Steve Litt - 07.07.24, 12:10:00 CEST:
> Except that laptops are usually inefficient at disbursing heat, so
> spending a lot of time with highly loaded CPUs can reduce the life of
> the machine. So can using it on a bed with blankets like my daughter
> used to do as a teenager :-)

Kids can do funny things to laptops.

I saw a video where a little girl carefully washed a laptop and a so
called smart phone with water. Of course only with the best intentions.

Do not do that at home. It can be very dangerous. As Lithium and water do
not combine all that calmly. It can burn like crazy and even explode.

So do not wash your Lithium based batteries. You can find various videos on
what happens with Lithium in water. I would not want that at home.

Actually even exposing Lithium directly to air, maybe even in direct sun
light, is not something I can recommend. Those batteries are encased for a
reason! And the hint not to dismantle them is to be taken serious.

> Also, I'd never run super high CPU programs like my prime number
> generator
> (http://troubleshooters.com/codecorn/primenumbers/primenumbers.htm) on
> a laptop, or even an insufficiently cooled tower case.

I yet have to see a *well made* laptop break down for thermal issues.

Sure I have seen thermal shutdowns… like with a certain older Acer laptop
when lid was closed for working with an external monitor. Well too bad,
when the air output is towards the top, towards the closed lid. But the
same laptop sustained a stress test over night easily when the lid was
open! It was just gone quickly if it was closed. There was even hardware
damage in that case. That written I have nothing to say about current Acer
laptops. I bet they are just fine regarding that!

Replaced by a ThinkPad… no issue ever been reported again.

None of my ThinkPad business grade laptops went out for thermal reasons.
Not one of them. And I frankly did not care about the workload. Sure most
of the time they idled none the less, cause what I do to? Surf here, write
this mail, read this PDF, watch a video and so on. All idle work on a
modern laptop. But… they also did work. Sometimes for hours in one go like
initial backup, scrubbing 1,5 TB of data, running a somewhat demanding
game for hours, encoding a video, the latter I had running even for a day
or two… over night… cause it can easily take that long. Real time encoding
with OBS Studio… and so on. The laptop sustained it. Easily.

Would I run a computational workload for a week in one go on them?
Probably not. Consumer hardware is often not specifically aimed at 24/7
duty. Would it break a good laptop? Very likely not either. Common sense
goes a long way. It is similar with good flash storage. Breaking it by
writing too much can be very challenging. Good flash takes a lot! However
would I write needlessly onto it? Likely not.

A hardware being able to sustain a certain workload does not automatically
make it a good idea to run it. Do what is necessary or you like to do and
on a good laptop it should not be a problem. But do not run workloads just
because you can unless you have an interest how your hardware will do and
you are okay with a probably somewhat reduced live time. Either it is
something you need to do or something you like to do, like a game. A good
laptop will sustain it. Easily.

And no… I am not employed with Lenovo. And of course there are well made
laptops from other brands. And no, not all laptops by Lenovo are well
made. And yes, I think ThinkPad business model quality was generally
better in IBM times.

--
Martin