Dust in laptop.

[Molly Brown]

Why do I have to take my laptop completely apart every time I have to clean dust from its fan? Why isn=92t there a simple access door over or under the fan that you can remove to clean?

[Charlie]

Do you have any idea of the make an model? I have trouble seeing it from here.

[Joe]

The manufacturer knows that too much access to the machine internals will always lead to quite a few incompetent/ignorant/well meaning people messing with sensitive parts and then burdening their warranty and repair departments with avoidable claims of malfunction. There are many things best left to professionals, like major auto repairs, brain surgery, piloting commercial aircraft, the list goes on. If you need a clean computer, have it done by someone that can do it right, or clean up the operating environment. You'll spend a few $$ but the results will be better, and your life will be more tranquil.

Joe

[ransley]

Why didnt they just put in a removable air filter, Dells answer was because they thought nobody would clean them, its all dumb isnt it. An air filter and removable panel would allow easy cleaning to keep machines from failing from heat, mine is clogged to but im to lazy to take it apart.

[clare]

There is NO REASON a laptop cannot be made with access to the cooling fan rerquiring only the removal of a screw or two.

[clare]

A can of "canned air" can get rid of MOST of the dust in the cooling fins. Not saying where else it weill end up though????

[LSMFT]

They want it to fail so you will buy another one.

[aemeijers]

I've always had good luck with putting the shop vac hose up against the output hole for the fan, and sucking the loose dust out. First use the little round brush to suck crumbs out of keyboard. You never want to blow into a laptop case. I've opened up lotsa laptops, and they are mostly pretty clean inside- not at all like desktops. Most of them, the air never seems to get past the CPU and memory heatsinks. Remember, few laptops have the power supply inside.

Desktop PCs are another matter. I was resurrecting an dead machine from an auction a few months ago, and I ended up blowing it out with a leaf blower in the driveway. Brought the dead floppy drive back to life, even.

[vjp2.at]

Turn it upside down and use a natural bristle brush to clean it.

A natural (not plastic) bristle half inch paint brush is a very important office tool, for dusting.

My unlce was an engineer at a newspaper. Back in the 1970s he told me he always looked for the easiest problem. As soon as some typist complained her data entry terminal wasn't working, my uncle tunred the keyboard upside down ans shook it.`Hairpins, paper clips and staples were usually the problem. (Back then they tried an early voice system which went berzerk when one clerk had major dental work!)

I have horrible dandruff. I used to open my 1980 HP2621a terminal keyboard twice a year and couldn't believe the hair and dandruff in the keyboard. (Terminal left regular service in 1999 but still works in basement.)

I couldn't believe it when I saw it a few months ago, but they do make some laptops with a coffee spill drain in the keyboard.

Where I worked in the 1980s, there was this elderly lady who smoked like crazy and the computer people used to come in every week and replace her PC keyboard.

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

[mm]

Canned air! Absurd. Once they have that they might as well have bottled water.

[Tegger]

Molly Brown wrote in news:8c5b6c6a-38e9-4217- [e-mail]:

There are two fan vents: An intake and an exhaust. With the laptop running, just blow canned air into the intake and exhaust. Most of the crud will blow out the exhaust.

You can get rid of the rest of the crud just by removing all the covers that do exist on the bottom of the laptop, and blowing canned air into the case towards the fan. Or is that what you mean by taking it apart "completely?

I've actually taken a laptop apart "completely", and it took me the better part of an hour to figure it out so I didn't break anything. No, I never managed to get it back together again...

[Molly Brown]

Completely: Holding the fan in the palm of your hand.

[clare]

You want to try replacing the 2mm diameter ccf backlight tube in a Thinkpad T40 some day - - - - - NOT. Just did one last week. Or fix the loose power connector on an HP Pavilion zv5000. I've done that sucker THREE TIMES. It has a bad tendancy to tear loose from the PC board when people trip over the power cord--------.

[clare]

There a a few Acers IIRC that you can get to the fan and totally remove it in about 10 minutes - put it back together in another 5-7. Might have been Toshiba. Anyway, by the time they got to me to have the fans cleaned they had overheated badly enugh to kill the MoBo so they were scrapped - I think I managed to salvage ONE out of about 4 that came to me that way.

[me]

I would recommend doing this with the laptop off, of being very careful. Your disk drive is spinning when it's on and you should not be moving the laptop a whole lot. Note that the last disk drive "shock test" I checked out was a drop of 3/4" to a flat surface. Consider that.

Also note: The shop vac works well, but do NOT do it with the computer on. A vacuum generates a serious static charge at the tip that will drive a computer down and/or even cause damage. We tested this theory a couple times :-)

[Tegger]

Molly Brown wrote in news: [e-mail]:

That far. A real Chinese puzzle, that was.

[Tegger]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

It's not Acer, I'm sure. None of the three Acers I've had allowed that.

[AZ Nomad]

Better yet, don't operate the laptop in such a filthy area. Are you doing something silly like using it as a smokeless ashtray?

Normally, the fans will wear out and the cpu will be obsolete long before the fan blades fill with enough crud to matter.

[AZ Nomad]

It'll also damage the fans by overspinning them.

[Han]

Tegger wrote in news:Xns9D60BBD9ACD43tegger@

208.90.168.18:

I put a different CPU in my Acer 3680. Was a great improvement. Not sure that I can recommend it to everyone, but it wasn't too hard. Now I have to get the dried up Coca Cola out of the keyboard. Very lovable grandson, but ...