Hot Keyboard

[Bob Chittie]

After reading some of the discussions on this forum, I decided to leave my computer on all the time. (Previously, I would shut down once a day). Now the keyboard often times seems excessively hot. Am I thinking too much? Does it matter? Both fans are working.

[Basher]

Is that both the overhead fan and the one on the stand?

Bash

[stumonster]

is your keyboard a normal ps2 or usb one? or does it have a whole heap of nifty buttons and scroll wheels?

if it is just a normal one, buy a new one for 130 baht and see if there is a difference?

are you in an aircond room?

I would not expect a normal ps2 keyboard to get noticeably hotter with prolonged running.

[Guest chingy]

as for me a computer is like a car, you buy a new one every five year, in that way you have a nice perfect car with no trouble, computer is the same you buy a new one every few year to keep up with the new technology, don't wanna leave behind now right. if i don't use it i turn it off, no point of leaving it on........oh well the question on/off countinue

[Guest IT Manager]

Bob you didn't say whether it was a notebook or a desktop.

A desktop keyboard shouldn't get hot. a notwebook keyboard is usually warm and the recommendation, from me at least, regarding leaving them on, only applied to desktops, as notebooks today run too hot to have them on constantly. Depending on your Operating System, you could opt for "hibernate" mode, which saves about half your boot-up time.

IT

[Darknight]

if it's a laptop and especially a dell , then clean out your processor fan . it has dust in it and doesn't cool your laptop anymore. this will heat the entire laptop up to the point that the processor will start to fail.

[Basher]

If it is a Craptop, stand it up on 4 egg cartons to allow air to pass under it,, thus a cooling effect would be achieved.

Failing that get AC installed.

Bash

[Serge]

You can actually buy a purpose made colling stand/base for your laptop. This base incorporates several cooling fans which will keep your portable cool. IT City stocks this sort of item.

[Bob Chittie]

Thanks for all the replies. Actually it is a laptop and it is a Dell. Its in an air conditioned room when I am here, but that means it is sitting in a hot room much of the time.

How do i clean out the fans?

Would most of you agree that lap tops should be shut down frequently?

What does one of these cooling sytems cost?

Thanks!

[stumonster]

ah.. a laptop.

yes i think you should shut it down when not in use.. they get rather hot during normal usage as a matter of course.. an if your laptop has a desktop processor in it rather than a mobile processor it will get very hot... one of the cooling stands might be a good purchase,, you need to ensure airflow under the laptop. you can tell the processor by looking in the bios on startup....press f2 on the dell start screen and have a look thru.. and when you have finished exit without saving..

as a side note.. I have an older dell laptop that I use an external ps2 keyboard with.. because the laptop keyboard has problems and it is more comfortable to use an external.. if you are using your laptop manly as a desktop get a usb optical mouse also.

[RDN]

I have a Dell and - so far - the fan comes on when it is hot, and goes off again after a few minutes.

I have one point to make about turning off or leaving on: if you turn off each day you will know when you turn it on again whether your system is configured correctly. If it screws up, it is because of something you did the day before. So all you have to do is think back one day. But, if you leave it on for weeks at a time, you may make changes (to its configuration or installation of software) that require these changes to be saved (on disk). If you forget to do this, when you come to restart you may find something screws up and you won't remember what it was that you changed and you may have a big problem getting it fixed. Also, turning off and on again gets rid of any memory leak problems.

About keyboards: I want to attach a Thai keyboard to my PC. The PC has one USB port (which I like to use for my digital camera or web cam) and a mouse/keyboard port that I currently use for my mouse. Can anyone tell me a good way to connect the external Thai keyboard? For example, is it possible to get something to allow more than one device to be plugged into the USB port? (So I can attach a USB Thai keyboard AND my camera at the same time). Or maybe change the mouse to a USB mouse and get a keyboard that plugs into the mouse socket? All ideas welcome!