Computer causing me to overheat

[Latearrival]

Vapilot, thank you for your response. I found your explanation very informative. I seem to have a talent for making computers malfunction (computer techs at my former workplace will back me up on that…….I still have the words “I’ve never seen it do that before” ringing in my ears), so I am interested in learning more about how they work. Incidentally, I could feel warmish air coming out of the vents.

Keef, thanks for sharing your experience and for the information about the temperature sensing programs. That sounds like a good idea and I will look into getting one on my computer.

Matt, you suggested running my laptop without the battery.

I did that and it didn’t shutdown or get unusually warm. So, it could be the battery or maybe I didn’t run it long enough— wasn’t at my computer as long as usual today. Re your suggestion about putting the hard drive back in, I forgot to mention that it’s toast. The reason my son replaced it was that my computer crashed one week after the warranty ran out and couldn’t be restarted. (Lost some stuff that I hadn’t backed up but it was a quick and effective way to get rid of a lot of garbage and surprisingly I haven’t missed that much.)

Bushfiva, I think I’ll chance vacuuming the vents. Have a small vac that might do the trick.

Thanks to all of you for your input and for explaining things in a way that even a technophobe like me can understand—no mean feat. I’ll try your suggestions and monitor things for the next week. Will let you know the results.

LA