Laptop Overheating?

[AtomicPCs]

Dell Latitude LM with OS problems. 40MB, 133 Pentium.

The problem is that the laptop will work fine for about 10 min or so, then start getting weird random blue screens. I turn it off, and then back on. 10 min goes by and then poof, BSOD. I will take it apart and run it open case.

Question. Do PCMCIA card slots get really hot? My cards are getting so hot, that soon as I take them out, the will almost burn my hand. LAN card and modem cards.

[whatsupwithu]

Dell's are probably the hottest running laptop. Lets just say I killed one of their prototypes in under a week from heat, but you didn't hear that from me. PCMCIA cards can get quite hot yes, but to the point of burning your hand it too hot. Open the Laptop up and see if there is dust blocking airflow through the system. Take a can of air and clean it out if so. If that doesn't work find what is creating the most heat (probably the CPU). You might be able to take the current heatsink off and apply better thermal compound to transfer the heat. Course its your laptop so you may not want to risk damaging it.

[OVERCLOCKED]

SO hot ja? well normally there is a sensor to detect the cpu temp and start the fan automatically and the other thing is with such kind of little time your card's musn't get that damn hot, i think your have a big prob head check out weither your fan working properly, if not open it up and c lear dust if there are any and check out and most probably if the fan not working you're in a great danger frying your processor too.

[AtomicPCs]

Well I have opened it up, and the LM has a huge heat sink. In fact the heatsink is a huge plate right under the keyboard. No fans are even in this laptop. The thermal compound is in tact, but it is quite old and crumbles at the touch. I will try replacing the compound, but I need to find one that has that exact size. It's a little sticker compound. I should find it at my local Tinker Tronics store. I am now running with the keyboard off with the heat sink exposed to the air. Let you know how it goes.

[http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum1/noncgi]

You would probably be better off carefully scrapeing off the TIM pad and applying thermal paste. Most thermal pastes do a MUCH better job than thermal pads.