Cleaning dust from Laptop?

sparkiemalarkie

Hi, my laptop has been turning off when under stress.
I have scanned for malware, shut down as many background programs as I recognise and defragged.


I now want to see if there is any dust causing overheating.
I have checked on youtube and there is so much conflicting advice that I have decided to do nothing for now.
I have a Toshiba 17" satellite Laptop i3 windows 7 64bit.
It must be 2-3 yrs old.
What is the best way to clean the fan and vents please?


thanks
sparkie

Browntoa

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blast the vents etc when its turned off


may be the thermal paste is failing though in which case you will need to open it up

pmartin86

Easiest way without dissaembling it all is come compressed air...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Compressed-Performance-Playstation-electrical-equipment/dp/B00EQ8C82K/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1436858734&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=compressewd+air

Turn everything off, take out the battery and blast that through all the vents you can see, leave it off for about 20 minutes (Sometimes the air de-compressing can cause timy amounts of moiseture to form) then turn it on again, if that fails you will need to get a scredriver and take it all apart.

Paul

paddyrg

It's also sometimes prudent to stop the fan from turning when you blast it - motors rotated make great dirty dynamos, and can generate a back EMF that the circuit board may or may not handle well. If it's well designed, it will, but for the sake of a little caution it needn't be a question.

grumpycrab

paddyrg wrote: »

It's also sometimes prudent to stop the fan from turning when you blast it

Good idea (to stop the motor). I'd prefer a sucker than a blower - with the motor stopped (and power off) - stick a hoover attachment over the vents. If no luck, search for laptop service manual and see how easy it is to get to the fan itself.

GunJack

the best way is NOT to just blast the vents with air, as all this does is blow the debris that accumulates behind the heatsink back into the lappy. It really needs to be taken apart, the heatsink and fan housing separating, and the accumulated "furry slug"* removing

*if you've never done/seen this before, you'll have one lying along the length of the heatsink, which usually comes off in one piece

kwikbreaks

Plus compressed air cans are often available from pound shops - I have a few in stock.

donnac2558

You can buy small vacuums of doing this. A friend's husband just uses their vacuum, he holds the nozzle about 3 o 4 inches from the vent and sucks.:D

macman

As GunJack correctly points out, using canned air or a vacuum cleaner will very rarely remove the crud that will be blocking the heatsink. There is no shortcut method to do this, you need to dismantle and physically clear the blockage-which can be very easy or very complex, depending on make and model. I've done this on a few Dell laptops without too much difficulty.

paddyrg

btw don't waste your money on the USB mini-vacuums - 5V500mA they can barely spin their own motor, let alone do any good.

enfield_freddy

paddyrg wrote: »

btw don't waste your money on the USB mini-vacuums - 5V500mA they can barely spin their own motor, let alone do any good.

plus they don,t work when the laptop is turned off