The Laptop Conspiracy - Are You a victim?

There is a light bulb in the Smithsonian Institute made by Thomas Edison that is still burning bright today. Light bulbs today burn out easily. Why? They are designed that way on purpose so the light bulb makers can make more money. The same thing is happening with your laptop.

What's the biggest problem with laptops? It's overheating. Why do they overheat - bad design on purpose. That's the conspiracy and I can prove it.

Over the years I have owned many laptops and they all have one common flaw - no matter the make or model - Not enough airflow. Couple this with very bad advice. I saw a video yesterday on cleaning the laptop, it made me laugh then cry because people were being shafted. They tell you to clean the unit by wiping down it's keyboard and surfaces then use a can of air to blow out the dust in the fan - from the outside in. These videos are popular on the net and they are made by the same people who sell the cans of air and by the laptop people. This is the WRONG way to clean a laptop. They know this, and tell you to do this on purpose thinking this will pacify laptop users who don't know any better. What this actually does is help to destroy your laptop faster so you have to buy another one.

Over time the laptop builds up dust that clogs the fan blades and vents. Blowing it out with air from the outside in, is bad because all this does is force that dust deeper into the laptop. Sure the dust gets away from the fan for a time but after a couple of years you open up the unit and see all the dust surrounding your other laptop components. ( because that dust has no where to go, some will leave through the vents but not all, in fact you are spraying air from outside in - in the direction away from those vents! ) This leads to the precious chips/components getting hotter and causing damage - even though your fan and vents may be clear. The laptop makers Know this. they study these things so they can make more money.

But why does it happen at all? Laptop feet are way too small - on EVERY unit you will Ever see. This does not allow for proper airflow. prove it to yourself at Best Buy. I have done this for kicks and to annoy the salesmen LOL. Go to best buy or other computer store and have them set up two identical laptops side by side. Install a program called Core Temp on each which measures the heat in your laptop. www.alcpu.com... I will slightly modify one of the models and the temp will always stay between 15 and 20 degrees cooler than the unmodified laptop! Of course everyone is shocked. What do I do? I place 4, 2 liter bottle caps under each corner of the laptop. That's all. Now you get much better airflow. All it takes is raising the laptop 3/4 of an inch further off the table top. The laptop makers Know this - they are killing your laptop slowly on purpose.

So how to properly clean a laptop? If you feel comfortable download the service manual for your model and follow it to take apart your laptop to clean it properly. If you do not feel comfortable, take it to someone who does - just make sure they do it properly and do Not use any can of air. This coupled with using 4 bottle caps at the corners will help your laptop last years longer than it's intented to.

( Mods please don't move this to the computer section because this IS conspiracy oriented - that would be a waste and undermines the purpose of ATS)

You are right for the wrong reasons.

Laptops like all computer hardware is designed to operate at a specific thermal efficiency, if you have better cooling you can push the envelope further on the clock speeds.

As long as you can take the heat away fast enough, you can operate any electronic hardware beyond its specifications.

Manufacturers aim for several years of operation, if you are particularly concerned you could "underclock" your system and get more operational time, but eventually everything will ware out. This is acceptable because in a few years new software will be out requiring faster cores and so as technology and code progresses it will be out of date before it fails.

Hmm, kinda like projectors, tv's ect. Laptops were burning peoples laps.

Big screens were burning out all over especially with rolling blackouts and piss poor board comps.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Having been in the IT industry for about 17 years I can say that you may have a point. I've seen systems (laptops and PC's) that have been choked by dust (mostly due to poor ventilation). However most laptops have two or even three areas where hot air is blown out by the fan and not all the dust is blown back into the laptop. Plus most people do not have the know-how, tools and/or patience to do a proper cleaning of their laptops (ie. removing a laptop keyboard or other misc. items). Some things are better left to professionals, lol.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Well, I bought a $9 laptop tray/USB fan cooler, and have always since day 1 cleaned it accordingly to recommendations.

I have never had any issues whatsoever since I bought it 2 years ago Christmas-time. And it still has all features up to date so for now Im keeping it.

PS I use it everyday

I hate this about laptops. Im the resident tech guy among my friends and anytime they have a laptop issue its almost always due to overheating. We have tried the vacuum trick (vacuum hose with something to concentrate the suction) but it only ever really cleans the visible dust, never gets the stuff that's in there deep causing the problem.

I took my laptop apart, cleaned it up real good, and got it put all back together. Only had 2 extra screws when i was finished lol. The laptop still works great, but its a time consuming process that carries a lot of risk. I wouldn't recommend anyone doing it without knowing exactly what they are doing. I wont do it on anybody else's laptop due to the risk and only attempted it on mine because i was ok with it turning out bad.

I don't know why liquid cooling hasn't become more common place. Liquid cooling for desktops has become more affordable and easy to set up. I cant imagine it would be too difficult to incorporate a liquid cooling system to a laptop without taking up too much space.

Thats my two cents anyways, and the reason i stick to desktops.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


people tend to leave the charger plugged in when they are using it that doesn't help .

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


This is all dependent on what brand you buy and from where.

Walmart for example. Go buy a laptop there and then go to another retailer and find the EXACT model number. You'll notice they add a little WR to the wal mart one.

Why do they do this? Because the parts found in the wal mart versions are paper thin. The hardware is entirely obsolete in most cases, or B product that never met proper design specifications for the manufacturer.

We live in a throw away culture. Everything is built for immediate gratification, not long term use. If you'd like a labtop that would last you, then buy a tough book or something else that costs 4000$ plus.

You get what you pay for in the IT industry and even then sometimes you get screwed.

~Tenth

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Never had the overheating issue as I vacuum it or thoroughly clean it. Now the power connectors on the motherboard, that is another story. just about every laptop I have owned or friends have owned the motherboard connector to the external cable always fail. Same thing with micro usb.

However , I'm not sure this is a conspiracy theory but rather economic sense. Designers are not purposely designing laptops to break for the most part but rather designing them to be appealing over functional .Not because they wouldn't want to but because they don't have too. Software does a pretty good job in making you upgrade and shifts the blame from hardware failure associated with the manufacture brand name. Although I'm sure they try it from time to time.

In essence Most people will pay more for a nice looking laptop than a boxy functional reliable laptop. Usually where they place the parts is the last phase of the process.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Of course most people can afford $4,000 or $5,000 on a new computer.

My problem is after I spent $50,000 on my Mercedes and $250,000 on my house my credit limit is a bit low.

(rolling my eyes.)

Laptops? Oh, sorry dude. I thought cha said lap dances? out ta here. PEACE.

reply to post by Biigs


Back in the day....

When I built my first PC the PC shop clerk handed me the largest Hard drive available.

"Here, We just got them in. 3.5 Gig, you'll never fill THAT up!"

My laptop can tend to run hot (my personal one...my work one works like a charm unless I am using heavy index and sumif arrays in some of my workbooks)

I blow it out, and see huge plumes of dust fly out of it. I know much of it can end up back in there, and rarely blow the fan (it can make a failing fan fail faster). I just blow through the secondary vents underneath it. I smoke around it, and it is likely crammed full of ashes. But almost 7 years after i bought it....it still works great. I run Photoshop on it and have very few issues. Right now it is at home converting flash videos to MP4 for me so we can watch them over the next few days.

SLAYER69
reply to post by Biigs

 

Back in the day....

When I built my first PC the PC shop clerk handed me the largest Hard drive available.

"Here, We just got them in. 3.5 Gig, you'll never fill THAT up!"

Oh boy did he underestimate your appetite for pornography

Im old too, i remember my 486DX66 with a 320 meg HDD and thinking that was "more than i could ever use"

SLAYER69
reply to post by Biigs

 

Back in the day....

When I built my first PC the PC shop clerk handed me the largest Hard drive available.

"Here, We just got them in. 3.5 Gig, you'll never fill THAT up!"

Ha ha.

You're old.

That sux 4 u.

Still have mine, its an early 2010 model, gets hot like Mount Doom, now on it's third internal HDD, and runs almost 24/7, and still going strong. original fans still good too. All it ever gets is a blast of air where it needs it once about every 6 months.

I do agree though, and would say I've been lucky- most everything these days is built to fail by design, it's all just crap.

minusinfinity
reply to post by tothetenthpower

 

Of course most people can afford $4,000 or $5,000 on a new computer.

My problem is after I spent $50,000 on my Mercedes and $250,000 on my house my credit limit is a bit low.

(rolling my eyes.)

My home laptop is a Dell inspiron. I paid $550 for it brand new, shipped from Dell.

If you spend $5k on a computer, you better be a serious gamer

I'm certified Dell and HP technician, and I have worked on LOTS of laptops.
I have to agree with the Spirit of the post, even if some of the details are a little too much.
Either way, I don't like laptops, so I don't even own one.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Oh I wouldn't spend that kind of money on a pc. My sarcastic statement was in reference to the reply made by 'tothetenthpower'.

stormbringercompanion
Still have mine, its an early 2010 model, gets hot like Mount Doom, now on it's third internal HDD, and runs almost 24/7, and still going strong. original fans still good too. All it ever gets is a blast of air where it needs it once about every 6 months.

I do agree though, and would say I've been lucky- most everything these days is built to fail by design, it's all just crap.

Dont you find when stuff has been running like that for so long, you feel like you cant turn it off or move it because it will stop working and be cursed in some way?

I get a bit superstitious after a while.

Leave # that works THE HELL ALONE