Laptop getting very hot

[moonwhistle]

I have a 6 month old Acer laptop which I bought new. When I use it in bed it gets extremely hot and I'm worried that I might damage it. I place it on top of flat wooden board on the bed to keep the vents clear but even with this setup it runs alot hotter than when it's on my desk.

Any advice on what I should do? Are laptop cooling pads worth the effort?

Thanks.

[Persocom]

they're not called laptops now for a reason :P hehe... notebooks/netbooks.

Too many people continued to use them on their laps, blocking airflow, and burning themselves. Dell had a number of lawsuits as far as I remember lol.

The short answer is this. If the notebook is powerful. it's gonna get hot. No matter what, and you're gonna ruin it if you keep using it on hot surfaces. If you want something to use in bed, buy a wee cheapie netbook I can't say much on the cooling pads though. never used one.

[abigsmurf]

You can get coolers, some have fans some, just spread the heat (fan ones are bulkier obviously). Laptops don't have good airflow and even 15W from the CPU can generate a lot of localised heat. If it's a gaming laptop you've got another 20W coming from the graphics chip.

run speedfan, if it's going above 65C you're at risk of damaging the casing, max out the laptop's fans speed in case they're not running at full speed.