Patent ID: 8462499

Claim:
An information processing apparatus comprising: an electronic component; a cooling module configured to cool the electronic component; a thermoelectric element configured to absorb heat generated by the electronic component when a current is supplied to the thermoelectric element, and to generate electricity by performing a thermoelectric conversion using the heat generated by the electronic component when the current is not supplied to the thermoelectric element; a first power source configured to generate first driving electricity to drive the cooling module from the electricity generated by the thermoelectric element when the thermoelectric element performs the thermoelectric conversion; a second power source configured to generate second driving electricity to drive the cooling module using electricity supplied from a supply source which is either a battery or an alternating current to direct current (AC/DC) adapter; a determination module configured to determine whether the supply source is the battery or the AC/DC adapter; and a switching module configured to switch between a first mode and a second mode based on a determination result of the determination module, wherein the thermoelectric element is configured to perform the thermoelectric conversion and the cooling module is driven by the first driving electricity in the first mode, and the thermoelectric element is configured to absorb the heat generated by the electronic component and the cooling module is driven by the second driving electricity in the second mode.