Computers in hot weather

[Maroochydore]

It may sound a bit silly but since the heatwave started I've had an intermittent occurance on my Lenovo AIO running Win 10.

This manifests itself by an additional mouse pointer going to towards the bottom right of the screen and sitting itself in a light grey circle. The circle appears to be behind the desktop i.e it's there regardless what programme is running or just the desktop.

Occasionally the circle will change into a square and even more occasionally the square will allow blue lines to form a quadrilateral. Sometime the right click menu will appear on it's own volition.

Whilst this is happening the 'original' pointer still operates albeit a bit jerkily.

The nearest answer I can find by googling, is that it is a program catching up and the circle replaces the old hour glass. Somehow I don't buy this because if I leave everything alone it doesn't always disappear, it does sometimes though. Putting into sleep mode and immediately awakening clears the issue.

As I pondered at the beginning, could it be heat related. It's 29 degC by the side of my computer, would this affect anything?

Any other ideas?

[Itsallaguess]

It may sound a bit silly but since the heatwave started I've had an intermittent occurrence on my Lenovo AIO running Win 10.

Would we be correct in thinking that the Lenovo AIO is one of these 'all-in-ones', where the PC itself is contained in the rear of the monitor?

I only ask because I've had experience of other people's heat-related issues with other similar 'all-in-ones', especially where the hard-drive was a mechanical drive.

These things are very compact usually, and don't have the same sort of cooling capacity that more normal 'base-unit' PC boxes have, so I'd suspect that it is heat related.

Is yours an 'all-in-one', and if so, do you know what type of hard-drive is in there?

Something to try that should be fairly simple and might show good results quite quickly - have you got a portable fan that you can direct towards the monitor grill-intakes?

Blowing some cooler air in, even if it's still quite warm 'room air', should get rid of the issue the next time it happens, so set one up in the right position, and then turn it on when you next experience the problem - see if it quickly goes, and it's then likely to be heat-related.

If it does turn out to be heat-related, and you find that you have got a mechanical (likely SATA) hard-drive in there, then have a think about replacing it with an SSD of a similar size (it's a fairly simple job so long as you can access the motherboard), and then that would at least remove one of the biggest heat-sources in the back of the monitor.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Maroochydore]

Would we be correct in thinking that the Lenovo AIO is one of these 'all-in-ones', where the PC itself is contained in the rear of the monitor?

I only ask because I've had experience of other people's heat-related issues with other similar 'all-in-ones', especially where the hard-drive was a mechanical drive.

These things are very compact usually, and don't have the same sort of cooling capacity that more normal 'base-unit' PC boxes have, so I'd suspect that it is heat related.

Is yours an 'all-in-one', and if so, do you know what type of hard-drive is in there?

Hi Itsallaguess,

You are correct it's an all in one, placed on my desk right in the corner of my study so very little airflow. I will try an external fan so thanks for the suggestion.

The spec on the drive says "standard disc drive Model ST2000DM001-1ER164" which means nothing to me unfortunately.

Perhaps I should have mentioned that I also get an occasional whirring noise which I took to be the drive, perhaps it's a fan cutting in which adds to your theory.

Anyway at least I have something to go on now, so many thanks again.

[Itsallaguess]

The spec on the drive says "standard disc drive Model ST2000DM001-1ER164" which means nothing to me unfortunately.

I think it's good news, because that model number suggests that it's a 2TB SATA mechanical hard-drive -

https://tinyurl.com/yas33n79

I say it's 'good news', because if you're able to show that blowing air into the monitor stops the issue, then it means that you've got a relatively simple 'get-out' that enables you to remove some heat from the PC if you think it's a worthwhile avenue for you.

I'd take things more slowly though, and just monitor things and get the fan ready to test when it's appropriate to do so.

You should also take into account that if the fan does help things, then that might actually be your best solution for now, given that it'll soon be that horrid, cold, wet, winter-time, and your problem is likely to go away of it's own accord...

Merry Christmas!



Itsallaguess

[Stompa]

There are a number of discussions regarding similar sounding problems here:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Lenov ... lenovo.com

maybe one of them may be relevant?

[Nocton]

You may like to check the temperature of your CPU:
https://www.wikihow.com/Monitor-CPU-Temperature
https://softlay.net/how-to/check-cpu-temperature-windows-10.html

[Infrasonic]

You can get USB powered mini fans on a gooseneck, which would probably be a better cheap long term solution for thermal throttling than a full size desktop.
Very cheap so get a couple and fire them at the vents.

Thermal throttling is an issue for many modern PC's/NUC's/laptops/tablets (reviewers now cover this as part of their 'stress test' benchmarking.)
The pressure is to make them ever faster, quieter, thinner, smaller, lighter and the laws of physics don't change so throttling becomes an issue.
Cooling of storage (SSD/SSHD) and even RAM is starting to creep into the mainstream now.

[deadeyedjacks]

I've resorted to ice packs underneath the cooling mat for my laptop!
The fan in the cooling mat isn't enough on its own to stop the laptop from shutting down in this hot weather.

(Slimline laptop with i7 proc, NvRAM & SSD drives plus Intel & NVidia graphics cards.)

[Watis]

It's possible that the cooling vents have become blocked by lint picked up over time.

I've had to dismantle both the laptops in my household to get at the cooling fan and clear the exhaust grille that collects the fluff. The main symptom is that the device runs hot and then the thing runs like a dog because the CPU is throttled back to preserve it from damage.

The OP mentioned an 'occasional whirring noise' that might be a cooling fan. Well, when the device can't keep itself cool, the fan noise is permanent and unmistakeably loud!

HTH,

Watis

[Infrasonic]

I've been putting my phone in the fridge if it gets really hot and starts throttling (video streaming or a lot of app updates all at once.)
Only for about a minute or two (and obviously make sure the surface you put it on is dry...)
Works great.

[Breelander]

I've only ever had one laptop that suffered from thermal throttling, and that had nothing to do with the weather. It was entirely due to years of fluff accumulated in the fans and cooling ducts. Very difficult to dismantle that one to get to the fans, but fortunately a vacuum cleaner applied to the outlet vent manage to clean it sufficiently (NOT a recommendation, but I was getting desperate ).

That particular laptop has sailed through the current heatwave without a problem, as have my others.

[Maroochydore]

UPDATE: Ambient temperature has dropped and problem persists. Carried on Googling and came up with a few people saying it was to do with the touchscreen.
SOLUTION: Disabled touchscreen (Device Manager/Human Interface Devices/HID compliant touchscreen-right click and hit "disable device") and literally immediately the problem ceased and thankfully has not returned.
THANKS: to all who responded and hopefully this will add to the pool of Foolish knowledge.