crappy laptop question

lightninlightnin
edited March 2006 in Hardware
I've got an older compaq lapper that randomly shuts off on me. i'm wondering if it's not the power supply... I'd like to watch temps and see if i can correlate the problem with any physical symptom but i don't have any utilities for that right now. I am not sure hot how the thing gets now before it dies. Sometimes it will run for 20 minutes before it shuts off, sometimes it wont even complete bootup. I doubt this is an OS problem as i've run the thing off live run linux cds and seen the exact same problems. any ideas?

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    Have cleaned out the cooling channel - air intake, CPU fan, air exhaust? If you have the service manual, you could disassemble the laptop enough to check the CPU heatsink's fan for accumulated dust and lint.
  • lightninlightnin
    edited March 2006
    i havent disassembled anything yet no... good point though, i'll do that when i get home from work.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    replacing whatever crap thermal compound they use with Arctic Silver 5 made a WORLD of difference on my wife's Dell Inspiron 600m. Fan barely comes on anymore, even under 100% load, and when it does, it's the lowest speed (basically silent).
  • lightninlightnin
    edited March 2006
    another excellent suggestion.... this thing is fairly old. as my old electronics shop teacher used to say, 'lets take it apart and give it a nice blowjob'. i bet its dusty and i bet thermal compound might help.

    so you guys agree this might be a sign of it getting too hot?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    Seems like it, yeah.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    primesuspect wrote:
    replacing whatever crap thermal compound they use with Arctic Silver 5 made a WORLD of difference on my wife's Dell Inspiron 600m. Fan barely comes on anymore, even under 100% load, and when it does, it's the lowest speed (basically silent).
    Amazing how different people perceive the change from crappy thermal pad crap verses quality arctic silver. Maximum PC did a write up regarding the differences between the thermal pad, blah white thermal paste, and arctic silver. Their "scientific results" showed minimal change in cooling.

    From my experience with 4 laptops... HUGE difference... :thumbsup:
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    I never put a thermometer on the thing - all I know is that from day 1, out of the box, folding would make the fan run on high. After I did the AS 5 treatment, it folds without the fan even coming on. If the ambient is high, the fan kicks on low speed (almost silent). So my unscientific observation:

    Factory goop + folding = loud fan
    Arctic Silver 5 + folding = no fan / quiet fan if room is hot
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