Laptop Overheats!

[Bob98SR5]

I would NOT blow out the vent or fan with compressed air. ask me how i know.

If you turn your laptop over, you will see that its pretty easy to take apart provided you have the right screwdriver(s). Place your laptop on a piece of big paper just in case those little screws get away when you remove them. Make sure you remove the battery and AC outlet before you start removing the screws. You'll figure it out. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to finally get to the fan. I betcha you will pull a dust bunny from hell out of the fan area. I did twice over the life of my 5 year old laptop.

Consider getting one of those cooling fans. Even the cheapy ones work well. I bought a metal one that's slanted upwards with three fans on it. It keeps my Dell 700M cool and this laptop is notoriously known for having a hot palm pad.

[fenrisx]

Well.. I start takin' her apart. It was coming a part fairly easy. I had to take the monitor off to get to two small screws. Then I was gently pulling it apart, but it was being stubborn near the mouse area. I decided to stop there because I didn't feel like breaking anything. This is our only computer, lol. If I managed to break it I'd have a hard time doing some of my course work.

With that said.. I'm about to give it another go after looking over the guide on Dell's site.

--edit--
Took it apart again. There are two really small connectors that need to be unhooked to be able to freely lift the arm rest area off of the base/bottom of the laptop. One came out, but the other started to break.. so I left it. I could still lift the base up enough to see the cooling fan by the cpu. It was dusty, but by no means was it bad. I couldn't see any dust bunnies hiding, and I used a q-tip to feel in between the fan blades in hopes of it snagging a big dust ball. I couldn't see any.. and the q-tip didn't grab anything.

If I weren't about to get new shocks/struts and some springs for the 4Runner I would just get a new laptop. Bah-humbug!

[Robinhood4x4]

I would NOT blow out the vent or fan with compressed air. ask me how i know.

Soooo...how do you know? Spin up the fan too fast?

[MTL_4runner]

Well.. I start takin' her apart. It was coming a part fairly easy. I had to take the monitor off to get to two small screws. Then I was gently pulling it apart, but it was being stubborn near the mouse area. I decided to stop there because I didn't feel like breaking anything. This is our only computer, lol. If I managed to break it I'd have a hard time doing some of my course work.

With that said.. I'm about to give it another go after looking over the guide on Dell's site.

--edit--
Took it apart again. There are two really small connectors that need to be unhooked to be able to freely lift the arm rest area off of the base/bottom of the laptop. One came out, but the other started to break.. so I left it. I could still lift the base up enough to see the cooling fan by the cpu. It was dusty, but by no means was it bad. I couldn't see any dust bunnies hiding, and I used a q-tip to feel in between the fan blades in hopes of it snagging a big dust ball. I couldn't see any.. and the q-tip didn't grab anything.

If I weren't about to get new shocks/struts and some springs for the 4Runner I would just get a new laptop. Bah-humbug!

I'm not sure why you were taking off the keyboard, but here's how that should be done (see connector cable separation):
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1084976

Here's how to get access to the CPU heatsink:
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1084976

Remove the heatsink entirely and clean it off in the sink with water. When the heatsink is thoroughly dry, then clean off all the old thermal paste from the heatsink and the CPU core. At this point you should use some compressed air to thoroughly blow out any dust that's blocking airflow to the CPU's heatsink inside the chassis (including any air vents). Before installing again, apply some new Arctic Silver 5 paste to the surface of the heatsink contacting the CPU.

Here's the Arctic Silver paste:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-007-_-Product

[fenrisx]

I'm not sure why you were taking off the keyboard, but here's how that should be done (see connector cable separation):
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1084976

In order to get to the fan pictured below the heat sink area, I had to take the top cover off.That's why I had to get the keyboard off first. I didn't remove the heat sink due to me not having an thermal paste here. It'll probably be a while before I buy any.. but if I stumped across some at BestBuy (not sure they would even have any) I'll grab some. I actually have some at my mom's house in GA, lol, but it isn't doing me any good their, eh? Oh well.

[L33T35T Tacoma]

I wouldnt take it apart at all. I would just try blowing some compressed air through every hole imaginable. taking it apart you risk breaking something or not being able to get it back together right.

[BruceTS]

I never bother taking them apart, simply blow out the vents once a week.

[Obi..]

Speaking of taking it apart, here you go, all sorts of technical gubbins on things to tear apart: http://www.takeitapart.net/

[MTL_4runner]

I've never broken anything taking off the heatsink and typically the thermal compound they use isn't nearly as good as the arctic silver which will help if there are heat transfer issues with the laptop's CPU causing it to slow down or lock up. After that you can just use the compressed air to clean off the heatsink and thermal vents.

In order to get to the fan pictured below the heat sink area, I had to take the top cover off.That's why I had to get the keyboard off first. I didn't remove the heat sink due to me not having an thermal paste here.

Sorry, I thought you were going after the CPU's heatsink.
The fan itself is buried deep in the machine so that makes sense.

[Seanz0rz]

ive had very limited success in my many years of doing this sort of thing with just blowing out the intake and exhausts. to clean it properly, it needs to be disassembled.