what harm have i done to my Lap top Computer?

Question

we used to leave our lap top computer on all the time, (its old now, but) its not turns itself off (i presume from over heating) after about 36hours.

we dont do it anymore, but:-

what damage have we done to it? is it a problem / does it matter, and can it be rectified?

Answer 1

It sounds likely that the fan may not be working. Two possible reasons for this:
1. The fan has burnt out or just come to the end of its life.
2. The fan is clogged with dust which is preventing it spinning. (The fan is sucking in dirty air and the filters don't filter out all the fine dust particles).

Either way its fixable. Exactly how you access the fan to check if this is the cause depends on your make/model of laptop.

(Ignore the other posts that say any laptop will fail if you leave it on for 36 hours - thats complete rubbish)

Answer 2

If you have power management software in your laptop, make sure it is not set to turn off after 36 hours (Ha-Ha!)

But seriously, don't use a vacuum cleaner to suck out the dirt or try to blow air with your mouth. Air is full of electrically charged particles that can lead to problems in dense electronic circuitry inside computers. Water vapour in your breath is not a good idea inside the Laptop either.

If anyone in your house smokes, the build up of nicotine can reduce the effectiveness of heatsinks as it provides an insulated layer.

When the others wrote "can of air" they mean a compressed inert gas which is a powerful jet that does not carry the same electrical properties as 'regular air'. Computer shops and Electronic supplies carry this in the repairs sections. Sometimes called 'airdusters'.

If you are in doubt, take it along to a Computer Repair shop and ask for an estimate for repair.

My sister's laptop overheated and I couldn't fix the fan effectively - it always had to be plugged in but she often forgot and it overheated on the battery pack.

In future, consider setting your laptop on a thermal pad or up on tiny blocks to help circulate air around it. Just make sure there is a sufficent cleared space to help the air circulate.

Leaving any computer on for long periods of time can lead to data corruption in the Operating System - been there, seen that.

How memory is utilised is not always efficient and rogue bits of memory can cause glitches and they cause further problems.

And it may be just the laptop coming to the end of it's working life.

Is it worth the repair or can you buy a shiny new one for a little more money? Dell are offering a laptop for 349 pounds sterling in their TV adverts.

And please note that Laptop hard drives are more expensive when compared to desktop hard drives.

Also be prepared to replace the battery if it has always been plugged in. Trickle charging is good but you need to run it flat a few times to make sure you are getting the most from your battery.

Answer 3

in short that amount of time on my have reduced the life of your hard drive as well as the overheating problem.
so get yourself to a reputable etailer such as www.dabs.com and buy a new hard drive if required (and i would recommend this if you want to continue to use the computer).
as for overheating this could be down to the fans no longer working as efficiently as possible.
so if you feel confident about taking the case apart on the computer, do it but first assemble a few tools
you will need a can of compressed air (sometimes called keyboard cleaner), you will need a soft brush such as one as a lady would use to apply blusher or a natural hair DIY paint brush (about a 2" maximum) is all you need.
now disconnect the power (mains and battery) open the case,
and get dusting carefully be careful when using compressed air as in my experiance i have had a compressed air canister spray out water occasionaly. if this happens just allow it to evaporate naturally (if you are in a warm room about 25C it will evaporate within a few seconds). use the air and the brush in combination to get all the dust out of the system. now re-assemble the computer, and power up.
your computer should now be working a little more efficiently.
now run the systems utilites to check the hard drive for errors and defrag the hard drive, also go to http://www.registry-clean.net/ and download the trialware allow it to install and run. it will show any and all problems with your systems registry.
you will be given the option to back up the registry before you make any changes (make a back up to an external device such as a CD or DVD or even an external Hard Drive).

as for damage the only damage would or could be the hard drive coming to the end of it's life cycle (around 50000 hours on average for a life span of a drive). or the system may just need a good service. do it yourself as described above or get an engineer to do the work for you, but be prepared for the engineeer to charge a fortune (maybe both arms and both leggs)

Answer 4

Laptops are like mini vacuum cleaners. The air plennums get clogged with dust until the CPU can no longer maintain cooling. Clues are fans on all the time. Once it gets so hot, then it shuts off to prevent melt-down. Best chance of fixing your problem is to have case dis-asembled and clear out the air plennum/fan assembly. You said you used to keep it on all the time. There is probably a huge dust bunny in the fan/plennum.

Answer 5

No harm has been done to it. I suggest buying a new fan for the laptop, relatively easy and inexpensive to replace. This will typically solve the problem. Otherwise, you may need a new power supply. If this is the case then I recommend getting a new laptop.

Answer 6

only, there must be some holes on the digital camera. you ought to also get a cord with each thing. Plug the cord in the digital camera, and then the different end desires to pass on your pc. There must be a hollow (USB) in the front of the computer, if no longer, then look on the back. only check out each end and tournament it up. The classes are commonly rather common to strategies to take a photo and delete them. I commonly paintings it out from only taking section in with the digital camera for 0.5 hour or so. With the disc you get, only placed it in the computer and enable it run. this would deploy each thing, so that you'll only plug the digital camera in and get the p.c.. on your pc. you ought to get issues on the disc, so that you'll edit your images. this would comprise eliminating pink eye, rotating them, cropping them, including frames and so on. although, if you aren't to any extent further getting such issues as this, then visit the keep or look on ebay for a photo editor. they are so affordable, and as you're literally a newbie, you do not fairly want a particularly sleek one. I were given my photo editor as 3 for £a million from the automobile boot, sparkling! in case you've were given the different questions then e mail me and that i'll furnish you with a hand.

Answer 7

definitely running for 36hrs, any laptop will have a freeze, and not a good practise

kindly check for internal battery warranty-supporting number of hours of back-up, which would substantiate when connected
if not you need to understand that any mechanical gadget needs some break like the humans do, as there is wear and tear even, so i don't find that to a damage, but a must to replace if u r currently running on lithium batteries( for longer time) as it might burn system
have a nice day

balaji

Answer 8

The 'Lap top' is a one word 'Laptop' and I think saying that is the biggest harm you could do to your old and reliable Laptop computer. But any harm is curable so I think it is the best time to see your PC-doc.

Answer 9

It is a built in heat synch, it will do that so that ur hard drive is not damaged. you may have to replace the cooling fan on it

Answer 10

Its just old!

Its better to buy a new one instead of spending alot of money on old things these days...