HEL-80 runs too hot

Is it only me or does the left palm rest get extremely too warm? The hard drive is on the right and I thought that will be the main source of palm rest heat but the videocard I believe on the left is waaaaay too hot. This is my main PC so its on pretty much anytime I'm awake and I cannot comfortly leave my palm on it. It is so hot that if I pull the express card slot out and hold it tightly in my hand or against my cheek, it almost feels like its burning.

I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but this notebook is built extremely poorly. I know that more power equals more heat in theory, but the design is so poor handling the heat that it should be recalled.

How do you guys handle this heat? Besides I guess using an external keyboard but that really defeats the purpose of a mobile notebook.

 

if you think its the hdd thats causing these temperature i recomend that you use a software such as NHC to check you hdd temperatures and post them so that others with the same notebook maybe able to help you out
and it will also help you determine if the temps are abnormal

 

Sorry didn't mean to confuse. I meant to say that the left side is extremely warm and just mentioned the hard drive about the hard drive because I thought in theory the right side should be warmer than the left side because everyone would think harddrive = heat. But in the HEL-80's case, the hard drive is no concern at all but the left side is just unbarable for any length in time.

 

Express Cards and PCMCIA Cards generate a lot of heat. Just try taking your Express Card out and use the laptop for awhile and you will certainly notice a significant difference.

What kind of Express Card is it? Do you need it in and on all the time?

You will find that any laptop will be quite hot above these cards, so don't expect a different model to give you a different result.

 

wow, i'm really confusing the hell out of you guys. I meant to say the slots card holder piece that's there when you have nothing inside. Just talking about the plastic holder. That gets pretty hot.

Do you guys not feel the excessive amount of heat on the left risk?

 

We feel the warmth, we just don't consider it to be excessive.

You will find that warmth on one side or the other (sometimes on both) with virtually any laptop with a discrete video card (or even an integrated card) that is on the market today.

 

haha I was just contemplating this same thing. I was planning on using the PC card slot for my Audigy 2 zs, and the express card slot for a remote control. However, the heat given off by the Audigy alone has driven me away from those ideas.

Why didn't they put the video card where the wireless is? I would much rather have a warm keyboard than a warm palm rest.

 

If it really bothers you, you can try cleaning out the vents to your gpu (right next to the media buttons on the left side and right to the left of the power intake. Chaz has a good thread about this located here:
Guide to Cooling Down your Notebook

At one point my left palm rest was extremely hot like yours and my card overheated and my computer shut down. All I did was clean out my vents with compressed air and it dropped the GPU temp by 30 degrees, and my palm rest was cool again. (turn your computer upside down, upper right corner, blow compressed air onto the fan itself and get all that dust out, and also blow where the vent meets the outside of your computer, you should find a carpet of dust there)

I would recommend that you don't leave your computer on 24/7, because the longer it is on the longer its fans run so more dust will accumulate in the vents. I just put mine into sleep mode when I don't use it (Fn-F1), it takes about 3 seconds to get into sleep mode and it takes only 5 seconds to load back up.