Laptop Saga

Laptop Saga

A co-worker was having problems with his laptop constantly locking up and had sent it in for service. He sent out this note telling the story:

My laptop arrived home today after its third time at the "doctor's" with a note that said that the BIOS was upgraded and a new fan had been installed. I was so excited to see it... but alas, after about an hour of running I noticed that the fan was not on and the bottom was becoming extremely hot (like lawsuit hot). After about an hour and a half, I, once again, received the blue screen of death. I called service again and for the third time tried to explain that it seems to be a problem with the thermostat...

As we all know, heat is the worst enemy (well, next to static electricity, water... well, an enemy anyway) of computer equipment. So, I suspect that the excessive heat is causing problems for the memory, mother board, hard drive, and whatever, since the blue screen of death points to something different every time. But, how do I prove this supposition?

Then it comes to me... I had already removed the CD drive to allow more open space to dissipate heat and have one less heat source. If I could force air into the open slot it should vent through the normal fan vent and the intake on the front of the machine and therefore move air over everything that should normally have air flow. So, I purchased some flexible dryer vent hose and proceeded to mold it to the open slot. It folded fairly well to fit and with a strip of duct tape on the bottom (don't you just love duct tape?) I attached the other end to a desk fan and, eureka, it worked.

Here are the pictures he sent along of his "upgrade", asking if he should talk to the patent counsel:

A day later, he sent out a note advising the "upgraded" machine had continued to run cool as a cucumber, all day long with no lockups at all.


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