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Bit of a backstory here, skip to the bottom if you just want the question:

So I recently purchased new HP laptop. Although I'm not any sort of a hardcore gamer, I like to play games that I occasionally come by. After two weeks of usage, with Assasin's Creed 4 being played for 1-2 hour stretches on most days, I started getting the 'Graphics card has stopped working and recovered error'. (The laptop used to heat up like crazy while gaming, but an ASUS laptop I used prior to this one heated up to similar levels and worked flawlessly. The laptop never turned off due to heating, though) I assumed it was a software issue, and it went away after I turned off 'Link state power management' under 'PCI express'. But a few days later, it was back again. Annoyed, I ran FurMark GPU tester. The laptop crashed within a minute or so, and refused to turn on.

I got it back a week later with a new motherboard, replaced for free under warranty. I haven't run any games since (It's been just a few days), for fear of causing all this again. I'm assuming heating killed my laptop, so I'm considering buying a cooler. (Please advice me if this is actually necessary)

Specs that may or may not help: 2.2Ghz AMD A8-7410 with AMD Radeon R5 M330 with 2GB VRAM and 4GB of regular RAM.

Now, onto the actual question: All laptop coolers I have come across blow air up from the BOTTOM, while the only vent my laptop has is an exhaust went on it's left SIDE. I haven't spotted any intake vents anywhere at all. So how can a fan that blows air from the bottom cool my laptop when 99% of the heat is concentrated in the area near the exhaust vent? It seems like most of the cooling of the fans would go to waste, even if it reaches the exhaust vent. So are there cooling fans made for laptops with exhaust vents on the side (Which is every laptop I've come across), or am I dumb and blowing air from the bottom is enough for cooling?

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    Normal usage (including gaming with the air vents not blocked) should not kill a laptop. Either it was a fluke (or a Monday morning model), or the laptop design is broken.
    – Hennes
    Commented Nov 20, 2015 at 13:19
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    A fan that cools your case isn't going to do anything except make the case cool. "So are there cooling fans made for laptops with exhaust vents on the side (Which is every laptop I've come across), or am I dumb and blowing air from the bottom is enough for cooling?" - Most of these cooling solutions don't really work in the first place. As Hennes sort of hints at, just using your laptop, didn't actually cause it to fail.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Nov 20, 2015 at 13:36
  • How recently did you purchase the laptop? Dusty fans sometimes will not work properly, hence when CPU gets too hot, the system will auto shutdown without any error message "The laptop crashed within a minute or so, and refused to turn on." - How long have you waited to turn on the laptop again?
    – doenoe
    Commented Nov 20, 2015 at 13:36
  • @doenoe - Please read the question. The author laptop broke, he repair it under warranty, this isn't a situation of a dusty laptop.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Nov 20, 2015 at 13:36
  • IMO laptop coolers are just shy of snake oil. The laptop's internal cooling should be enough for heavy usage, if it doesn't then something is wrong. "I haven't run any games since (It's been just a few days), for fear of causing all this again" You playing games should not break anything. If the laptop is still under warranty then now is the time to use/stress it as much as possible so that you can continue to use the warranty to get it fixed until the problem is resolved.
    – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
    Commented Nov 20, 2015 at 13:37

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This should never happen with any proper laptop. Go ahead and try out the games. If this still happens, with the graphics card stopping to work, either the graphics card is faulty that it cannot withstand temps or the motherboard is super low quality. Either way, under normal conditions, as long as you don't overclock or keep your laptop in the oven, no matter how much you game or bench on it, you can claim your warranty. I am guesing that the heat melted your motherboard.

Be sure of the following though: Since your vents are on the left, make sure that when you are gaming, in a couple of minutes, hot air should start blowing out of the vents. Generally, all cards heat up to high levels within this amount of time and the heat should be noticeable. If it is not, then you simply have a faulty fan.

As far as the cooling fans are concerned, while these would help a bit, they wouldn't help lower the temps if they are killing your laptop. These are generally designed to keep your laptop extra cool, not normal. In this sense, they would help, but not much. This wouldn't be a good solution, though.

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