My Laptop Cleaning Guide (56k)

[xgodxicex]

We all spend a lot of time making sure our computers are clean, our cpu's are coated nicely with good thermal compound, our heatsinks are holding up, and our cases are free of dust. However, most of us seem to neglect another important piece of hardware that also needs care and maintainance; the laptop. Novice users need not apply, however the more advanced computer guru's should take advantage of this tutorial. And I have permission from Rodney to go ahead and post this up here.

Laptop cleaning is very important, as a laptop cools itself using a rather large heatsink, and one or two (sometimes even three) small, high rpm fans...making it a dust magnet. Failure to maintain cleanliness on the inside of the box can and will result in overheating, and sluggish performance due to high temperatures.

For this tutorial, I will be demonstrating the cleaning process on my own Sony (Model : PCG-GRT170) Laptop. For reference information this laptop houses a Pentium 4 DTR 2.8Ghz Processor, 512MB DDR Ram, 60GB Hitachi Hard Drive @ 4200RPMS, and a GeForce 5200FX Go.



NOTE: PROCEED WITH CAUTION; NEITHER I NOR 3DGameMan.com AND ITS MEMBERS OR ADMINISTRATORS WILL TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY IF ANY DAMAGE IS CAUSED TO ANY OF YOUR COMPONENTS. BY READING THIS TUTORIAL AND TAKING ACTION, YOU REMOVE ANY LIABILITIES FROM ME (xgodxicex) AND/OR ANY OF THIS WEBSITE'S MEMBERS

At this stage it is advized to remove any power source connected to the laptop, and remove any and all batteries

Before taking apart the laptop, it may be a wise decision to search the internet for any engineering reports or manufacturer hardware guides to see the proper way to disassemble your laptop. In this example, the laptop uses a single screw on the side of the casing (on Dell's you will find at the top right of the keyboard where the power buttons are located is a screwdriver coded slit, if you pop that off it will reveal the screws necessary for dissasembling):



Uncrew the screw and it will allow you to remove the speakers, and give you full access to the keyboard housing. To do this, simply slide the speaker housing to the left:



Next, locate any and all screws that hold the keyboard in place. Most Sony laptops have only one screw holding the keyboard down, and most Dell laptop's have three screws holding the keyboard in place. Remove the screw to proceed to the next step:



This step needs extreme caution. Slowly pull the keyboard up and take note on how it is connected to the mainboard. Almost all laptops use a thin ribbon cable to connect to the mainboard, and are connected by a push-button latch. In order to disconnect the latch, pull up on both sides to unlock it, in this case i used a screwdriver as my fingers were too big for the area:



Now remove the keyboard and take note of the location of the heatsink and fan housing. In this case, there are two fans, both aiding in cooling the processor and chipset.




Next locate the portion of the heatsink that is connected to the processor. It almost always has four screws surrounding it. (note: in this image the screws were removed)



The screws are each numbered, remove the screws in order from 4,3,2, to 1. The numbers are usually etched into the ceramic heatsink.



Next remove the heatsink. In this case, my heatsink is in two pieces, one is the ceramic fan housing, the other is the heatsink.



This step requires extreme caution, as there is the risk of damaging your processor if you do not comply. Take note of how the processor is locked into the mainboard. On laptops the locking mechanism is quite different than those on desktop PC's. This one is a screw lock type. Naturally, you would remove the heatsink before removing the processor, however, in the case of laptops, it is more of a wise decision to unlock the processor and remove it WITH the heatsink, therefore removing any risk of ripping the processor out of the socket. So in this step, unlock the processor by using a screwdriver, and carefully remove the processor and heatsink together (the processor will most likely be attached to the heatsink by its thermal compound).



Apply a small amount of force to remove the processor from the heatsink. In my case, the processor was tightly stuck onto the heatsink. To fix this "problem" i used a hairdryer to heat up the heatsink for about 30 seconds, and the processor should then pop right off with minimal force.

Next, use some acetone (nail polish remover usually has acetone in it) to remove the thermal compound that is on the heatsink and processor. I have come to realize that Q-tips work real well for processors, and cotton swabs for heat sinks. Use the acetone to clean and polish up the two:




Make sure to clean and use compressed air to get any dust out of the heatsink fins and any dust that is floating around, this is on of the most important steps. The main cause of laptop overheating is due to dust filling up the fins of a heatsink or the areas where the air is exhausted from the laptop. Examine all areas and remove any dust if present.



Next, reseat the processor, making sure that the processor is completely in the socket before tightening. Take extreme care in this step, because if you dont seat the processor correctly, you risk bending the pins and destroying the processor. Next lock the processor into place using the screwdriver.



Next, grab a hold of your favorite thermal compound. I personally have used the Arctic Silver series since Arctic Silver 2, now currently using AS5. Apply a thin and even coat on both the processor and the heatsink. Now take care in this step also, as many people get the misconception of thermal compounds. The more thermal compound does NOT mean better performance, and in some cases, it could actually degrade performance. The real point of thermal compounds is to fill up the nooks and crannies and pockets of space between the heatsink and the processor, thus, a very thin layer of thermal compound will be more than enough to aid in better cooling and performance.





Then, reseat the heatsink carefully, and if your heatsink was a two piece combination like mine, then also reseat the fan housing. Tighten all the screws in ascending fashion (1-4 respectfully), and make certain that you reconnect all of the fans



Reassemble the keyboard by feeding the ribbon back into the latch, and locking the latch by pressing down on each side, and then screw the keyboard back into place.



If your laptop required you to remove the speaker housing like mine, then replace that and screw it back into place, or, snap the housing back into place if you are using a dell laptop. Reinstall the battery, and boot up your computer. Congratulations, you just finished cleaning your laptop's hardware!

[cultist]

I curently have the chance to buy my mates laptop it was insurance right off because the screen broke so they bought spares and fixed it but when fixing it he lost one of the fans so i can buy it off him for really cheap it is a new compaq laptop so i need to look around for the fan are they rare.

[rebekkajoost]

Sorry if I am post in this category, but I am think it's the most suitable.
Stay not long time before christmas and happy new years holidays. I am have big famaly and now I am even not know what kind of gifts make to my friends and famaly.
So my kids, husband, siters, brother and my and husban's parents.
Who also don't know what to present to they? What gifts (not expensive) I can present to my famaly? Any ideas?
What your friends and parent get from you on christmas?
Thank you!