0

I was asked by a friend to clean her laptop (mainly the fan) because it hadn't been cleaned in more than 4 years and was rather slow and noisy. I found a tutorial to follow just to be sure and opened it up. Once I reached to the fan, there were loads of dirt which I cleaned. But after piecing it back together (like in the tutorial), it shuts down 5 minutes after being turned on (best case). It is still quite noisy, though I wouldn't be able to make a good comparison to before. I am quite sure that the laptop does not seem to be overheating or even heating at all. The tutorial is here

Now, something that I did not do was replacing the thermal paste (~ min 10:00). On a second thought this may be very relevant. I've never opened up a laptop before and barely had a screwdriver.

Improve this question
5
  • 1
    If you split any joint where paste was, get some on it now & don't try powering up again until you do.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Mar 14, 2016 at 14:06
  • Normally when cleaning fans I just use an air duster
    – Burgi
    Commented Mar 14, 2016 at 14:07
  • @Tetsujin Thanks for the tip. I have already tried to power it 3 times till now ... Is there any chance that the laptop's still alive? I seriously am not a hardware type of person, I know my questions sound stupid.
    – Lazarus Rising
    Commented Mar 14, 2016 at 14:08
  • It will survive a couple of failed attempts, & shut down at overheat, but don't keep pushing it
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Mar 14, 2016 at 14:09
  • Is the fan actually working? If it's noisy it's probably not doing its job properly. That being said, if you opened the thermal paste contact, clean it and replace with new thermal paste
    – acejavelin
    Commented Mar 14, 2016 at 14:10

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
0

The linked tutorial tells to clean off old thermal paste, if you did that and running without it - it is obviously the reason.

And even if the old paste is still in place - over these years it must have been dried out and still cannot provide good enough contact (in fact it may be even worse than with no paste at all)

Improve this answer
0

First, you need to replace the thermal paste with a new one. Make the layer as thin possible.

The laptop is still alive because it shuts down before overheating.

In that 5 minute window you can install HWMonitor and check to see if the overheating is what makes it shut down.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .