[Olivier]

I did a bit of further testing regarding the temps of the lapbook 14.1. I realised after a while the CPU/GPU started throttling like crazy from 75°C on. Even when just watching a movie and charging at the same time, I would hit that limit easily. The load while playing a movie is not intense, but the processor consumed just a tad under 4 watts in that scenario and the GPU would occasionally spike to 450 Mhz. When hitting 75°C, the CPU consumption would drop at 2 watts and the reading for the gpu would drop at 0. Under those conditions the computer is completely unusable and even the mouse pointer lags. The worst part is that even when the temps fall, the throttling will not stop, you need to restart the laptop.

Since then I have created a thermal pad + copper shim bridge between the heatsink and the backpanel where the metal sheet is taped. Since this rudimentary mod, I can watch a movie while the temps stay around 50 °C on battery but close to 70°C when charging. At least it is not throttling anymore, but I already ordered other parts to strengthen the cooling. Now, my point is, why oh why did they put the upper limit to 75°C and not a more palatable 90°C ? This is completely exaggerated and just screams laziness (and cost cutting obv). What this shows is that even with the added heat sink, the cooling solution on the lapbook 14.1 is insufficient even for common tasks like watching a movie.

Also, I tried to type a text on my lapbook, and it is indeed unusable for me. Often there would be a character missing and it is just too annoying. If there are good Lapbook 14.1 with good keyboards out there, lucky for you. But given I bought it for the screen to watch movies in bed, I can live with inaccurate typing.

[Olivier]

Razor Blader wrote:

I modded my lapbook with a heatpipe that transfers heat from the middle of the metal CPU shield to the metal bar for added thermal mass. Never been able to push the lapbook beyond 76 degrees Celsius ever since even when stress-testing with Prime95 for a few hours and the Lapbook being plugged in for charging at the same time. The bar stays inside.

Hi Razor Blader,

Could you expand a little on the “how” and with “what” you modded your lapbook? I realised that even with the added heat spreader of rev 3, I can still push the CPU to 90°C in no time. Do you have a link or a tutorial? I’m really interested in this. Thanks!

[Olivier]

Hey Justinkeyback

I agree with you, I decided to jump on the lapbook 14.1 bandwagon from China because it was going to be a bet and also a cheap project. Now, I didn’t pay taxes so I got it cheap as hell (could have been even cheaper now as the price dropped 12.5% in the two weeks it took to deliver… I did not expect much and got a decent device out of it. The fun will be to try and make it work as well as it can while tinkering with it. Now I’m trying to figure out why the track pad seems to act great for half an hour and then suddenly becomes crazy as hell jumping from one side of the screen to the other while trying to use more than one finger. I thought it was heat related but my ongoing testing does not confirm this. Might be trickier than I thought to figure it out. Just now I let furmark run in the background, after 15 min the GPU clock drops from 400 to 100Mhz (isn’t it supposed to go to 700Mhz btw?), the fps to 2 while the temps drop from 75°C to 65°C and the whole system starts to lag bad such as if I move the cursor in circles very quickly and get my hand quickly off, it continues to circle for 5 second… Maybe this is related, from the beginning I observed the laptop becomes very unresponsive while windows updates are happening. During this furmark event, i saw the Windows Modules Installer Worker started appearing in task manager siphoning from 25 to 50% of CPU cycles.  Funny fact, when I connect an external mouse, the cursor doesn’t lag at all! Very weird…

[Olivier]

I tried this mod yesterday and I must say I prefer my lapbook with the metal bar. When the screen is at its maximum open position, it doesn’t sit firmly in place, the slightest breeze will move it. I’d like to point out the device does not tip over but it will sit balanced between the rear feet and the bottom of the screen. If I used it as a mobile companion I might consider it, but as a device I will use 99% at home, I prefer it to be more stable and rigid at the cost of about 150 grams more (1350 gr VS 1500 gr). Still, good to know I have the option!

[Author]

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