laptop very very hot

chickaroonee

TonyMMM wrote: »

It will be "fluff" build up on the internal side of the vent. Remove the cover, take out the fan (as in pic above), and you will find a layer that looks like a strip of felt blocking the duct . No amount of hoovering from the external side will remove it. Get the felt out and the laptop will run cooler again ....i've had to do this on numerous laptops, always works.

I'm sure that's what he did, he had the cover off and hoovered it inside I think. Will try and do it myself again though to be sure.

Do I just unscrew the cover and go for it? Eek.

Hammyman

Hoovering it out DOES NOT FIX THE PROBLEM. It merely makes a reassuring noise and wastes electricity. You need to take the fan out of the laptop and clean the gap between the fan and the heatsink.

You will probably find it looks like this Acer did. The fins on the copper heatsink are too closely spaced for a hoover to suck that wad through.

MeanSnark

Hammyman wrote: »

Hoovering it out DOES NOT FIX THE PROBLEM. It merely makes a reassuring noise and wastes electricity. You need to take the fan out of the laptop and clean the gap between the fan and the heatsink.

You will probably find it looks like this Acer did. The fins on the copper heatsink are too closely spaced for a hoover to suck that wad through.

Have to agree with the above. Not only will hoovering not help but the plastic nozzle on the vacuum cleaner will generate static charge and you could end up blowing components.

Take the fan off. It should be 4 screws. Get a fine paint brush (artists brush not decorators brush) and brush the fluff and dust out. Clean between the fins of the heat sink and make sure that air can flow freely through all the vents. You'll probably have to clean out the carpet of fluff that you can see in the pic above in front of the vents. Someone mentioned a can of compressed air and this can be handy for getting at hard to each parts.

I'd do this first and only check the thermal compound if it hasn't helped. If you do need to reapply it then get a silver based compound like Arctic Silver from maplin or somewhere. Remove the heatsink and clean the old paste off it and off the cpu with a lint free cloth and some alcohol. I use cheap vodka. Apply a blob of compound the size of a matchhead to the middle of the cpu. You only need enough to fill the microscopic grooves in the underside of the heatsink so less is more. You don't need to smear it around as the heatsink will do this when you put it back. Reseat the heatsink and fan and you'll be good to go.

justjohn

if you are dismantling to clean, then renew the paste. it saves hassle in long run

chickaroonee

Thanks so much for all your help. Fan off but not that dirty at all, paste however has melted completely. Will go to maplin today for some paste. Should that fix it?

Browntoa

paste should be like a sort of thick glue type consistancy , if its failed its often dry and crumbly

buy the more expensive maplin one with Silver in it , thermal paste is one area where you get what you pay for

and no , possibly it may not fix it , some laptops are badly designed and just cannot deal with the heat they produce

chickaroonee

I'd add a photo but on my phone and not sure how to. Is there an easy way? It does have glue like consistency but very thin looking and as if it's melted perhaps

cit_k

chickaroonee wrote: »

I'm sure that's what he did, he had the cover off and hoovered it inside I think. Will try and do it myself again though to be sure.

Do I just unscrew the cover and go for it? Eek.

What is the make/model of the laptop?

If your not sure how to open it all up, try to find a service manual which talks you through disassembly, or a youtube video where someone demonstrates, as its quite easy to break the fragile plastics on some laptops if your not sure what your doing..

Always ensure battery is removed, and power is unplugged completely from laptop before opening up in case anything (screw/screwdriver whatver) slips and falls inside.

chickaroonee

Thanks very much all - have bought and reapplied the paste. Fingers crossed this fixes it - it definitely wasn't dirt/fluff, the fan didn't look like that picture at all. Only a very small amount of dust was in there really, I think my BIL must have cleaned it properly.

Feels cool so far but laptop has been off for a while so who knows..

chickaroonee

Me again - doesn't seem to have worked unfortunately Laptop is very hot once more.

Is it new laptop time? This one is getting very slow on start up, so perhaps it is. Did hope it would last a bit longer but perhaps it's reaching the end of its life?

If so, can anyone recommend a cheap laptop. I only need it for entering competitions/web browsing really, and small amounts of word processing but not really for watching movies etc. Budget is small...