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honeyaureus
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17 Feb 2014, 8:37 pm

Once again, my Toshiba Satellite A665 is prompting me to come to this section of this forum. The fan is pretty much constantly running from boot up, and from what PC Health Monitor says, the CPU's heat is usually between 49% and 58%. It used to be around 38%. I don't want to take my computer apart if it comes to that, since I don't know how to do anything like that and I would lose the computer if I even tried.

What I'd like to do is get a cooling pad of some kind. Do any of you recommend one? I've had two or three Belkin ones and the fans kept clogging up on me, not to mention the USB cords kept crimping on me. I currently use a dead one to support my old Toshiba Satellite A105 that isn't in use. What's the best kind out there for a 16 inch laptop that already stand up slightly with a big fat battery? (I can remove the battery as it's no use to me anyway. It's pretty much dead anyway.)



AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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17 Feb 2014, 10:39 pm

Does it sound like the fan has become unbalanced or is running rough?



honeyaureus
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17 Feb 2014, 11:47 pm

No. It sounds pretty smooth to me.



AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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18 Feb 2014, 11:58 am

Since the CPU heat is higher, maybe more usage and a virus running in the background? And please be careful with security programs because two different security programs fighting each other is not good either.



Rakshasa72
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18 Feb 2014, 3:57 pm

Get a can of air and, blow out the dust. I used to have a Toshiba a long time ago. I found it needed to be cleaned more often then some of other brands I've owned.



honeyaureus
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18 Feb 2014, 7:53 pm

I'm running Malwarebytes and the CPU heat seems to be running around 39% to 45%. Yes, the fan is running all the time, but then again it rarely stops when I'm running programs.

As it turns out, the one time it was at the high heat levels was an odd occurrence. I have no idea why it happened, but like I said the heat levels are usually around 38%, and the fan does turn off when it drops to or below 37%. Sometimes if I don't log in immediately at startup then it gets hot, but I don't understand why.

Quote:
Since the CPU heat is higher, maybe more usage and a virus running in the background? And please be careful with security programs because two different security programs fighting each other is not good either.


I have McAfee Total Security and MalwareBytes Anti-Malware free, and they seem to get along fine. So far I haven't picked up anything, but then again it's only been about 15 minutes into the scan. It usually takes about 2 hours.

Quote:
Get a can of air and, blow out the dust. I used to have a Toshiba a long time ago. I found it needed to be cleaned more often then some of other brands I've owned.


So that's what those cans of air are used for! I knew they had something to do with computers, but I didn't know exactly what. Now I know. I'll try that as soon as I get the money. Thanks!



UndeadToaster
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18 Feb 2014, 9:11 pm

You probably would need to open up your laptop if you want to clean inside, don't just blow air into the vents. Instead of those air cans, if you have a small vacuum cleaner, you might simply be able to move the hose on the other end to blow air. You could probably use an old squeeze bottle (like an empty ketchup bottle or something).

You keep saying your CPU is at x% heat. Temperature should be given in degrees, not percentages, so are you sure that what you are seeing is not CPU usage? If it is, 39-45% is pretty high, assuming you aren't running anything resource intensive.
Press ctrl+alt+del, start task manager and look under the performance tab. If you don't have anything open it really shouldn't be above 10%, maybe 20%. If it is then you have something running in the background that's causing problems.



honeyaureus
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18 Feb 2014, 9:42 pm

Quote:
CPU Temperature
CPU Temperature Icon
The CPU Temperature Gauge indicates the current temperature measured at the CPU as the ratio of the maximum temperature.


This is from Toshiba's PC Health Monitor's Help Guide. It's strange, actually.

Quote:
You probably would need to open up your laptop if you want to clean inside, don't just blow air into the vents. Instead of those air cans, if you have a small vacuum cleaner, you might simply be able to move the hose on the other end to blow air. You could probably use an old squeeze bottle (like an empty ketchup bottle or something).

You keep saying your CPU is at x% heat. Temperature should be given in degrees, not percentages, so are you sure that what you are seeing is not CPU usage? If it is, 39-45% is pretty high, assuming you aren't running anything resource intensive.
Press ctrl+alt+del, start task manager and look under the performance tab. If you don't have anything open it really shouldn't be above 10%, maybe 20%. If it is then you have something running in the background that's causing problems.



Quote:
CPU Temperature
CPU Temperature Icon
The CPU Temperature Gauge indicates the current temperature measured at the CPU as the ratio of the maximum temperature.


This is from Toshiba's PC Health Monitor's Help Guide, and should explain things. I could attach an actual thermometer to the computer, if I can figure out where the CPU is. BTW, the temperature is currently 37% of the max.

I checked out the Performance tab, and it usually hangs between 0% and 7%, and that's with Firefox with three tabs open, iHeart Radio included. It's usually much higher than that when the browser first opens, or when a song changes.

EDIT: I forgot to add that I CANNOT take the computer apart, as I'm a total noob when it comes to taking things apart and putting them back together, so I might have to ask one of my older cousins to do it for me if they come to visit and have the time to do it. Otherwise, if I do it, I'll lose the computer guaranteed. It'll just be unusable parts.



ruveyn
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19 Feb 2014, 10:36 am

I have a Toshiba Satellite and it was running hot and hard. I had my computer professionally cleaned of viruses spyware and malware and now it is running much quieter and cooler.

I also propped up the front end of the keyboard (15-20 degree angle) and the air circulation underneath is much better and the machine cools off more efficiently. It also does not interfere with my typing.

ruveyn



michael517
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25 Feb 2014, 5:00 pm

Can you get into the BIOS menus, or maybe boot a different OS ie SystemRescueCD (Gentoo Linux)and see if the problem still persists? Anything that isn't windows.

I never got SystemRescueCD to boot off of a USB thumb drive but then again I didn't try that hard either.



UndeadToaster
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25 Feb 2014, 5:55 pm

honeyaureus wrote:
EDIT: I forgot to add that I CANNOT take the computer apart, as I'm a total noob when it comes to taking things apart and putting them back together, so I might have to ask one of my older cousins to do it for me if they come to visit and have the time to do it. Otherwise, if I do it, I'll lose the computer guaranteed. It'll just be unusable parts.

That's probably what you're going to need to do. If temperatures are that high when the load isn't, I'm fairly certain it's not a software problem. I think you would find it to be surprisingly easy. Usually all you have to do is remove the back panel and then just blow dust out of the fan (and other surfaces you see it) which should be visible immediately. You may want to disconnect the fan first though. Don't do it if you don't feel comfortable with it though. Also, the thermal paste between the heatsink and cpu could be bad.



honeyaureus
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25 Feb 2014, 6:10 pm

I think I'll just hope my older cousin can do it for me the next time he's in the area.



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25 Feb 2014, 6:39 pm

You might have luck turning JavaScript off and cleaning out cookies from your browser cache as JS, Flash Video, and some cookies tend to burn up CPU usage. --Turn JS on only when you absolutely need it, and clean out cookies (Not all of them as that is where website passwordds are also stored) every couple of days or so.

I've noticed that all the current iterations of Firefox are as CPU intensive as Chrome. --You may have luck trying Qupzilla, as even though it's a WebKit based browser, it's UI is not as annoying as Chrome or current version of Opera, since they abandoned their own Presto render engine for WebKit.


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