www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

My laptop is just over a year old, yes it does live some of the time in a site office, bit dusty. It seems to me, if I run video, games or what ever, it seems to get even hotter and crashes. I've tried to get the bottom off it to clean it, taken all the screws out, but I don't want to force it off, I vacuum'd the vents on Sunday!

Any ideas, graphics card?

Thanks in advance.

SSM

my laptop has vents in the bottom and sides so i stuck a pencil just clear off the vents to increase clearance that helps a bit

Laptops do have a tenancy to run hot particularly when giving them a work out (ie gaming etc). When it is hot can you feel warm air being blown out of the air vent? If not the fan may be on the way out. They usually suck cold air in the bottom near the fan and blow the warm air out the back or side.

If the fan is working, I would get the heat sink/fan assembly removed and get an airline or can of air to blow it off. A hoover from outside the case isn't usually sufficient.

I have had laptops before where the heat sink for the CPU the fan is attached too wasn't installed correctly at the factory. Removing it, taking off the plastic patch over the contact area with the cpu giving it a fresh coat of thermal grease, cleaning the dust out and re installing sorted it.

Before you start taking the laptop apart, is it out of warranty? Some have 2 or 3 year warranties.

Thanks for your replies.

it has only started running hot in the last couple of months. The fan is working fine, the temperature of the air being blown out is worryingly hot.

It could still be in warranty, but I don't want to PC World loose it for the next few weeks!

I have found a site that enables me to take it apart, so I will give it a clean out and see how it is!

SSM

Take it apart, blow some canned air through it.
Mine never have that problem because they get taken apart to be mended every few months (i swear laptops today are built to be used by light touched oompa loompas to check their facebook for 2 minutes a day)

Failing that you could try ditching the crappy thermal pads the give you for the CPU heatsink and stick some decent thermal compound in there instead. That'll help lower temps.

What brand is it simon?
Do you tend to use it on the battery or the mains? (my dell gets frying hot when on the batt as it uses minimal fan to conserve the battery, but runs a lot cooler on the mains as it brings the fan speed up just enough to keep the temps in check)
Strip it, and use an airline to clean it, canned air is seriously cold and can crack solder joints if used too closely so beware, use the vacuum on it first internally to prevent any loose stuff being jammed in by the airblast, then use compressed air to blow anything else out.

A vaccum can be worse for the components, something to do the with the static, they don't like it.
Just spray in short bursts.

If it's still dusty after a good blast just use a paintbrush to sweep any other crap off.

In theory Ross, however as long as you don't touch the board or get too close, its a better lower risk option in my experience (picking fluff from underneath chips is a real PITA)

Hi Scott,

An Acer 5742 Inspire, I nearly always run it off the mains!

If you can't split the case (you need balls/confidence and a plastic case splitter/creditcard/etc) then I just whack a compressor on the vents.

OR, if you're not a dribbler and the laptop has side and bottom vent - mouth over the edge, deep breath and BLOW HARD!!!! You'll SEE the dust blast out.

compressor though.....cans of air cost a whack and don't do much! lol

Daughters Acer Aspire was shutting down and noisy (older than your model and she leaves it on 24x7); thought it was the hard drive but after cleaning the never been cleaned vents it improved, split the case and cleaned the fan, quiet an easy machine to split unlike my Compaq. Went on line and bought a replacement fan E-bay UK based and only £10.90 from pcfxonline.com and did a defragment and now works 24x7 a treat.
However SSM, if you are getting a good air flow out then the fan must be okay.
Be careful vacuuming, as the finger keys can very often fly down the tube!!

Simon isn't allowed to use vacuumes after what he done last time....keys would be the least of his worries

Hi Simon

is ur laptop an acer aspire rather than inspire, and does it have the e management system on it

The reason am asking is i had the same problem, and i contacted acer who acknowleged that the e managment system basically ran the computer and the fan is controlled on time rather than on temp, so if u allowed the laptop to go into hibernate then upon waking the fan did not kick in at all.

I cancelled hibernation on the laptop, and bought a laptop try with 2 fans on it attached by USB and this did the trick.

I even tried to format and put another OS on it to get rid of all the acer crap that comes with it, but i had to download and install the e management to use the power to control the temp of the laptop

U can google this as it is a well known problem for acer laptops although i only researched my own which was a acer aspire 5315, got rid of the blighter now and replaced with a very reliable toshiba, not sure if this may be ur problem or it could just be clogged up with dirt especially if u use it on ur knee rather than on a table etc

Juliex

Thanks Guys!
Julie,......Aspire!!!! e management???? I don't really know what that is.

Will try blowing through the fan vent!

SSM

Well, just blew off my laptop......nothing came out!!!!