[Marcy49]

Hello -

I need information from someone who understands laptops better than me. Unfortunately, the first laptop I bought is an Acer Aspire 3000. I went through 2 modems (after the warranty was up) until I went wireless and about that time my cooling fan started making noise. Now, after about of year of noise, the cooling fan is just about shot. I've looked online for another fan and, as most of you know, there aren't any to be had. I've read some Q & A where Aspire owners have tried different things to keep their laptops cool. One idea was to place the laptop on top of a wire cake cooler and aim a "people fan" to blow across the underneath of the laptop. This is what I have done. I have a wire cake cooler and an 8 inch desk fanthat I set up. This is really working! The bottom of my laptop is hardly warm.

My question is - do I still need to buy a cooling fan, or will this "fix" work until I'm ready to buy another laptop within the next few months? In other words, is this going to cause additional problems?

Thanks!

[MJM]

That really depends on whether or not it is actually working. Do you have any way of monitoring your laptops temperature?

[serverguy]

If it feels cool to the touch, then I expect it will be OK.

But you don't know what the circulation will be like inside the laptop itself.... I still expect it would last a few months more.

[Hybr!d]

If the CPU fan is shot it will need replacing, a people fan will cool the outside but cannot get inside and keep the CPU properly cool. If it wasn't essential then Acer would never of fitted it in the first place.

[Marcy49]

Thanks for your input. No, I don't have a way to check the internal temperture of my laptop (or rather I don't have any idea of how to do this) but nevermind. I'll try to keep my "fixed" way of working til Christmas and hope Santa brings me a new one. I'll just back up all the files I think are iimportant. All of you have been a great help.

I really thought this laptop would last more than 3 years.

[Hybr!d]

Laptops have a short shelf life, 3 years is actually pretty good.

If you want to check the temps of the internals then this software will tell you.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan435.exe (live download link)

[Mooseknuckle]

Another suggestion is to purchase a "laptop cooling pad"...this is the one i bought and it fixed the overheating issues i had with my laptop...

LINK

There are tons on ebay just do a search and find one that you want...i used to roll with a "personal fan" as well until i got this...