To All Laptop Owners - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2015, 07:05:15 pm
content: If like me you find that your laptop is suffering a little during the current warm weather (I hit 90 C whilst watching a YouTube video) there is a solution.1) Dismantle the laptop and clean out all the dust and cat hair. A clean paintbrush helps here.2) Remove the heatsink(s) and using some alcohol clean off the old crusty heatsink compound. Do the same with the CPU, the graphics chip and any other devices that were attached. You can also clean out all of the hair and dust from the heatsink.3) Put new heatsink compound on the two or three chips then refit the heatsink4) TEST YOUR WORK before you put the notebook back together. Most BIOS programs have a way to monitor the CPU temperature in real time and if you see anything over 50C then you've done something wrong and you should shut down and check your work.5) Reassemble your laptop and enjoy some cool computing. In my case the idle temperature dropped from 48C to 32C and I now see 50C when watching EEVBlog. The heatsink compound they use isn't much good and after eight years it just wasn't working.DISCLAIMER******************************************Laptop computers are delicate little creatures and if you don't feelcomfortable doing this then head for a PC repair shop and let themdo the work. If you break it then it's not my fault.****************************************************

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2015, 07:07:44 pm
content: 6) turn it on and realize there is no backlight because you are not a computer technician and screwed something in the processI fixed about 5 laptops that came to me with this exact story

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 06, 2015, 07:08:57 pm
content: Or replace all of these measures with blowing compressed air into cooling exhaust holes. Result will be the same.

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2015, 07:13:09 pm
content: Quote from: wraper on July 06, 2015, 07:08:57 pmNo then you will blow the dust in the machine. Best is to get access from inside to the cpu cooler and there blow the compressed air so it goes out. Best to do this outside *cough*Often you can gain access to the cpu by opening some of the panels on the back. or flipping the keyboard out.

author: hamdi.tn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2015, 07:17:48 pm
content: 6- count screw you forgot to put back it place

author: paulhm81
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2015, 07:35:08 pm
content: If the cpu end of the heatpipe is hot and the fan side is cold, then your heatpipe bled the water inside and you need to replace it!

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 06, 2015, 07:38:57 pm
content: Quote from: Kjelt on July 06, 2015, 07:13:09 pmBest to blow from the outside. As heatsink gets clogged from the inside, it will be pretty hard to push all of the dirt through the heatsink plates as they are very narrow. If just blowing from outside, you can get some dust over inside of the notebook and not back through the ventilation holes but usually it is not a big issue unless you have collected 5+ year worth of dust in the heatsink.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 06, 2015, 07:47:50 pm
content: Quote from: hamdi.tn on July 06, 2015, 07:17:48 pmOr look for the bumps on the enclosure because of screwing long screws in the wrong places.Broken plastic clips, torn flex cables, broken connectors...Actually I've yet to see a notebook disassembled by someone for cleaning and reassembled back in the same condition.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2015, 10:54:45 pm
content: Note that the BIOS may regulate to a given temperature -- this will tend to hide your cleaning process. To find out for sure, you need to stress the GPU and CPU with a reasonably strenuous task.If you see the temperature climbing over the setpoint, you know you need to fix something (clean the fan, do the goop better, replace a heat pipe, etc.).My laptop normally sits around 60C, varying between 50C or below when idle and up to 70C when fully cranking on a warm day. I've seen it go over 80C before (it shuts down if the GPU goes over 100C), which required replacing the heatsink assembly (bad heat pipe).SpeedFan is recommended for monitoring temperatures, fans, etc.Tim

author: Mr.B
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 06, 2015, 10:59:35 pm
content: Quote from: T3sl4co1l on July 06, 2015, 10:54:45 pm+1Also, use Prime95 to stress CPU.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2015, 11:27:13 pm
content: ditch the laptop and use computers that are built in full tower enclosures with big fans in em. see what i did there ?

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2015, 12:28:37 am
content: Quote from: free_electron on July 06, 2015, 11:27:13 pm'Fraid not, couldn't hear you over that cyclone in the background...Tim

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2015, 12:36:52 am
content: My second last laptop was in the "desktop replacement" category. Heavy, < 2 hours battery life, overheat easily.After several overheating issues I discovered that the fan-grill pattern on the plastic case was just decorative and had no holes. It was placed directly on the side face of a blower fan and drilling some messy holes into it fixed all my overheating problems.

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 07, 2015, 01:18:11 am
content: Quote from: wraper on July 06, 2015, 07:47:50 pmWhen I first started fixing laptops, I was working on one with the customer sitting right there (Dell in home warranty). I had 1 screw left over that he could see. Had to disassemble again to find where it went. After that, I developed a method of organizing my disassembly so I never again had left over screws or put the wrong screws in the wrong places. Ultimately serviced over a 1,000 laptops with that company without issues. In fact, there were a couple of times I had to piss out the flames that other techs caused. Just goes to show that when you take care of the little details, the big details take care of themselves. Now, when I work on a laptop for someone or company equipment here at the workbench, I organize the screws using an 18 count egg tray-free parts organizers after a number of breakfasts, especially over easy with habanero hot sauce and smoked sausage-yum.

author: poot36
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2015, 05:20:29 am
content: I think the worst overheated laptop that I have seen was a Toshiba Satellite Core 2 Duo with a removable dedicated graphics card that the northbridge got so hot that it started to melt the plastic sticker on the removable modem an inch or so away from the northbridge! Needless to say the dust in the machine was black and almost sooty like. The video card was also glitching out as well and the lcd hinge mounting points were mostly broken off and even the part of the metal hinge mount was broken (0.5 cm square or so of metal cracked in half!). I suspect that the laptop had been dropped because there were other screws that were not going back in again due to broken mount points. Amazingly the hard drive and lcd were fine.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 07, 2015, 07:16:53 am
content: Quote from: Riotpack on July 06, 2015, 10:37:53 pmIf you need to replace thermal pad, buy thermal pad. Be sure to buy one with right type. Those which are like rubber are the worst ones. Copper shims are for scam GPU "repairs" (heating GPU, applying copper shim. Will last few weeks-months at best).

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2015, 10:56:30 am
content: Also remember that laptop heatpipes often fail to function if the base is vertical.In other words: you're putting the screen flat on the table.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2015, 10:59:40 am
content: Quote

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2015, 01:54:25 pm
content: Quote from: Whales on July 07, 2015, 12:36:52 amstill better than apple, they have neither real nor decorative holes for cooling, it would disturb aesthetics!