Hot and bothered
My computer is hot and I’m bothered. It’s a Sony Vaio which is, as I type, almost too hot to touch - way, way too hot to touch. Is that normal? Should I be concerned? What do you reckon the likelihood is it will burst into flames before I finish this post and take me with
I have a Sony Vaio laptop and it becomes hot if it is left on with the bottom vents blocked (e.g. on a bed). I think it’s a design flaw to have the vents on the one part of the laptop most likely to be covered (i.e. the bottom). However it has never been close to “too hot to touch”. I think you have a more serious problem. There have been some issues with Sony batteries overheating. I know they did a recall at one stage. You should check that out as you could be entitled to a new battery just by giving them details of your old one.
Beyond that how old is it and is it still under warranty. Perhaps the fan has stopped working and needs to be replaced. That happened to me on a Compaq one time and it turned out to be a relatively quick process to replace the fan. That said if you have a warranty from one of the high street retailers then in my experience it’s hardly worth the paper it’s printed on. I’ve had to return laptops twice and both times it turned out the warranty was not with the shop I purchased it from but instead was “outsourced” to some company in the UK who couldn’t give a damn. You send the laptop over to them and then 3-4 months later after several fruitless requests for a progress update it gets returned to you with a form saying “no fault detected” and the laptop still won’t turn on.
Comment by Colm | April 23, 2008 at 5:37 amI’d be concerned if it’s significantly hotter than it usually is. Are you using it on a surface that miht be blocking the vents? Can you usually hear the noise of a fan from it, and can you hear that any longer?
Worth getting someone to take a look at anyways - the unfortunate reality is that the occasional laptop does go up in smoke (although Sony seem to have recalled these and the incidence has been maybe 50 in total - http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/99B8D5B6-610D-4B23-A1F2-66E9D0BF2BF5.html)
Comment by smul | April 23, 2008 at 6:32 amThe keyboard should never get that hot although other parts such as the battery can get pretty warm. Make sure the ventilation slots aren’t being obstructed. If you are running anything CPU- or graphics-intensive it will get hotter quicker. Normal applications like browsing the web or writing a Word doc should never cause excessive heat. Also worth checking is whether it gets hot when plugged into the mains or just running on battery.
Google is your friend, see if anyone else has similar problems with the same model. Beyond that have a friendly IT geek take a look or get in touch with the supplier.
Comment by Dec | April 23, 2008 at 7:32 amHmmm, laptops will build up a lot of heat. But you say it’s way, way too hot to touch, which doesn’t sound right.
Check that the ventilation on the laptop isn’t blocked when you’re using it, that air is allowed to flow in and around the laptop freely.
Perhaps, and more worryingly, the fan to cool the laptop’s internals isn’t working properly.
I did a quick google search (as you may of had already!), check out this link:
Comment by Andrew | April 23, 2008 at 8:55 amhttp://davidsmalley.com/2005/12/13/sony-vaio-always-overheating/
Mine’s always been like that Conor, had it for 8 months and it hasn’t burst into flames y
Comment by mooregroup | April 23, 2008 at 9:15 amctrl-alt-delete and see if any programs are using up too much cpu. same happened with my macbook pro the other day, was running very hot and bettery wasn’t lasting anywhere near as long as it should have. turned out it was down to a badly programmed itunes plugin which ran in the background maxing out the cpu.
it may just be a design flaw, but the more it’s left to run hot the shorter its lifespan will be. can’t be the safest thing to leave running either.
Comment by rob | April 23, 2008 at 1:37 pmI have a VAIO laptop too and from time to time it gets roasting hot - to the point where I can’t leave it on my lap. It’s crap they way they have the vents (and speakers) on the bottom where they are most likely to be blocked. Anyways I usually turn shut mine down for a few mins and let it cool off. Works fine then afterwards.
Comment by dc | April 23, 2008 at 3:50 pmI have an HP that’s the same and it just shuts down on me - even with the base raised up on a laptop tray to let the fans do their job. Fed up with the auto shutdown.
Comment by Mimi | April 24, 2008 at 10:24 amShould have fully read your post before I repeated the same joke as you…
Comment by mooregroup | April 25, 2008 at 10:02 amDec, don’t worry it was as hilarious the second time as it was the first!
Comment by Conor | April 25, 2008 at 10:13 am