My Dell 1501 laptop is heating up abnormally. I’ve had it for about 3 years and this is the first time this started happening. I have it sitting on my desktop sitting on a 6’’ fan. It still gets over 185 (According to CoreTemp) and just shuts down. Usually while I’m watching a movie on Netflix. No warning whatsoever. One would think the computer would give warning before this happens, but no.
My question is this:
Should I take the case off and clean the heat-sink? And everything else while I’m at it? (I have a shedding cat)
Is this normal for laptops when they get older? What else can I do to prevent this?
If you’ve never cleaned it out, it’s probably dust. Laptops can be pretty fiddly when it comes to getting into the heatsinks, but it’s the only way I know of to address the problem.
I don’t know if that temperature is normal, but if you do decide to open it up, I recommend that you read the service manual carefully. It’s available online here.
Yep. A high of 185. It’s running now in the middle 60’s after just watching a movie. I think I will pull the thing open and clean. Anything special I should know about this?
Thanks for the reply,
Jake
Does the fan run? In my old laptop, the fan stopped turning. It still worked, but the CPU was slowed down when it heated up. It was the most noticeable when watching videos.
Hair and dust buildup will cause overheating. So absolutely yes clean it out.
Listen to the notebook while it’s doing doing something stressful with all other sources of background sound (external fans etc) quieted. If the internal fan is dead no amount of cleaning will make the overheating stop.
You’ll want to have a 3mm Phillips’s-head screwdriver to get access to the heat sink. You’ll generally need to pull half a dozen screw drivers. When I’ve encountered this problem, I always replace the thermal paste in there as well.
Make sure to be careful when working so close to the CPU… a twitch, sneeze, etc can be costly.
I had a Toshiba which was badly overheating, and reading various forums made me think it was the heatsink. I printed the 20 step procedure, got a wrist strap, got thermal paste, got the right screwdriver. The first step though was to try to clean it out by blowing air inside. Gobs of dust came out - and it never overheated again, without me having to go anywhere near the heatsink. So try the simplest solution first.
The OP sounds a lot like what happens to my HP laptop after dust buildup. I’ve opened it up and cleaned out the dust and hair from around the fan and heatsink, and my laptop worked perfectly after that(Except that, two years down the line, I’m having the same problem again). Of course, it took me 4 hours and I had a few extra screws left over after I’d closed it up again, but that was bound to happen right?
I’d go with Voyager’s suggestion. If you can find a powerful blower/vacuum, try it out before opening up the laptop. I have tried it, and it does help, but the improvement is not as drastic.
I had a Dell Inspiron (I forget the model number, but it was bought new in early 2007) that had the exact same problem. Mine started after about a year of use. I opened the case to check for dust buildup and there wasn’t much to speak of. It got to the point where in order to use the computer, I had to prop it up on a couple of books in order to get air flow underneath it, and keep a floor fan trained directly on the CPU. Even that wasn’t enough sometimes. I installed a little temp checker, and mine also routinely ran in the 160-180 range, and would emergency shut down (no warning, just suddenly black) around the 190 mark.
After doing some reading online, it seems that this was a known problem with Dell Inspirons made around that time. I don’t know if newer Dells have the problem or not. Irrelevant to me, as I won’t be buying a Dell ever again.
Anyway, good luck, OP. Just wanted to chime in and let you know you’re not alone.
You’ll need to fix the underlying problem, of course, but whenever I know my laptop is going to be working hard for a long time, I always put it on one of those kitchen cooling racks, so it can get more air circulation.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I’m going to pop that sucker open, clean it, and also see if the fan is working.
BTW, where can I get some thermal paste?
I hope it’s the dust issue and you can clean it out. I had one that was not however.
It was a AMD chip that would just run too hot, and it seemed like as it aged it would run hotter. The solution was I found a program that lowered the voltages. After playing around with it I was able to set the voltages for differing clock speeds much lower then the original and still maintained stability. For me that fixed it, along with a oversized battery which lifted the laptop up a bit allowing more airflow (and I needed a new battery anyway).
Sometimes you can also block out the highest clock speed in the power settings, which should reduce power consumption.
Hi everyone. Jake, you can get thermal paste at your nearest friendly computer store. I personally got mine from eBay. I use Arctic Silver 5, which is a little overkill in the thermal paste world but hey, I might as well buy a really good one.
I have some left (they come in little syringes and one syringe can last many applications). I can send it to you for free but it will take quite a while (way at the other side of the pond).
If you plan to dismantle it from scratch then good for you - in case you come across difficulties (I can’t think of any; I’ve dismantled my Inspiron 6400 (sister model) many times), the service manual is easily available at Dell’s Community Forum (and in Google as well).
I killed my laptop not too long ago. The “mutha” just up and died. Verdict from the familial geeks said it probably got too hot. I used a USB fan until I killed that. And on hot summer days, I’d even set the thing on an icepack. Said geeks told me heat is what usually fries a laptop.
And on most laptops, you can’t replace the dead component, because they are all integrated.
I bought a new laptop that has removable components, and it has a fan that ejects the hot air to the left. The cats now know to sit on the left arm of my chair.
New one is a Lenovo. Geek SIL was able to salvage everything from the dead laptop and put it on the new one.
~VOW
That’s NOT what I wanted to hear!
Congrats on the new Lenovo though. Good stuff from what I hear.
I’m trying the " Icepack Treatment" now. The pain-in-the-ass is now running in the high fifties, but I haven’t tried a movie yet. :eek:
I’m still going to take the case off and clean. Wish me luck…
And thanks for the help!
“I have some left (they come in little syringes and one syringe can last many applications). I can send it to you for free but it will take quite a while (way at the other side of the pond).” Nauticar: Thanks for the offer! Please do send it to me, I don’t plan to pull the heat sink right away. Unless I really really have to.
Have you tried compressed air and a vacuum cleaner? You may not have to open your laptop. My friend improved his cooling by using a vacuum cleaner around the air vents.
A vacuum is pretty much useless. Not enough velocity. Use compressed air, but canned air gets colder as the can is used, and can get cold enough to thermally shock the processor.
You can usually figure out the path of the airflow in the computer. Blow air in in reverse. If it sucks air in through a round grill on the bottom and blows out the side, blow air in from the side.
What happens if that dust, rug fuzz and cat hair get sucked in by the fan and gets sandwiched between the fans output and the cooling fins. I’ve removed quarter inch thick mats from between the fan and the fins on occasion.
