Has anyone ever used a laptop cooling pad?

[blueznl]

So, if your ... d*ck gets fried, get a refund, or buy something else.

Never knew one could get refunds on fried appendages...

[DarkDragon]

Has anyone ever used a laptop cooling pad?

Yes, but I don't ever need one anymore, as I got a Thinkpad .

[GWarner]

As others have said, first check your laptop's built-in cooling system making sure the fans are working and that heat sinks are free of dust and debris. My dad had a laptop that needed to be cleaned out at least yearly though he tried to do it about every six months. Even with this maintenance it still ran quite hot. We decided that the stock fan simply didn't move enough air to cool it properly. To solve this we had two options, replace the built-in fan with a better one or use an external laptop cooler. We decided on the external cooler because the internal fan was custom made.

The one thing we found most important with an external cooler was to find one that had fans mounted where the laptop had exhaust or intake vents and if necessary remount the fans to match the airflow. My dad being a well skilled do-it-yourselfer, decided to build his own laptop cooler, that way he knew his laptop would fit and that the cooler's fans would be in the right possition and moving air in the right direction. It took only a week end to build and worked extremely well.

[Nituvious]

Hmm...
Gentlemen, I can rebuild it.. I have the technology... And some sheet metal, some rubber grip tape, my powah toolz, and lots of LED lights from my guitar amplifier projects... This might be some fun

[Mistrel]

Just don't short circuit something and have it catch on fire.

[GWarner]

Nituvious;

What my dad used was some left over sound absorbing mats for PC cases from my last system build. These are generally something like foam rubber with a self adhesive backing. It makes a great surface to put the laptop on and it helps to reduce noise from fan vibrations.

He covered the entire cooler with the mat, then cut out holes where he wanted air to get through. He did it this way because it was ultimately going into his motor home as a place to put the laptop while it was running his GPS software. That was where he needed the extra cooling because the laptop would be on for extended periods while asting as his GPS reciever.

You might prefer to have the fans pull or push air across the entire bottom of your laptop, cutting the mat into strips and placing them along the edges of where the laptop will sit will work too. Just be sure to leave openings for air spaced out along the edges.

Have fun and take some pictures to share with us!
(I'm curous to see what you come up with)