So my latest project has been cooling down my laptop, which has resulted in me being off of the computer for uncharacteristic amounts of time during the past few days and made my work this morning particularly hectic. Monday's undervolting with Notebook Hardware Control ran well into Tuesday (if I'd known it would take that long, I would've waited), but the CPU appears to be running 5-8 degrees C cooler. No change in the HDD temperature.
Then I tried fooling with I8kfanGUI, but I kept wondering why the CPU temperature wouldn't stay constant and kept making the fans turn on and off. Apparently the fans on the laptop are supposed to remain on at all times (or at least that's how the system is designed), so the program was sort of counteracting the design by turning them off. I wish I could keep them on always and have the program up the fan speed at a lower critical temperature, though, because with the undervolting the system never hits the necessary temp (around 70 C) necessary to send the fans into overdrive. I'd like to see them get antsy around 60 C, but hey. Maybe I can mess with the BIOS values...
Anyway, I also purchased a cooling pad to use with the laptop, but I had the good fortune of ordering a defective item so now I have to go to the post office to ship the sucker back. I generally like buying things online -- it's so convenient and things are often discounted and come STRAIGHT TO MAH DO', but one problem is that when one does get defective products one ends up paying double shipping and having to go out anyway, which sort of negates the advantages. Ah well.
To people I owe e-mails -- thanks for your patience! Until next time, BE COOL.