How much of a difference does a laptop cooler make?

I have an old laptop that has been overheating recently, or at least I assume its been overheating. I was just wondering whether or not it would be smart to invest in a laptop cooler or better to just put on the air conditioner or fan? Wouldn't it achieve a similar result?

 

You'd have a better chance of getting rid of overheating by just disassembling your laptop and cleaning the dust out of it, that's what was holding my gaming laptop back as well and now it's running smoother. Make sure to clean up your cpu and gpu fans especially, that's where most of the dust gets inside.
A laptop cooler would help but not that much, from my experience it's not worth it at all.

 

That's fair enough, yeah I figured much the same. Unfortunately it has the warranty sticker over it, it is old so out of warranty but if I ever sell it I wouldn't exactly want to open it up. Thanks anyway I'll take the vacuum and try and suck as much dust out of the vents as I can.

 

I wish I know how to do what @Fuzyon said, open up and clean that and clean this Leave it to me, I definitely won't be able to close it once it is open.

I had a laptop cooling fan before for my HP, it helped very little, and @Fuzyon is right. I didn't pay much for it though.

 

I tried doing the same thing but it will not get all the dust out, most of it is "stored" inside the CPU and GPU coolers and you can't get it out from there through the vents. The laptop is out of warranty anyway and no one will care when you sell it, I say you should open it up.

 

Well I have to say that it is one of those things that you cannot really see how much it is actually working, and to be honest it is a little frustrating. I purchased one for my new laptop because I was told it would prevent a lot of issues, and I have not had those issues, which is good, but I am not sure that it is the cooler that is doing it. I guess it is better safe than sorry, though.

 

Don't be too hopeful about having a cooling pad for a laptop with over heating problem because you will encounter many problems, for example...
The cooling pad is connected to your laptop via USB port which means it will be powered by the laptop's battery. The cooling pad will drain your laptop's battery pretty fast
The cooling pad makes lot of annoying noise.

 

You can get pretty cheap laptop coolers on ebay for like $15.
Sure, they're not worth it, but it gives you a peace of mind.
And you should be upgrading your device every 2-3 years.