Are you sure it isn't something UNDER the counter like a dead something caught in the cabinet or the like?

Does it smell like fish?

Could the heat from the laptop be burning something on the surface of the granite - maybe the sealer or cleaner residue? The bottom of the laptop is where it vents.

The area that is affected is the counter top where the "laptop nook" is, its like a little desk integrated into the kitchen counter area. The laptop sits on a slanted stand for ventilation,it doesn't sit directly on the granite. Under the counter is one drawer then open for a desk chair, and a small cabinet to the side for files etc.
It's just a small area of the counter top that releases this smell ,its not the whole slab,as if some kind of chemical was spilled on it.I can't figure it out.

It's probably releasing radon :-)

Have you moved the laptop to another room to see if the smell goes with it? Maybe something is burning inside it.

I asked you whether it smelled like fish. You chose not to answer. Hope it doesn't; it could burn your house down.

I'll ask - what does the fish smell mean?

Potential festering electrical fire.

From an electric eel then, no doubt! ;-)

Wow - that is dangerous! Does that mean going behind the walls to find the problem?

You might want to call an electrician. They should be able to test the circuits and even use a thermoscanner to see if there is a hot spot behind the wall. If something died in your wall (it happens), you can open up the wall and try to find and remove it, use enzymes, baking soda and charcoal or lava rock to try to neutralize the odor and/or wait it out -- the smell will go away IF that is the reason, but it takes some time.

There are another two things that smell in a wall. Mold and small dead creatures.

Small dead things will smell very bad, but it will stop in a few days.

It's also possible the granite itself smells. The heat of the laptop may have degraded the sealer. As a result, either the sealer itself smells, or something has sunk into the stone and begun to decay. A first step would be to see whether water beads up equally well around the smelly area as well as the rest of the countertop.

Just last week my area near my desktop computer was giving off a noxious odor. To me, it smelled like chlorine at a pool, kind of? I kept thinking the kids left some pool gear nearby, but I couldn't out the source of the smell. Then suddenly, while working on my computer, the monitor started smoking, and the smell turned into an electrical burning smell. I now think the weird scent was the beginning of the electrical problem with the monitor, but I never would have guessed that at the time.
All that is to say, it could be an issue with your computer, itself.

Exactly, home4all6. We had the motor of a ceiling fan in the master suite burn up the first day in our new house (right after we got the keys, but before we discovered that the subzero fridge no longer worked). I kept thinking it was one of those Clorox toilet disks or something (since it was near a bathroom). Nope. Almost caught the attic insulation on fire. Horrible bleach-y smelling smoke. Needless to say, we discovered how very friendly and fast the LRFD is. They were here before I'd even gotten my purse off the table and my cell phone back in my pocket.