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I have an external cooling fan for my laptop. It goes underneath the laptop and keeps it cool with a USB cable connected to the laptop. Since exams are rumored to be three hours or more, I am definitely thinking of bringing my external cooling fan to keep my laptop cool during exams.

Is this allowed? I don't want to overheat my laptop. The external cooling fan is silent. Anyone ever done this?

Also, I want to bring along an external mouse so that I may use it instead of my laptops crappy mouse control. When I type, my hands rub against the mouse controls on the laptop and this causes my cursor to move to a different location, switch screens, erase complete lines and paragraphs of text, and is overall very problematic.

An external wired mouse would solve my problems. Are external mouses allowed during exams?

Ask your school. I'm not entirely sure if USB accessories even work with softest though. It basically reboots you into DOS with a simple word processor, as far as I can tell.

Hot diggity, your laptop must be a frying pan if it gets hot from running ExamSoft!

And by mouse controls, I assume you mean touchpad? I'm assuming external mice are allowed and I'm sure an external cooling pad won't be a problem as long as it's not too loud.

zeth006 wrote:Hot diggity, your laptop must be a frying pan if it gets hot from running ExamSoft!

And by mouse controls, I assume you mean touchpad? I'm assuming external mice are allowed and I'm sure an external cooling pad won't be a problem as long as it's not too loud.

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It's not terribly hot, but I'd like to keep it as cool as possible.

Yes. I meant the touchpad. I couldn't think of the correct name for that thing.

Thanks for the reply.

My wireless mouse did not work. As stupid as is sounds, not using my regular mouse was irritating.

kids brought in external monitors to our finals. i imagine usb accessories as long as they're not an iScalia will be allowed. definitely check with the profs/administration, though.

I've never had a problem bringing in a mouse. I don't think a cooling pad will be a problem either.

enygma wrote:kids brought in external monitors to our finals. i imagine usb accessories as long as they're not an iScalia will be allowed. definitely check with the profs/administration, though.

Seriously? Would bringing my 24" improve my productivity?

Mouses.. Seriously?

zeth006 wrote:

enygma wrote:kids brought in external monitors to our finals. i imagine usb accessories as long as they're not an iScalia will be allowed. definitely check with the profs/administration, though.

Seriously? Would bringing my 24" improve my productivity?

Just hook it up to the classroom projector.

zeth006 wrote:

enygma wrote:kids brought in external monitors to our finals. i imagine usb accessories as long as they're not an iScalia will be allowed. definitely check with the profs/administration, though.

Seriously? Would bringing my 24" improve my productivity?

Having two screens is undoubtedly convenient, since you can refer to outlines and other materials without minimizing your exam, but any advantage you'll get will be trivial. As many people here have said, the students who write the best answers won't even be referring to their outlines that often since they'll know the contents well. Plus, if you bring an external monitor and get median anyway, you'll have the reputation of a megagunner without the grades to go with the reputation, which would really suck.

If posts in other threads are correct, you cannot access your outlines on the computer while running ExamSoft SofTest. So the benefit of an external monitor would just be more screen real estate to work with while writing (which I do find advantageous) and a display that is easier on the eyes and perhaps allows a more ergonomic position (which can improve typing speed as well as comfort and with it concentration.)

Also, w/a 24" screen I'd think you'd be broadcasting your answers to everyone seated behind you (at least within the viewing angle.) Or maybe this is desired, LOL. It could be like the lead bomber in the "Flying V."

/cue Memphis Belle

Duralex wrote:you cannot access your outlines on the computer while running ExamSoft SofTest.

Is this software the standard at most law schools today?

Couldn't say. Maybe others can.....

DeSimone wrote:

Duralex wrote:you cannot access your outlines on the computer while running ExamSoft SofTest.

Is this software the standard at most law schools today?

This is not actually true - the professors can set ExamSoft to lock you out of your computer if they want to, but there is also an option to make the test "open computer," then you can access the rest of your hard drive while ExamSoft is running.

Also, I've used an external USB mouse (a Logitech VX nano) for four semesters worth of exams and have never had a problem using it with ExamSoft... maybe it depends on the mouse.

Duralex wrote:If posts in other threads are correct, you cannot access your outlines on the computer while running ExamSoft SofTest. So the benefit of an external monitor would just be more screen real estate to work with while writing (which I do find advantageous) and a display that is easier on the eyes and perhaps allows a more ergonomic position (which can improve typing speed as well as comfort and with it concentration.)

Also, w/a 24" screen I'd think you'd be broadcasting your answers to everyone seated behind you (at least within the viewing angle.) Or maybe this is desired, LOL. It could be like the lead bomber in the "Flying V."

/cue Memphis Belle

That's a ditto with my 24" IPS monitor. Viewing angles and picture quality are a bit TOO good for exam privacy.

.

Update!

After using an external cooling fan under my laptop, the laptop stays so cool that its own internal fan does not need to run. Is this a good or bad thing? I'm guessing it's good as internal parts will not be hot enough to trigger the laptop's cooling system.

SwollenMonkey wrote:Update!

After using an external cooling fan under my laptop, the laptop stays so cool that its own internal fan does not need to run. Is this a good or bad thing? I'm guessing it's good as internal parts will not be hot enough to trigger the laptop's cooling system.

If the internal fan is never kicking in you don't need an external fan in the first place. I'm not really sure why you are stressing out about this. The reasons you might need an external fan are: 1) the laptop's surface is getting too hot for you to touch it; 2) you're actually using it in your lap and it's so hot it's uncomfortable; or 3) you are doing some intensive processing and the internal fan is constantly running at top speed.

If none of these things is happening, you don't need an external fan. It's not a bad thing for the internal fan to run. It's not even a bad thing for your laptop to get hot. "Hot" does not mean it is overheating; if it's overheating, you will know, because bad things will start happening. If your laptop cannot run for three hours without overheating then you should get a new laptop if at all possible.

stonepeep wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote:Update!

After using an external cooling fan under my laptop, the laptop stays so cool that its own internal fan does not need to run. Is this a good or bad thing? I'm guessing it's good as internal parts will not be hot enough to trigger the laptop's cooling system.

If the internal fan is never kicking in you don't need an external fan in the first place. I'm not really sure why you are stressing out about this. The reasons you might need an external fan are: 1) the laptop's surface is getting too hot for you to touch it; 2) you're actually using it in your lap and it's so hot it's uncomfortable; or 3) you are doing some intensive processing and the internal fan is constantly running at top speed.

If none of these things is happening, you don't need an external fan. It's not a bad thing for the internal fan to run. It's not even a bad thing for your laptop to get hot. "Hot" does not mean it is overheating; if it's overheating, you will know, because bad things will start happening. If your laptop cannot run for three hours without overheating then you should get a new laptop if at all possible.

Well, from previous laptops, I've learned that if they run for a long time and get hot, eventually they start shutting down by themselves. I'm assuming this happens because something got fried inside. I'm really trying to avoid frying parts through extensive use.

SwollenMonkey wrote:

stonepeep wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote:Update!

After using an external cooling fan under my laptop, the laptop stays so cool that its own internal fan does not need to run. Is this a good or bad thing? I'm guessing it's good as internal parts will not be hot enough to trigger the laptop's cooling system.

If the internal fan is never kicking in you don't need an external fan in the first place. I'm not really sure why you are stressing out about this. The reasons you might need an external fan are: 1) the laptop's surface is getting too hot for you to touch it; 2) you're actually using it in your lap and it's so hot it's uncomfortable; or 3) you are doing some intensive processing and the internal fan is constantly running at top speed.

If none of these things is happening, you don't need an external fan. It's not a bad thing for the internal fan to run. It's not even a bad thing for your laptop to get hot. "Hot" does not mean it is overheating; if it's overheating, you will know, because bad things will start happening. If your laptop cannot run for three hours without overheating then you should get a new laptop if at all possible.

Well, from previous laptops, I've learned that if they run for a long time and get hot, eventually they start shutting down by themselves. I'm assuming this happens because something got fried inside. I'm really trying to avoid frying parts through extensive use.

Yes, if your laptop is overheating it will probably shut down on its own. I don't think running an external cooling pad is going to help you too much, though. Computer fans like to die. They're really good at it and they usually do it for no reason at all other than they are cheap. Luckily, because they are cheap, they are easily replaced.

It's definitely not a guarantee that if you use your laptop too much, the fan will die, so don't think of an external cooling pad as like "required maintenance" or something. Of course, if you like having one, there's no harm in keeping it! I had to have one for an old laptop and it was such a pain in the ass to haul around so don't be doing that purely out of a sense of obligation or something.

Your computer cannot exceed a certain temperature, if it does there is a mechanism that will reboot it, it is not frying anything. I think the temperature is 170F but not sure. Pay attention to how it is set up and minimize graphics drains.

Matteliszt wrote:Your computer cannot exceed a certain temperature, if it does there is a mechanism that will reboot it, it is not frying anything. I think the temperature is 170F but not sure. Pay attention to how it is set up and minimize graphics drains.

I would use my old fried laptop for movies and youtube. I suspect streaming movies was the culprit.

SwollenMonkey wrote:

Matteliszt wrote:Your computer cannot exceed a certain temperature, if it does there is a mechanism that will reboot it, it is not frying anything. I think the temperature is 170F but not sure. Pay attention to how it is set up and minimize graphics drains.

I would use my old fried laptop for movies and youtube. I suspect streaming movies was the culprit.

Sounds like your graphics card really sucks, I am really surprised that movies had that big of an impact though. It is generally video games that cause those kinds of graphic image problems.

SwollenMonkey wrote:I would use my old fried laptop for movies and youtube. I suspect streaming movies was the culprit.

So it was your porn computer?