One of the things that concerns me as a support guy is the tendency of laptops to overheat when operating “flat” on the tabletop. I have one, admittedly several years old, that will shut itself down after about a half hour of operating like that.
My previous solution has been to use whatever’s handy to prop up the back of the laptop so that it gets some decent airflow. Unfortunately, that “whatever’s handy” item isn’t always handy.
In glancing through the Cyberguys catalog some time ago, I ran across an interesting item: “Laptop Legs:”
I’ve been using them on my main laptop for several years, and I’m satisfied enough with their value vs. price (US$11.49) to take the time to write this up. (And no, I have no connection with Cyberguys beyond being a long-time and very satisfied customer.)
I just ordered three more sets to fix up my wife’s netbook and a couple of laptops that I’m setting up. The packages look like this:
They have adhesive backing, and they can be removed, at least according to the instructions, although they also caution that it may leave some adhesive residue behind. So I would (1) plan carefully where you plan to put them on the laptop, and (2) plan on not removing them.
When they’re on, they look something like this (on my wife’s netbook, an Acer Aspire One):
Once installed you have two legs that can be folded out. The smaller one is 1”, the larger is 1-3/8”. The smaller one also has the rubber padding on it, so that if you do need to leave it flat, it has less of a tendency to slip around.
Folded out, they look like this (on an old Dell Inspiron 1100 I’m planning to reuse):
In this case, I’m using the longer legs to prop this laptop up. As you can see, with the legs folded out there’s plenty of room for airflow through the fan opening on the bottom of the computer, into the system and out through the vents in the center and the viewer’s far left of this laptop. Using the SpeedFan utility, which I use to monitor the temperature of the CPU, I notice a significant improvement between not using the legs and having them folded out.
BTW, I took the photo with the laptop on a rug just to provide some contrast to make it easier to see the legs, but I don’t normally use it that way. :)
The Laptop Legs are manufactured by LapWorks of Cucamonga, California. Details on this specific product can be found on their website here, including a video demonstrating the installation procedure.
Again, I have no connection whatsoever with either Cyberguys.com or LapWorks, other than simply being a customer.
Thanks for reading!
-- //Steve//
