Laptop Care How to from Cooler Fans

Dell laptops including Inspiron, Toshiba laptops including Satellite, Sony Vaio laptops, Apple MacBook laptops, Hewlett-Packard Pavilion laptops, Compaq laptops especially Presario and even Suzuki Diagnostic are machines that run hot. Netbooks, notebooks, iPads all bear the burden of being machines that get hot and depreciate. This article will detail the simplicity of keeping your laptop at optimal temperature as to ensure peak performance. In the spirit of economy we'll outline a creative "poor" man's approach to manifesting a laptop cooler.

Programs are getting bigger in size. Gaming has become the great filler of free time. The Internet is a part of our every daily moment whether directly or indirectly. These are all programs and interfaces that require huge amounts of RAM or memory to operate. Constantly pushing the abilities of your laptop will inevitably slow your machine and render it of little use. Keeping your hard drive cool is a key to sustained laptop activity. Laptops are not cheap and especially with penny pinching students keeping your laptops in top shape is and should be a priority. The following are guidelines for creating your own homemade laptop cooler through which it's power will be via the laptop USB port. The term "guidelines" is used as to convey that the limitless possibilities are endless as to the creative endeavor of this project. Here is a brief outline:

1. You'll need a few items. For the accompanied photos an empty 3-ring notebook was chosen as your laptop cooler case. Of course you'll need one or two 12volt PC fans. Preferably two fans but they must be 12 volt and not 120 volt. USB ports can handle only so much voltage and amperage. Excess power may result in short circuits and decreased computer performance. Of course you'll need a USB cable that you don't mind parting with and the author means this literally because you will be cutting it up later. Electrical tape and duct tape is also necessary. Gripper pads should be considered a must. Also needed is a 6" wood rod or 1X1 6" piece of wood to hold the laptop in place and preventing slipping.

2. Real simple! Lay the binder down closed up and in front of you with the mouth toward you. You should now be thoroughly amused for hours if you placed a marble at the top of the binder and watched it roll down to you. This is how your binder should be situated. OK! Place your fan or two on the cover strategically placed according to your desire and your perceived airflow. Trace around them. NOTE: If you wish to mount the fans onto the cover you will need to make another trace about 1/4"-1/2" in from the outer trace that you made of the fan. This is to give the fan screws something to mount to.

3. Cut out your holes according to your tracings. NOTE: Most binders are protected and covered with a plastic sheathing. For ease and annoyance prevention this author highly recommends removing this plastic at least off the top cover of the binder.

4. Open the binder and situate your fans over the holes. Two key points; a., the primary side you plan to plug into the USB port should be the side that your fan wires should be extending out from and, b., do you want the airflow pulling away from the laptop or toward it? Airflow is debatable as some say bringing air in cools the system and others view pulling hot air from the system away from the unit cools it as well. This author rides the line on this one so on his homemade coolers one fan brings air in and one fan pulls air away. This at least ensures air flow and rotation under the laptop.

5. Mount your fans using duct tape. Screws as well if you opted to mount your fans. Either way it is a good idea to use duct tape, however do not cover your fan wires. After this you can look at the mounting on both sides and determine if the cut hole needs further modification.

6. WIRING! Please make sure the fans are 12 volt. Also, make sure you are not color blind because there are only two colors you need to worry yourself over - red and black. First, splice the fans together black on black and red on red. You can twist the bare wires together or you can use electrical connectors that require light crimping. Don't wrap in electrical tape yet!

7. Cut off your application end of your USB cable - NOT the plug-in end. That's a no no... Expose the four wires by stripping the outer plastic and the under foil sheathing. You now have red, black, white and green. You should definitely have red and black. Take the other two wires and fold them back and tape them in place on the cable shaft. Prep the red and black as you did the fan's by stripping them of their plastic sheathing at least an inch long.

8. Splice the USB cable's red and black onto the red and black splicings for the fans. Do so securely and wrap each thoroughly with electrical tape. Test your fans by plugging in the USB cable to the USB port on your laptop. If the fans work you may proceed. If not, then you will need to double check your splicings, whether or not your fans are being obstructed by the cover or tape or whether or not your fans are just dead altogether. You may now secure the splicings and the cord to the underside of the top laptop cooler cover with duct tape.

9. On the top cover at the bottom you will need to mount your laptop stopper rod or wood piece with screws, two sided tape, glue or even Velcro. The purpose is to prevent the laptop from sliding forward off the cooler toward you. Mount it where and at what size and material is most comfortable for you.

10. We want airflow between the laptop and your fans. Why? With airflow the fans will be able to more effectively remove the heat without excess taxing of USB power. Also, it's best not to heat the binder material too much. Not so much the fire hazard but it will make your cover more pliable and susceptible to error. For these reasons place four grippers on the top cover - one at each corner. The laptop will sit on these grippers suspending it off the cooler cover. Turn the cooler over and place four on the bottom cover - one at each corner as to prevent the entire cooler unit from slipping.

That's it and enjoy you new cooler that you constructed with pride and dignity. Some call it the "redneck" way and some call it poor but in the estimation of this author it's smart to use your mind to solve most everyday problems.

For an impactful experiment measure the temperature of your laptop after an hour of normal use before your cooler project. Temperatures in excess of 110 is not unheard of. It can be significantly more with more taxing applications like gaming. After constructing your cooler take the temperature again after an hour's use. You should easily see at least a 15 - 25 degree decrease in your overall laptop temperature which spells increased performance and increased PC longevity.

It is the intent of this author and this article to move the reader into a realm of creative thinking. We live in a world and society of "stuff." Lots of stuff! With this stuff we should be able to figure out simple little remedies to other everyday obstacles that we come across. Simplify your life not with more stuff to buy but rather through creative use of the stuff you already have.

Happy surfing on the "cool" information superhighway!