Hot Lap-Top

You said that your laptop was an older Dell, an Inspiron 8600. This would be note more than four or five years old, and probably has a Pentium M in it, right? Running on that assumption then:

The Pentium M has always been known as a fairly cool running laptop CPU, especially compared to the older P4s. Considering the age of the machine, the first thing I would check would be to see if the heat exchanger is clogged with dust. Try blowing it out with compressed air, either canned or filtered and regulated down to about 50psi. If that doesn't do it, you may have to open the case to get to it and clean it with a brush. That should solve your problem.

However, if your laptop is still running hot after you've cleaned out the heat exchanger, than a cooling pad is indeed in order. They are not terribly expensive and go a long ways towards preventing melt-down. Most are powered from your laptop's USB Port.

Hi

although I live in a coastal city (Alexandria, Egypt) along the southern Mideteranian shore, in summer time, I place a small electric Blower on my desk close to my Lap Top because I feel how hot the air coming out of the Lap Top's heat exchanger. Both the Lap Top and the electric Blower have commom key that operates both devices when I turn it to the "On" position. I isolate that Blower if the air heat in my study room becomes unbearable so I turn on the airconditioning. Dear Wife used to have that small light-weight Blower in the kitchen to use it when she cooks. As a career woman; the maximum cooking time I managed to record for her staying in the kitchen has been 15 minutes. I convinced her that she can manage without that Blower. I have been looking for one more similar Blower in the shopping Malls but it seems the Chinesse stopped sending in more of that lovely looking invention!