Claening a laptop fan - Dell Inspiron 1764

[GB]

Can the OP tell without dismantling? However, coupled with the lack of air flow, that must be a likely possibility.

[Capitol]

IME by the time that they get noisy or stop, they have had it. I'd buy a new fan if I wanted reliability. Oiling computer fan bearings IME doesn't last.

[David.WE.Roberts]

Blades seem to be rotating freely (although they may well be coated with crap - the fan I removed from my graphics card has all sorts of crap on it.

It is possible that the fan only used to run at low revs when the airways were clear and some of the noise is due to the fan thrashing at high speed against back pressure.

Cheers

Dave R

[GB]

I watched the dismantling video, and David R wouldn't have to do quite as much in order to release the fan. For example, the video shows the drives and screen being removed. Even so, by the time I had done that, I would want to replace the fan. There's a replacement fan on Amazon for about £10.

[Chris Whelan]

Having just had a look at the (excellent as always) Dell manual for this model, I reckon it would take a maximum of 15 minutes to expose the fan. (Probably less time than you've spent posting here ;-))

Does the fan always run at full speed? (It shouldn't.) Does the software run slower than might be expected?

BTW, please do not even consider spraying any sort of lubricant into an air intake. It won't get near any bearing surfaces, and it will leave the air ways coated with something sticky to retain all future dust.

Chris

[Chris Whelan]

[...]

+1

And dozens on eBay in the 7-8 quid range.

Chris

[Roger Mills]

Are you near a Poundland? They have air dusters for . . . yes, you've guessed it!

[Tim Watts]

Sadly everything else is utterly crap IME - you'd be as well off blowing through a straw.

[David.WE.Roberts]

Chris/GB,

Just very nervous about prying things apart.

If I had longer, or it was mine, I might go slow and steady and accept that if I broke something I would wait and source a replacement.

However I only have two days (and even that it pushing it).

I am assuming I have to remove the plastic moulding above the keyboard then the keyboard, and that looked a bit risky in the video.

{Consults manual}

Well, it does look doable - I am just aware of sod's law and the risk/ benefit ratio.

I will try an air blast first to see what that does, and then review my aversion to risk :-)

Thanks for all the help to everyone.

Cheers

Dave R

[Peter Crosland]

Dell Do very good manuals that tell you exactly how to get at it. Just search the Dell site.

[Johny B Good]

Indeed, _very_ oversold, ime.

The obvious way to vacuum out the cooling vents is to apply suction to the fan inlet. True it makes the fan spin like a turbocharger but has never proved fatal to any and all of the fans I've "over-sped" with this technique.

This will 'back flush' the debris and fluff out of the heatsink fins on the exhaust port of the fan which neatly avoids wedging the rubbish even more firmly into the heatsink fins. Only _after_ back flushing do you try dragging any trapped muck by applying suction to the exhaust side (alternating between intake and exhaust a few times to 'dislodge' any trapped dust bunnies).

This will clean things up quite sufficiently in most cases without having to do any amount of dismantling. The technique is so simple that you could spend a few minutes every 2 or 3 months to maintain the cooling performance to better than 80% for the life of the laptop and most likely never ever have to disassemble it for that reason alone.

[Johny B Good]

[Johny B Good]

[News]

In message , David.WE.Roberts

WD40 will end up a sticky mess to which even more crap will adhere.

The fan in my wife's Tosh laptop was extremely whiney, and we were worried it may overheat or something, so I eventually plucked up courage to dismantle it. Either that, or buy her a new laptop :-)

Found a video on YouTube showing the procedure, which I followed carefully. Not something I would want to do too often, and required a magnifying glass to see some of it! However, having finally removed the fan, I could see the problem. It was clogged with brownish gunk. Wifey mainly uses the laptop at the kitchen table, plus we have cat and dog in the house, which may explain the crud in there. Gave the whole thing a thorough 'Hoover', reassembled and it has been silent ever since. No, I didn't attempt to lubricate the fan - just cleaning it thoroughly.

[Tim Watts]

Do they work?

Every cheap air-in-a-can hasn't been worth a dime IME.

[Bill]

In message , Roger Mills writes

The Poundland air duster turns black Lenovo's whiteish in patches while the can freezes itself to your hand. Does the job, though.

The mottled white seems to slowly revert to the original colour, so it may not be too serious.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Every year or so I blow my desktops and laptops out with a compressed air line, I just make sure I wedge the fan blades to stop them spinning. No need to even open them up usually.

[Jam Tomorrow]

Australia = hot as f*ck and sometimes hotter

Two days to fix it = not enough time by the sounds of your declared expertise (spraying WD40 etc)

Time to buy a new laptop / tablet maybe on the way out to Australia

[David.WE.Roberts]

Well, the air blower didn't shift anything of note.

Gentle exploration of the fins must have dislodged a dust bunny because after that the fan wouldn't spin.

So I bit the bullet and stripped it down because I really had no choice.

Part way through I remembered that the laptop had been repaired a couple of times under warranty.

That explains why about 25% of the screws were missing.

I even had to chart which holes started out with screws in so I could put it back together the same way.

Bloody Dell field engineers!!

Anyway there was a big wedge of dust in the fan, and I also had a bit of a poke between the fins of the heat exchanger to clear out any dust there.

Back together, and it actually runs!

Also, fan spinning quietly and temperatures seem to be staying down.

So it looks as though things have improved.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions.

Cheers

Dave R

[Chris Whelan]

[...]

Glad it worked out OK; Dell laptops are the best for repairing!

Chris