Well, not yet. The replacement fan, advertised as replacing the part number marked on the old one, arrived yesterday.
It is not any kind of possible fit. The mounting holes don’t line up at all, and also the open end the air goes out is 3/8″ less wide. That’s the new one at the top of the photo, old one still installed in the laptop at the bottom, with the three mounting screws circled in red.
Oh well! Exercising the return option.
Remember that really cool laptop lap-desk / cooler that neatly nests around the laptop for storage? I’m on my second one (second laptop was larger).
I just got notice that they’re having a big sale, the biggest deal being free shipping including into the US (the fact that you had to pay shipping from Canada was a factor driving up their effective price rather high).
See their website.
I wouldn’t be that surprised if they disappeared when the inventory sold out.
I think, for once, I got this right the first time. I’ve been casually shopping laptop stands for, oh, a decade or so I guess. It became somewhat urgent when the heat issues got bad enough that they all have vents on the bottom, fans, and still get rather hot at some points.
For me, the stand is primarily for use on the road. I don’t use it at home that much; I’ve got a desktop system, with a comfortable chair and a big monitor, for that. So one of the big issues is the space it took up in the bag. Also, I’d prefer one that doesn’t draw on the laptop batteries to run additional external fans (those also tend to be rather thick and hence hard to pack).
I finally found a company that had created the ideal solution to this problem—Koolsink. They make a simple aluminum sheet, bent into a narrow “J” shape (rather like a “j-card” for a CD jewel case), just the right thickness for the computer to fit inside it for storage, and to provide a little slant for use on a table. They make a number of sizes; do be sure to find the right one for your laptop!
As usual with such things, it’s a rather expensive sheet of bent aluminum. Worse, from my point of view, the shipping cost is nearly as high as the product (to the USA; they’re in Canada). And they don’t have retail dealers, they only sell direct.
I’ve now had it for a couple of weeks, though not for a road trip. It fits nicely around my computer in the bag, and works very well both on a table and in my lap to keep the vents clear and my lap cool. I would have to describe it as doing everything I hoped it would do (I admit, my hopes did not include world peace; or a pony).