Laptop problems with overheating etc.

jl91569

Hi there.

I recently acquired an old Fujitsu AH530 GFX from one of my cousins and reinstalled Windows 7 on it. After reinstallation, I noticed that the laptop was running extremely hot, to the point where it would shut down because of Intel's thermal management settings. I bought a laptop cooler in Hong Kong to attempt to fix the problem and opened the laptop up to see if there were any dust bunnies inside as I also needed to open it up to reseat the RAM as it was only detecting 3GB. There was nothing, but this laptop seems to use a very inefficient cooling system where heat would be conducted through a set of copper rods to a fan where the fan would blow air onto the rods, cooling them. I've already installed different drivers for the graphics chip (an ATI Radeon 550v) and attempted to clean the fan with a vacuum cleaner and tweezers. As I am writing this post, SpeedFan shows temperatures of 46 degrees for the CPU, 53 degrees for the GPU and 36 degrees for the HDD as it is in its own isolated compartment. The CPU has the integrated graphics package disabled, and the GPU seems to be wrecking the whole thing, with games causing the CPU to shoot up past 85 degrees, which I've heard is potentially dangerous as it could melt the solder. I don't know about the GPU temperatures when I'm playing games, but the computer's air exhaust gets so hot that it is very uncomfortable for me to hold my hand in front of it for more than 3 seconds. As of right now, the fan is barely spinning and SpeedFan reports the fan as running at 1800RPM. Changing the value doesn't seem to do anything. I'm hoping that somebody is able to point me towards a solution where I wouldn't need to get a new internal laptop cooler as I am still a n00b with laptop internals.

Thanks.

Laptop specs:
Intel Core i3 350m
6GB DDR3 RAM
ATI Radeon (HD?) 550v
500GB WD Blue HDD
Atheros AR9285 Wi-Fi Chip
Bluetooth
Realtek Gigabit Ethernet
Realtek HD Audio and AMD HDMI Audio
TSSTCorp DVD Drive
Intel 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family PCIe/SMBus/USB Controller (maybe more?)
Intel HM55 Express Chipset
ExpressCard Slot

Icon

If you can, try removing the old thermal paste from the CPU with isopropyl alcohol, and reapply fresh thermal grease. It's possible that the cooler is not making good contact with the surface of the core. Also, I would recommend against using a vacuum if you're going to remove dust, as you may accidentally pull a connection apart of loosen a component. Use a can of compressed air instead to blast out an stubborn dust bunnies.

wpblogheader

Icon wrote:

If you can, try removing the old thermal paste from the CPU with isopropyl alcohol, and reapply fresh thermal grease. It's possible that the cooler is not making good contact with the surface of the core. Also, I would recommend against using a vacuum if you're going to remove dust, as you may accidentally pull a connection apart of loosen a component. Use a can of compressed air instead to blast out an stubborn dust bunnies.

This.

calvinb

For vacuums, it's about static electricity. There are supposedly vacuums intended for electronics usage, but I cannot attest to their function.