Laptop in bed?

[Phoenix54]

Is it bad to use your laptop at light workloads in bed? I know it'll overheat if you're doing heavy workloads causing permanent damage, but if you have a mid to high range laptop does it do any harm if Im only browsing chrome with the minimal amount of background processes and cpu usage?

[vanished]

Generally this will block the vents and seriously reduce its cooling ability, but in theory, as long as everything you have a temperature sensor on (CPU, motherboard, SSD, etc.) stays within a reasonable level, it should be fine.  I'd still avoid it if you can though.

[Kosios]

The pther problem is that it could cause more dust to come through the vents.

[SCHISCHKA]

blanket fibres are very good at collecting on heatsinks

[Phoenix54]

4 minutes ago, Kosios said:

The other problem is that it could cause more dust to come through the vents.

 

This is also what I was worried about,I guess Ill just keep it on my desk and either use a tablet or my old laptop instead.

[m0k]

just put the laptop on a book.... or literally anything else if youre worried about heat issues

[SageOfSpice]

I do pretty much all my computing on a bed.

A nice, thin, sanded board can make a really nice tray to put your laptop and mouse pad on.

 

I've even used boxes on occasion.

 

It even works when you don't have a desk, as you can place the wood or box on the arm rests and use it that way.

 

Running it directly off the mattress is a bad plan though. I've taken apart a few laptops that have sat on beds, and the fibers really clog up the heatsink. So much so that in one laptop, the fans stopped spinning entirely. The thing was in a perpetual state of thermal throttling at idle.

[Guest lilbman]

My cousin broke her laptop this way.  She ALWAYS used it on the bed on top of a super thick comforter.  She didn't know that that was awful for it.  Damn thing won't even turn on now.

[Phoenix54]

I bought a new laptop yesterday and used it on my bed for about half an hour to an hour mainly having it on my jeans rather than my bedsheets at low workload before putting it on my desk and going to sleep hopefully this doesn't have any permanent consequences...

[paddy-stone]

I've used my laptop in my bed loads of times, have had it like 5 years and still runs great, doesn't thermal throttle or anything, mine is an i7 2670qm. mine is blower fans though, and when in bed I always make sure the vents aren't being covered by the blankets/duvet etc. I think as long as you're careful it should be OK, but if worried then as others have said, just use a board to sit it on to keep the vents from being covered.

[Phoenix54]

Same goes for my old Lenovo z50 I usually just do light work like Photoshop and Illustrator on it, it has the fans on the left side so I always keep that area cleared. When I do 3D rendering I usually do it at a desk though and so far it hasn't really shows any wear. I got some 12mm wood (not that kind) to put my laptop on with enough space for a mouse so guess Ill go with that. My new laptop has its fans on the back so when I used it I did keep that in mind. Either way thanks for the support.