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General discussion

Cooling pad?

Mar 21, 2005 6:40AM PST

I really need to pick one of these up, as I often leave my notebook on my bed, and I usually use it on my lap. But my laptop is 17" wide. Do I need to get a special cooling pad for wider notebooks (plus size, if you will XD), or will any pad do?

Discussion is locked

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Cooling Pad
Mar 22, 2005 2:33PM PST

Before I got my cooling pad after use my laptop bottom was hot to the touch. So I bought a Twister "chilled pad". Now the bottom of the laptop is barely warm... so it really really works. Other than that it is made of solid plastic and is very very light. It fits neatly into my laptop bag. It is powered by the laptop's USB port and draws only .9 W. Most remarkeable of all, the two fans make no noise.

My laptop is only 14.4 but because the pad surface is flat with the exception of two nibs at the front to give the laptop a slight elevation, I think it would easily take a 17 with no instability. The main point that the two fans drawing away the laptop's heat really do keep it cool.

I recently lost a Toshiba A75-206. The motherboard went. My research on the model made me aware that a lot of others were having motherboard problems. My theory is that the hot pentium 4 chip was not being adequately cooled and so the motherboard melted. This would explain why those who had the motherboard replaced eventually experienced the same problems again! So I see the cooling pad as a necessary infestment.

Using your laptop directly on any serface that would block the intake or outflow is suicide.

Gary Hicks

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cooling pad
Mar 23, 2005 1:46AM PST

Eeep! It melted? That's awful. I'm using a toshiba P30 JC1, and it often shuts down while I'm playing a game or watching DVDs. This happens when it gets super-hot on the bottom, so I just figured it was due to overheating. Would that make sense?
Where did you find your cooling pad? I haven't been able to find one.

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Cooling Pad Resource
Mar 24, 2005 1:51PM PST

Hi
I got mine from Tiger Direct CA (Canada). They have several models for sale. But if you Google for "Twister Notebook Cooler Pad" you can find one for as little as $15.00 and gather additional information.

There isn't much to it. It is just two fans in a very tough hard plastic case...but it works and is easily packed with almost no weight. The fans draw the heat from the bottom of the laptop and shoot it out the back.

I am also convinced that this pad is solid and tough enough to be a platform for use on the lap or a soft surface like a bed.

By melted I didn't mean to imply that the motherboard flowed away but I am convinced the heat of the Pentium 4 causes a breach in one or more of the thousands of connections of the motherboard. I noted that when motherboards were replaced in the Toshiba A75-S206 that the problem re-occured. I suspect this is an overheating problem. Freezing is a common complaint of this computer.

My current laptop has a Pentium M chip. Since I found it is still a little hot I got the cooling pad for extra protection. Now the bottom of the laptop is barely warm. The extra cooling is also supposed to improve performance.

Gary