Oops! I think I've killed my laptop...HELP!

CliffWalker_2

Hi all, I'm hoping someone out there can tell me what I've done wrong...
I've got an Advent 6522 laptop that recently has been telling me that my CMOS battery needs replacing (I assumed - perhaps wrongly - that all it did was back up the correct time, so I didn't exactly rush to replace it). Its also been turning itself off at inopportune moments, usually after an hour or more. I assumed (there's that word again) that there might be muck in the cooling fan (I've been doing work in the house and made a fair bit of dust over the last few weeks) and the computer was getting hot.
I then started getting more urgent messages before the laptop would fire up fully, telling me to press F2 to continue to run the computer (to do with the CMOS battery again?)
Realising that I might have an imminent problem on my hands, I took the precaution of backing up my photos and stuff (clever eh?).
I then decided that a spring clean was in order (Oh dear) and removed the cooling fan to blow the dust out. Two things happened while I was doing this. One was that I noticed the CMOS battery was right behind the fan, so I fetched a new one and replaced it (fanfare). The other was that I found some horrible white gloop on the back of the fan (?). Naturally I assumed (that word again) that it shouldn't have been there.
So I wiped the back of the fan nice and clean.
As I was blowing the fan free of dust (and there wasn't that much, to be honest) I wondered what sort of job the fan did, as it didn't blow air into the laptop, just over some cooling fins that were simply part of the fan assembly. How does this cool the laptop exactly?
When I reassembled it all, I completely re-set my laptop with the recovery CD (Well, might as well do a complete spring clean?)
Now it won't power up at all...
I get a couple of flashing lights for a split second and then nowt.
Please tell me what I've done.
A. I've wiped off some super high conducting paste that connects the fan to the computer and now the laptop doesn't think it has a cooling fan any more?
B. Something went wrong with the CMOS battery replacement?
C. I'm an idiot.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Before I go tail between my legs to PC World.

I promise not to fiddle with it again...

Jzpop

Almost impossible to diagnose without having the laptop in front of me, but here goes anyway...

D. You have not seated the CMOS battery correctly
E. You have dislodged another component, e.g. RAM
F. You have failed to reconnect leads / connectors that you disconnected
G. Internal battery is flat - try starting with laptop connected to mains (never overlook the blooming obvious )
H. Recovery CD operation failed, and no valid operating system can be found (although you should get further into the boot sequence than you are if that is the case)

As a general aside, it is most likely that the 'white gloop' was grease, providing lubrication for the spinning fan. The fins should be connected to the copper block that sits on top of the CPU, drawing heat away from the CPU. Moving air over the fins increases the efficiency of the CPU cooler, a little.

espresso

Jzpop wrote: »

As a general aside, it is most likely that the 'white gloop' was grease, providing lubrication for the spinning fan.

No the 'white gloop' would be a thermal compound with a high thermal conductivity. see here.

How would gloop of any colour provide lubrication for the spinning fan?

:rolleyes:

toasterman

I'd have said the white gloop was thermal compound.
Full details here -> http://www.heatsink-guide.com/content.php?content=compound.shtml

I doubt its the CMOS battery. It is used to store settings without power. You will get errors on screen, but you can still use a pc with a dead CMOS battery.

It is difficult to say what it is without seeing it though

MrsTinks

Agree with Jzpop - my first thought is that either the CMOS battery is not seated correctly or it's duff... or it was never a CMOS battery in the first place but came up warning you about CMOS because something was screwy... Also worth noting is that if the original battery was a rechargable one or not as you can't change from rechargable to non and vice versa...
The gunk... well sounds like it's not vital, certainly wouldn't have thought it should cause this kinda problem...

MrsTinks

espresso wrote: »

No the 'white gloop' would be a thermal compound with a high thermal conductivity. see here.

How would gloop of any colour provide lubrication for the spinning fan?

:rolleyes:

On the fan? If it was almost anywhere else I'd agree...

toasterman

It IS technically possible to run a machine without the gloop, but it is highly recommended you use it. Without it, you are a lot more likely to have overheating problems, which can damage the internals.
For a £3 tube of thermal compound, it isn't worth the hassle of not using it to find out if it fries your machine.

On the upside, I'm glad you backed up all your files before you started. To be negative for a second, if something in the machine has been damaged beyond economical repair, at least you haven't lost all your data.
Is it an old laptop?
You could use it as an opportunity to upgrade to a shiny new one?

espresso

The thermal compound is used between the CPU and the heatsink/fan assembly and is important to aid the transfer of heat from the CPU to the heatsink, which is then cooled by the airflow created by the fan. An incorrectly fitted CMOS battery could prevent boot up, as it enables the details of hard disk etc. to be stored in memory and this could now be lost.

Browntoa

I've had a thought, is'nt half the password for the laptop on the cmos....if it's picked up some wort of corruption it will not boot...