Clean a laptop heatsink

2

Comments

  • edited April 2009
    Hey, I have had my lappy shutting off like crazy, and now i know it isnt just a piece of crap, it is overheating wow!
  • Yaf
    edited June 2009
    Hi,
    I had the same problem, my laptop is less than a year old. It would shut down after long periods of simple surfing, however whenever i tried to play a game it would shut down after about 5-10 mins.

    I tried opening up the laptop, Satellite A300D but it was a little more intimidating then i thought it would be so i settled with blowing pressured air through the fan outlet and all the other openings and that seems to have done it for me. Now can feel alot more air coming out and its still cool after 30mins.

    worth a try before opening it up, but thanks for the info.
  • Jay
    edited June 2009
    Thanks, great guide :)
  • edited August 2009
    The CPU is definitely NOT glued to the heatsink.

    The thermal paste may be dry and require heating up with a hair dryer and sliding a razor blade between the IHS and the heatsink.

    Mine didn't even need this. Simply prying it off with a credit card did the trick. Cleaned it up, applied Arctic Silver 5 and put it all back together. No problem. No shutdowns.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    It entirely depends on your heatsink, CPU, manufacturer, thermal grease, etc. Some thermal adhesives, particularly from OEMs, are part adhesive, part TIM.
  • edited September 2009
    If you own a Toshiba and your having this problem, theres a very simple solution. Sell it and NEVER buy a Toshiba again. Overheating is a very evry common problem with Toshiba's for one of 2 reasons. 1. They dont know how to cool thier systems properly or 2 they consume way too much power overheating the CPU. I have run comparison tests with Toshiba's, Asus and HP laptops and found that the HP and Asus laptops would run at about 30 degrees celcius while the Toshiba ran at around 70. This was sitting idle. If you pushed it, the HP and Asus would reach around 40 degrees while Toshiba could get up to 100 and switch off. Its simple, stay away from Toshiba's as they have no clue how to build a laptop. I have an A70 and an A200 with the same overheating problem and have many clients with the same issues.
  • edited October 2009
    I don't have any thermal paste, canned air or isopropyl alcohol. I know I could troll about town finding them, but I'm just wondering if I can take the heat sink out, remove the bulk of the dust like a clothes dryer filter and put it back in without dealing with the paste etc.
    Is that an OK temporary fix? I'm not really confident with hardware :)
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    You can get by without the canned air probably - just suck it out with a vacuum. The thermal paste is ABSOLUTELY necessary if you remove the heatsink from the processor (you will DESTROY your computer if you don't re-apply paste afterwards), and isopropyl alcohol is like $1 at the corner drugstore.
  • edited October 2009
    Thanks so much, this solved my problem after I had spent countless hours trying to fix an overheating A30
  • edited November 2009
    Greetings from Istanbul. Thanks a lot mcwc. I wouldn't have dared to touch any screws on my laptop if it weren't for this article. Having summoned my courage here, I found this: where they provide a hardware maintenance manual for IBM-LENOVO 3000 N200 (and N100) series . This manual makes stuff really easy, provided you read it thoroughly before you begin and follow the instructions verbatim. I cleaned a ton of grime and dust from my fan and now everything's good as new. (The only thing that made me a little uneasy was Lenovo's strict recommendation about using a set of screws, which are all nylon coated, only once. But who gives a flying ... !) Cheers and thanks again :)
  • edited November 2009
    Ooops! The web addresses I posted in my previous comment are sifted out. You can still get there from here. The title of the page is: Lenovo Support & Downloads - Hardware Maintenance Manual - Lenovo N100 (type 0689, 0768), N200 (type 0769). Just google it to download a 13MB pdf manual.
  • edited November 2009
    I've had my A30 for 5 years and it recently started freezing occasionally (a total halt or freeze type crash), usually when using Firefox. Updated RAM to 2 GB about a year ago, RAM seems OK.

    Thanks mcwc, I used your info to clean the slightly dirty heatsink. Btw dental floss good for cleaning heatsink. Maybe the cleaning will get rid of the freeze. I saw some dust on cpu pins, maybe it was causing static & the freeze.

    I read elsewhere that static electricity can cause freeze in A30 & similar Toshibas. Toshiba has a cure with a little mod but I don't have details.

    I still like this notebook so might put in a 320 GB HD - WD WD3200BEVE.
  • ken
    edited December 2009
    hmm, i hav a toshiba laptop Satelite L200, hav the same prb, auto restart, but include with one more prb, screen display come with strange visual image like freeze. Having hard time disassemble it, do u hav any idea to do it?
  • ken
    edited December 2009
    hmmm...i hav a toshiba laptop Satelite L200, hav the auto-shut down prb and screen always freeze with weird visual. Having hard time to disassemble it. Any idea?
  • edited December 2009
    Thanks a lot very useful :).
    Ciao
  • edited January 2010
    This is a great method of getting your laptop back into working order. One tip for anybody who gets it all back together to find the machine won't boot, don't forget to lock your CPU after you put it back in. If it isn't locked it won't boot.
  • Sam
    edited February 2010
    Thanks for the article. Dead useful.

    I found that when I put everything back together it wouldn't boot (see other posts above, black screen, fans whirring but nobody home etc).

    Spent half an hour cursing before realising I hadn't unlocked the CPU in the first place. Go back in, unlock it and lock it back in. Booted up first time.

    Thanks again
    Sam
  • edited March 2010
    hello, I want to run agame in my laptop Toshiba- satellite A60 , but as a massage which I receive it needs to A128 MB video card with support for Pixel shader 2.0 , so I don't know what's my video card and what should I do ?
    THank you for your attention.
  • edited March 2010
    Great article. Thanks very much. The cleaning went just fine. However, I can't get the processor to seat properly despite multiple retries. It seems to be lined up OK and there are no bent pins. The machine won't boot up. Maybe the overheating has already damaged it ?. Again, many thanks. Best wishes, Bren.
  • edited July 2010
    Thanks for your instructions, but I need more help. I did as you suggested with the exception of taking off the CPU. However, I put it back together after cleaning, and I can hear my computer come on, and the fan runs, but I get nothing on the screen (as if only the electrical parts are running). Do you have any suggestions?


    I have the same problem. Did you fin a soluyion?
  • edited July 2010
    I of coarse unlocked and locked the CPU seated the CPU in countless times, started and restarted the power button still no boot any tips?
  • edited September 2010
    batman007, I used to have the same problem. I never used to turn my l300 sattelite off properly, just mashing the power botton. Pop the battery cover, take it out for a few mins then put it back in. Worked first try ater that.
  • edited September 2010
    I think the answer to the below is that some pins probably were bent in putting the part back in. at least that is what happened to me.

    "Unregistered
    Thanks for your instructions, but I need more help. I did as you suggested with the exception of taking off the CPU. However, I put it back together after cleaning, and I can hear my computer come on, and the fan runs, but I get nothing on the screen (as if only the electrical parts are running). Do you have any suggestions?"
  • edited October 2010
    Went like a dream. Got so used to the whirr of fans when Satellite A30 turned on that I thought it was normal. Then it regular cut out under heavy load. Now its nearly silent on start up and when running
    Thanks
  • edited November 2010
    Much thanks for donating your time to give this very well laid out article. I had a custoemr come in with an older laptop, (unable to run a recovery) and after checking DVD drive, media, and BIOS settings, this was the fix! I just wish Toshiba had a CPU temp reading so I could have skipped all the troubleshooting (it took over 40 min of use bfore the computer would start powering itself down/pointing to a heat issue)! years later, your info is still golden. keep up the great work.
  • edited November 2010
    PS: When putting the CPU back, hold the laptop up and look through the air vent to line up the pins. Do NOT put any pressure, but wiggle it back and forth a little. If you do bend a pin, bend it back VERY gently witha screwdriver (be very picky, make it perfect). Lastly: instead of any liquids, I removed the dustball by hand, and used a can of air to clear the remaining debris from the heatseink. Thanks again!
  • edited February 2011
    I can not get the cover off my heatsink on my toshiba satellite a25-s159. I take the screws out and the corner lifts but resists about 1/3 the way. Trying to open to clean as it is doing just as discribed above. Had it almost 7 years, runs well still..just a bit slow.
    Thanks
  • edited February 2011
    Excellent article.... Dell care claimed for a sum of 5000/- asking to replace the heat sink and cooler fan.... thanks icrontic....
  • edited June 2011
    This information wa better than all the other websites that came up in my search for how to clean my laptop because it was the only one that showed the heat sink being removed. Thanks
  • edited December 2011
    I didnt know this many people had the same problem as i do. I hope the shutting down problem with my dell inpiron 15.
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