How to clean your laptop

bigben

Master Poster
Good idea for a thread. +Rep.

I was always under the impression that if the heatsink came off then you should repaste. I would be interested to see if there was any improvement in temps if you do repaste (just make sure you buy one that doesn't have metal in it such as mx-4 so that you can also use it for your GPU).
 

SmokeDarKnight

Author Level
Thanks ben, might order some up on monday, might wait a month take the temps before i clean it, after i clean it then after i repaste it and see what the differences are.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Thanks ben, might order some up on monday, might wait a month take the temps before i clean it, after i clean it then after i repaste it and see what the differences are.

I'd be extremely interested in photos and a description of how you go about it and how to do it properly. :)
 

Halcyon

Member
Would it be safe to attach a thin dust filter over the air intake fans on the base of the laptop (or over a cooler's air intake fan) to reduce the amount of dust/animal hair that enters the chassis?
 

SmokeDarKnight

Author Level
Would it be safe to attach a thin dust filter over the air intake fans on the base of the laptop (or over a cooler's air intake fan) to reduce the amount of dust/animal hair that enters the chassis?

Perhaps but i think it might contribute towards constricting air flow also.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Would it be safe to attach a thin dust filter over the air intake fans on the base of the laptop (or over a cooler's air intake fan) to reduce the amount of dust/animal hair that enters the chassis?

My answer would be no. The filter would certainly trap dust and hair and stop it going into the laptop but you'd have to clean that filter very regularly, possibly even daily. If you ever let that filter get clogged up the laptop will overheat very quickly and heat is the big enemy of all electronic components.
 

selbster

Bronze Level Poster
it does make a massive difference, I cleaned my laptop and repasted my cpu and gpu (with excess that was already surrounding them both haha) my gpu paste had pretty much set like a silicone it had got that warm. My temperatures now have dropped massively on gpu. Ive been using a 1080p 15minute burn in test with furmark which was going as high as 86. now its dropped down to 76 and my clock is going higher because of boost 2 technology. cpu slightly lower but not as significant.
 
Hey I have an Optimus V 17" and it's been having really bad heat issues (while on the desk it's 50-60, when wedged up it's around mid 40s, this is idle, shoots up to 90 the second I launch a game) so I'm considering trying this, but would it void my warranty? I have the standard pc specialist warranty
 

tom_gr7

Life Serving
no, cleaning your laptop or changing the thermal paste will not void your warranty providing your actions don't break anything.
 

Annaisha

Member
So I cleaned my CPU fan and heat sink according to the instructions here today (the GPU fan was quite clean so I didn't touch that).

Afterwards, I read about some of the concerns on this thread about the need for a repasting, so my question is, should I open my laptop again and repaste the heat sink surface, or will
I be okay as it is? My Vortex IV was bought last August, and there was a very thin, uneven layer of paste there.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
So I cleaned my CPU fan and heat sink according to the instructions here today (the GPU fan was quite clean so I didn't touch that).

Afterwards, I read about some of the concerns on this thread about the need for a repasting, so my question is, should I open my laptop again and repaste the heat sink surface, or will
I be okay as it is? My Vortex IV was bought last August, and there was a very thin, uneven layer of paste there.

If you've removed the CPU or GPU heatsink to clean it, then it would be best to do a repasting. Whenever you remove the cooler, you run the risk of leaving a bubble when it's replaced. Personally I'd redo it. If you run it and the temps are fine, then I wouldn't worry.
 

Annaisha

Member
If you've removed the CPU or GPU heatsink to clean it, then it would be best to do a repasting. Whenever you remove the cooler, you run the risk of leaving a bubble when it's replaced. Personally I'd redo it. If you run it and the temps are fine, then I wouldn't worry.

The idle temperature for the first CPU core is now around 38-39 celcius while it can rise up to around 55-65 celcius during stress (occasionally peaking at 70 c). Maybe a new pasting would be in order?

Hopefully, the original instructions are updated to inform about the need for a new thermal pasting when removing heat sinks.

EDIT: Having done a new pasting with an old tube of Arctic Silver 5 (did my research and old paste tubes should be fine according to the manufacturer), I am now running an idle temp of 35-45 and around 52-63 under stress (peaking at 65 celcius).

So it didn't have as much effect as I'd hoped, but on the other hand, a lot of people are reporting the same temperatures or higher. And reportedly Intel processors can withstand somewhat higher operating temperatures.
 
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kylhan

Silver Level Poster
Hi all, it's been a while since I was last on. I've been doing some spring cleaning with my laptop recently and reinstalled Windows due to several driver issues with my graphics card (which ended up being a bigger pain than I could ever of imagined. My USB ports still won't recognise my USB sticks 19 out of 20 times even though I have un-installed the drivers 3 times now :s) On the subject of cleaning, I have cleaned my laptop recently as I think I'm running stupidly high temps. Everything looks dust and dirt free ( I've never done a re-paste though) but I'm still running temps on my CPU up to 101oC and high 80's low 90's on my GPU. I've never done a re-paste and I'm not overly confident about doing this myself. Do you think this could be the problem as they have always ran quite high since I bought my laptop? Is this normal for my spec or should i be worried? My spec is in my signature below. Can anyone advise on what the problem could be?
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Hi all, it's been a while since I was last on. I've been doing some spring cleaning with my laptop recently and reinstalled Windows due to several driver issues with my graphics card (which ended up being a bigger pain than I could ever of imagined. My USB ports still won't recognise my USB sticks 19 out of 20 times even though I have un-installed the drivers 3 times now :s) On the subject of cleaning, I have cleaned my laptop recently as I think I'm running stupidly high temps. Everything looks dust and dirt free ( I've never done a re-paste though) but I'm still running temps on my CPU up to 101oC and high 80's low 90's on my GPU. I've never done a re-paste and I'm not overly confident about doing this myself. Do you think this could be the problem as they have always ran quite high since I bought my laptop? Is this normal for my spec or should i be worried? My spec is in my signature below. Can anyone advise on what the problem could be?

Your cpu will be throttling as it's passing it's max temperature. I wouldn't use the laptop until you get those temps sorted otherwise you may well cause irreparable damage. When you say it looks dust free, have you taken it apart or just looking through the grills? That's quite high for the GPU also. I'd repaste them both carefully, can look for a guide on youtube, it's really simple. Get some Arctic MX4 paste, it's a good all rounder.
 

kylhan

Silver Level Poster
Your cpu will be throttling as it's passing it's max temperature. I wouldn't use the laptop until you get those temps sorted otherwise you may well cause irreparable damage. When you say it looks dust free, have you taken it apart or just looking through the grills? That's quite high for the GPU also. I'd repaste them both carefully, can look for a guide on youtube, it's really simple. Get some Arctic MX4 paste, it's a good all rounder.

Yer I've noticed the CPU throttling quite a lot recently which is quite frustrating. I've recently taken my laptop apart and gave it a good clean, but tbh it wasn't bad at all!! The temps seem to have come down by a few degrees since cleaning, but it still seems awfully high.
 
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