Laptop Heat

[Kai69]

Hi all Just wanted to share with everyone.
I've had my Dell Xps m1330 for about a year now and over the last few months it has been getting hotter near the fan unit so I did a bit of Googleing and found that this is a well know problem so I ordered some thermal paste (arctic 5) and this evening took the fan unit out after I took the fan housing apart I couldnt believe the amount of dust that had collected near the heatsink.
Has anyone else had to clean a laptop or overheat problems?

[new_tolinux]

Has anyone else had to clean a laptop or overheat problems?
Not only laptops.
Have a look in your desktop after about 6 months without opening it ;)

[The Real Dave]

Not only laptops.
Have a look in your desktop after about 6 months without opening it ;)

You kidding me? My main rig needs to be cleaned about twice a month :( And it's not exactly a powerful machine by today's standards (http://linuxexpresso.wordpress.com/hardware/). (It's the first one)

[Kai69]

Ive only take our desktop apart once that was 2 years ago and yeah I did clean it then. I just cant believe the difference this has made the fan hasnt kicked in to high speed and its still cool on the bottom even watching a vid is no problem now.
How often should a PC be cleaned then?

[new_tolinux]

Ive only take our desktop apart once that was 2 years ago and yeah I did clean it then. I just cant believe the difference this has made the fan hasnt kicked in to high speed and its still cool on the bottom even watching a vid is no problem now.
How often should a PC be cleaned then?
It really depends a little bit....
Each computer is different, some consume more dust than others.

Open it after about 3 months and see what's there. If it's all covered in dust, it probably should be cleaned about every month.
If it's looking more or less clean, then have a look 3 months later.
Generally I advise to clean a desktop 2-3 times a year. Note that you should not touch any part with your vacuum cleaner and that you should not use plastic brushes on the electronic parts.

Edit:
And no water! You can use a slightly wet towel (not dripping) on the parts of the box itself, but you should not touch any electronic part with it.

[Shakz]

Ive only take our desktop apart once that was 2 years ago and yeah I did clean it then. I just cant believe the difference this has made the fan hasnt kicked in to high speed and its still cool on the bottom even watching a vid is no problem now.
How often should a PC be cleaned then?

Humm I have an XPS 15 something or another thats a year old....noticed its hot too. May be time to get some canned air and clean that baby up.

[Phrea]

As suggested: clean it.

Also, check the thermal paste on your cpu, if it does not look smooth, replace it [microns thick, really, use a credit card to smooth it and get rid of most of it again].

[chriswyatt]

I blow an air canister in mine every now and again. Really made a difference the first time I did it.

[Kai69]

Shakz if it is getting hot not just warm on the bottom id clean it, Ive now had this running about 3 hours and the bottom is still cool.
Just wanted to ask Thermal pads do you replace or reuse?? Ok the fan on this unit was connected to a long copper pipe which covered the graphics chip the cpu and another chip the graphics and other chip had a thermal pad on them but the main cpu had thermal paste I cleaned all the chips with the arctic cleaning solution but only replace the cpu thermal paste.

[Kai69]

I blow an air canister in mine every now and again. Really made a difference the first time I did it.
Please dont even go there I did that in the kitchen the missus had just put the stove on and I forgot.
Yep lappy caught fire lucky it was just the vapours the burned ](*,)

[chriswyatt]

Ouch, that's unlucky :\

[Kai69]

That was just before christmas no harm done I just felt a bit stupid afterwards LOL

[TBABill]

Just enabling CPU scaling and the proprietary video card drivers should take care of most heat from laptops if you keep them free of the dust issues mentioned. Mine now runs around 55C under regular use, into the low 60s under heavier use.

[Kai69]

Hi TBAbill
Mine was running about 80c its now between 48-54c so a big difference