The heat pipe in the laptop is broken. What to do? How heat pipes work What's in a laptop cooling tube

In every computer device there are components that help cool the processor, graphics, memory drives and other components. The cooling system of a laptop does the same, so the quality of the system should be on top. cooling system board and all other parts of a computer or laptop, we prevent the device from overheating, performance degradation and failure of some important parts of the PC.

In what cases will the laptop cooling system and not only work poorly? Of course, there is a strong heating of the case, and if you touch the components, for example, the processor, you can even burn your hand. This is unacceptable. Strong noises and brakes in the system will lead to bad consequences if the problem is not corrected in time. You can notice the appearance of errors in the system, the blue taps of death BSoD, the long opening of programs. If so, then first of all take care of the cooling system, and if this does not help, then the reason is in other components.

What is a laptop cooling system?

Now we will consider the structure of the Cooling System (CO). The design consists of many elements. It turns out that the failure of one of the elements means the repair or replacement of the entire cooling system. So, SO consists of:

• heat pipes- having a special liquid tube helps to remove heat from the processor. They are usually made from copper. The CO component is very important, so you should pay attention to it. Can pass through the processor and video card chip, and then to the fan blowing hot air
• copper heatsink- is a small copper plate that removes heat. The structure can also be made of aluminium.
• Fan is an important component of CO. Helps to blow hot air through a special hole in the laptop. The rotation speed of the cooler is determined by sensors on the processor.

We determine the temperature of the laptop

Modern laptops are able to detect high temperatures using sensors. If the threshold is exceeded, the processor starts to work at lower frequencies, as a result, you can see the slow operation of the computer, other components can also reduce performance, this is called when the processor skips part of the cycles to protect itself and other components from thermal damage. Overcoming a critical point, the computer immediately shuts down, although this feature does not exist in all processors.

In addition, you can determine the temperature in two ways: touch the laptop panel, if it is very hot, then you need to take action. The second method is to use special utilities for temperature monitoring. For example, AIDA64, HWMonitor and many others.

It is worth noting that the temperature of the processor should not rise above 70 degrees, and a mark of 85 and above is critical. Modern processors can withstand temperatures of 100 degrees and above, but then the computer will most likely turn off.

The temperature of the video card is approximately at the same level as the processor.

The temperature of the chipset is a maximum of 90 degrees. We look at the characteristics of our chipset on the Internet.

Memory drives should not be heated above 50 or 60 degrees. The optimum temperature for them is 30-35 degrees.

Why does the laptop cooling system allow the device to overheat

The reasons for overheating a computer can be completely different. Let's look at the main ones.

• If overheating began after the purchase of a laptop, then the design of the cooling system is defective.
• After a long period of use noticed loud noises that didn't exist before. The problem is in the cooling system.
• The occurrence of errors in operating system, blue screens of death, slow work applications and their crashes, reboots. All this is due to overheating of the main components of the laptop - the processor, video card and random access memory. What is to blame? The cooling system, of course.

Easy cleaning of the cooling system

It is desirable that you have a compressed air cylinder on your hands, and if this is not the case, you will have to use at least a vacuum cleaner, but very carefully. Now for specific steps:

• We completely turn off the laptop, remove the battery and hold the power button for about a minute;
• We disassemble the laptop (parsing depends on the design, here you will have to try to do it yourself);
• We use a vacuum cleaner or a hair dryer (if it is not possible to get a cylinder of compressed air). We carefully go through the entire body, cleaning it of dust. As you can see, you need to clean not only the laptop cooling system, but the entire computer case.

You should clean your laptop at least once a year.

Deep cleaning of the cooling system

It is possible that a light cleaning of the computer did not help you much. This is likely with a complex design of the cooling system, when a vacuum cleaner or hair dryer will not help much. We follow the following points, which are a bit similar to the previous ones:

• Turn off the laptop and remove the battery;
• We completely disassemble the laptop into parts, the main thing is not to forget in what order to screw them on;
• Using a can of compressed air, a cotton swab, or a lint-free cloth, we begin to carefully clean every corner and every component of the laptop.
• If everything is done correctly and the case together with the cooling system looks clean, you can assemble the laptop.

It is interesting:

Replacing thermal paste

As in a desktop PC, a laptop has a layer of thermal paste on the processor and graphics card. If you have not changed it for several years, then it's time to do it. Before applying, it is necessary to remove the old layer of thermal paste. This must be done carefully, otherwise it can only make things worse. Read the article on applying thermal paste below:

What to do if the fan fails

As we said above, the laptop cooling system consists, roughly speaking, of two parts:

• Fan (cooler).
• Copper tubes, heatsink and other heat sink components.

The output of one of these parts leads to the uselessness of the cooling system. The fan has a bearing that can jam - a characteristic crackling or rattling sound. Modern laptops in the BIOS have the ability to display an error on the screen in the event of a malfunction of the cooling system, in this case, the cooler. You can check in another way - put your hand to the hole on the laptop. If air does not come out, then the fan is out of order.

The reason for poor drainage can also be copper or aluminum tubes, which should remove heat to the radiator grille. It is possible that the fan is running, but what's the point if hot air is not being expelled. Such a problem is even more dangerous than a fan failure, because the processor and other components can burn out due to severe overheating.

How to fix the copper tube problem? There is only one way out - replacement. It happens that you have to replace the entire cooling system. It will be easier if it is removable, and there are worse cases.

Conclusions on the laptop cooling system

So, we have considered the main points related to the cooling system. First, the design, we learned that the CO consists of a cooler, copper pipes, a radiator and a special hole in the laptop case itself to remove hot air.

The main problems of the cooling system:

• A lot of dust in the radiator grille;
• Tube failure. They do not remove heat as they are depressurized;
• Faulty cooler bearing. The fan began to spin more slowly, or stopped altogether;
• The thermal paste of the processor and video card has dried up.

What to do in case of malfunctions:

• Gently clean the entire laptop from dust using a can of compressed air;
• Replace tubes or repair the fan, if this fails, replace the entire cooling system;
• Replace the thermal paste of the processor and video card.

If you do not have the skills to help you do all this, take the device to service center or experienced friend.

Laptop Cooling System Upgrade

What does SO modernization imply? This is an improvement that contributes to better cooling of computer components. It will come in handy even in the case when fixing the problem with the above methods does not work. Sometimes the cooling system in a laptop can be simply weak, so running powerful programs contributes to a strong heating of the processor, because it runs at maximum frequency.

The upgrade consists not only in installing a more powerful fan, but also in adding copper plates to the heatsink. Heat dissipation in this case will be stronger. When installing a new cooler, you may need to re-solder the contacts.

Additional laptop cooling methods:

We have covered the main points regarding CO. I hope now you understand what the laptop cooling system consists of and what malfunctions can occur during operation. Questions can always be asked in the comments.

Working with a laptop, not every consumer thinks about whether he is using it correctly. Of course, a laptop provides ease of use, mobility. However, if you want it to serve you for many years, you should know that laptops are sensitive to cleanliness, mechanical impact and humidity, temperature and ingress of foreign objects. Incorrectly equipped workplace or the lack of preventive examinations can significantly reduce life cycle your device. In this case, the cooling system suffers, attention to which must be paid no less than to such important elements of the computer as motherboard or Winchester. It's no secret that their long-term performance depends largely on a good cooling system.

Structure of the cooling system

During operation, the processor, co-processor and graphics chip of the laptop heat up. To maintain their performance, timely cooling is necessary. The laptop cooling system is a group of components that includes a heat pipe, a heatsink soldered to it, and a fan.

How does it work, you ask? Very simple. The secret is in the construction of heat pipes. They consist of copper fibers filled with liquid (coolant) and air is pumped out of them. And then pure physics. In the process of heating the end of the tube, which is attached to the processor or graphics chip, the liquid evaporates, and the gas passes to the other end of the tube, on which the radiator is fixed. The walls of the radiator and tubes are cooled by a fan, due to which condensation forms. As a result, the cooled coolant returns to the opposite end of the tube.

This process is constantly repeated. However, it can also be broken. If the temperature of the heat pipe exceeds the calculated one, most of the coolant may evaporate, and the thermal conductivity of the pipe will decrease (up to 1/80).

Good to know!

Perhaps you've wondered why you shouldn't put your laptop on the bed? This is due to the design of the laptop cooling system. In addition to the fact that dust gets into the laptop in this way, the dense fabric prevents air from entering. After all, in addition to the radiator holes in the laptop case, there are ventilation inlets (usually from the bottom). They provide a constant flow of fresh air, which is necessary for the correct operation of the cooling system. If you need to keep your laptop on a soft surface, consider buying a special table or cooling pad.

Why does the laptop cooling system fail?

1. Clogged system

Each new generation of laptops is getting thinner, smaller and lighter. In such cramped conditions, it is extremely difficult to place a full-fledged cooling system. The way out of the situation was found in increasing the number of radiator fins. Consequently, the distance between them has become even smaller, so the ribs are quickly clogged with dust. Dust also accumulates on the blades of the fan (cooler).

This problem can only be solved by cleaning the cooling system.. We recommend cleaning at least once a year. When working in a dusty environment, on soft fabric surfaces, and with pets, you should clean your laptop twice as often.

1. Manufacturers saving on quality

To reduce the cost of a laptop, manufacturers often save on the quality of parts. For example, relatively expensive cooling radiators made of super-purified copper are being replaced with cheap alloy counterparts. As a result, the cooling system is forced to work for wear, the slightest pollution contributes to an increase in temperature. If it rises 10-15 degrees above normal, the laptop starts to overheat.

What happens when a laptop overheats:

1. Decreased performance

Most laptops are designed in such a way that when the temperature exceeds +/- 90C, cpu frequency starts to drop. Thus, the system tries to prevent the processor or video card from overheating.

1. The thermal protector is triggered, causing the laptop to shut down

Many laptops have critical shutdown function. When reducing the frequency of the processor does not help to cope with the increase in temperature, thermal protection works. Some manufacturers have envisaged its inclusion in BIOS settings. In case of overheating, the system will signal the critical temperature, or the laptop will simply turn off.

Good to know!

Most users make a global mistake by trying to start the system after an emergency shutdown again and again. Multiple overheating of the processor, microcircuits of the south and north bridges and the video adapter threatens with irreversible changes in the crystals of the microcircuit (degradation). Often, the compound (the glue on which the crystal is placed on the substrate) bursts on microcircuits. As a result, microscopic pads(“piglets”) gets moisture, and they oxidize. In rare cases, the device can still be saved by warming up. In most cases, you have to replace a part, the price tag of which is a third of the cost of the laptop itself.

1. Falling out of order heat pipes

During intense heating, depressurization. There is no reduced pressure in the tube, and the water (coolant) simply boils away.

Today on the website of our computer service there is material about how the laptop cooling system works. We will try to explain this in a simple and understandable language. The laptop cooling system is an important element of its design. It solves the problem of heat removal and dissipation. If the cooling system does not work well, then those important components which it is designed to cool. And excessive heating leads to the failure of microcircuits and the need for costly repairs.

Notebook cooling system components

Everything is simple. A laptop CO consists of three main elements - a heat sink, heat pipes, a cooling radiator, a cooling fan, and a thermal interface.

Heat sink- installed on the heating elements of the laptop. Under typical conditions, it is installed on a processor chip, a video card chip, a south / north bridge (hub) chip, and elements of the power voltage stabilization subsystem that are very hot.

A heat sink is a metal plate, most often made of copper, with a transition to a heat pipe.

Its purpose is to quickly remove heat from the heating elements and transfer it to the heat pipe(s). The heat sink can be one and large in order to cover several heating microcircuits at once (processor + video card). There can be several heat sinks, each of which is connected to a heat pipe, and removes heat from one specific chip.

1 - video card heat sink

2 - heat sink additional elements fees

3 - CPU heat sink

heat pipes- they connect the heat sink and the cooling radiator to each other and transfer heat from the first to the second. CTs are hollow inside and this cavity is filled with refrigerant. It heats up at the heat sink and transfers the received heat to the radiator, transferring it to it.

There may be one heat pipe in the design, there may be several. When there are several of them, this is good, because they work independently and more efficiently. In normal cooling systems, at least 2 heat pipes are used - one between the "processor heat sink - heat sink", and the second between the "video card heat sink - heat sink".

There are chimney pipes different diameter. The more heat must be removed, the larger diameter heat pipes must be used.

Cooling radiator- takes on the heat transferred by the heat pipes, cools the heat pipes. The cooling radiator is made of interconnected copper plates, "strung" on heat pipes. Copper is used in the design of the radiator for the reason that it has a high thermal conductivity and transfers heat well.

The larger the size and the total area of ​​the cooling plates of the radiator, the more efficient it is. In order to save money, there are radiators made not from copper, but from other, cheaper metals. Such radiators are less efficient, because. the materials used in them have a lower thermal conductivity.

By itself, it can cope with the dissipation of incoming heat. But for that. to increase its efficiency, a fan is used to blow the radiator. The forced cold air entering the laptop through the ventilation holes blows over the radiator and carries away the heat accumulated on it.

The fan is also a cooler- pumps air flow onto the radiator, which leads to more efficient cooling radiator.

The larger the fan, the more air it can blow. But there is no room for a large fan in a laptop. Therefore, the air flow is increased not due to the size, but due to the fan speed.

The fan in a laptop with a cleaned cooling system rotates at such a speed that it is not audible. But when the CO radiator is clogged with dust, the automation increases the rotation speed to such that it becomes audible. Sometimes even very much. And if so, then .

The fan can also buzz for the reason that one of the blades has broken off from a heavy load. But in modern systems the blades in the fan are interconnected along the outer perimeter.

The cooling system needs preventive maintenance in the form of periodic cleaning of accumulated dust. If you miss and do not clean the laptop, it may overheat, and some of its components may burn out.

For those laptops that have already burned out from overheating, repairs are needed to replace the affected nodes. If there is no desire to repair a laptop, then this approach will allow you to return at least part of the money spent on purchasing a laptop and free up the space it occupies.