After a few months of use, you notice that the cooling fan in your laptop is running constantly, even when the laptop is idle. You know that the laptop fan should only run when the laptop is hot, so you’d like to troubleshoot by examining the temperature inside of the laptop. What’s the best way to determine the temperature inside of the laptop and its components?
A) Carefully remove the laptop’s outer case and install temperature leads that connect back to an external digital thermometer
B) Use a software utility to monitor internal laptop temperatures
C) Place an external thermostat outside of the laptop where the fan is blowing out warm air
D) Use the probes of a multimeter to determine the temperature inside of the laptop case
The answer: B) Use a software utility to monitor internal laptop temperatures
There are a number of software troubleshooting utilities that can provide information about the temperature of processors, hard drives, and other areas of most modern computers. One of my favorites is HWMonitor from CPUID: http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php
The incorrect answers:
A) Carefully remove the laptop’s outer case and install temperature leads that connect back to an external digital thermometer
Most laptops are relatively difficult to dismantle, and thermostats with external temperature leads aren’t very common. Since you’re not performing a scientific experiment, this particular task would be a bit overkill for our troubleshooting purposes.
C) Place an external thermostat outside of the laptop where the fan is blowing out warm air
An external thermostat measuring the air temperature won’t give you an accurate representation of what’s really going on inside of the laptop with individual components.
D) Use the probes of a multimeter to determine the temperature inside of the laptop case
Multimeters are fantastic troubleshooting devices, but a multimeter that includes a thermostat still relies on external probes. Unfortunately, there are no easy ways to get an external probe into a laptop, and you don’t want to poke a metal probe into the case of a powered laptop!
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Want to know more? Watch “Laptops and Portable Device Preventive Maintenance.”Just as desktop personal computers need ongoing preventive maintenance, laptops and portable devices also need constant upkeep. In this video, we’ll show you how to keep your system working efficiently using cooling devices, cleaning hardware and video, and maintaining an optimal operating environment for your laptop and portable devices. |