas does'nt give that level of service, you're on to a winner.