PSA: Clean Your Laptop
It's hot in Seattle this weekend. 94°F is pretty hot for a place that's supposedly at the northern border of the United States.
My laptop has been running hot recently. Like, 80C to 85C internally on a regular basis. Thinkpads typically do run hot-- Lenovo stuffed overpowered video processors into them long before they were ready. But recently the region above the keyboard had turned into an oven for my fingers.
This afternoon, I turned the laptop off and let it cool, then turned it over and took out five screws: four that hold the bezel frame down, and one that holds down the keyboard inside the frame. Both came off easily. I didn't even unplug the keyboard, which is attached to the motherboard by a ribbon. I just lifted it up and exposed the motherboard and CPU complex, along with the fan that sits above it. (The complex consists of the CPU, GPU, and WiFi components, with a big chunk of copper heatsink above it and a fan).
I blew compressed air all through the unit. With my finger gently keeping the fan from spinning, I then blew air into the vents, then blew away the resultant dust bunnies.
I then closed it up and restarted it. Now my laptop is running a nice 57C internally, which is far more tolerable, and doesn't get get through the keyboard insulation and burn my fingers.
I put the keyboard and bezel back and screwed them down. The whole operation took 15 minutes. So, yeah, if you can, clean the inside of your laptop.
My laptop has been running hot recently. Like, 80C to 85C internally on a regular basis. Thinkpads typically do run hot-- Lenovo stuffed overpowered video processors into them long before they were ready. But recently the region above the keyboard had turned into an oven for my fingers.
This afternoon, I turned the laptop off and let it cool, then turned it over and took out five screws: four that hold the bezel frame down, and one that holds down the keyboard inside the frame. Both came off easily. I didn't even unplug the keyboard, which is attached to the motherboard by a ribbon. I just lifted it up and exposed the motherboard and CPU complex, along with the fan that sits above it. (The complex consists of the CPU, GPU, and WiFi components, with a big chunk of copper heatsink above it and a fan).
I blew compressed air all through the unit. With my finger gently keeping the fan from spinning, I then blew air into the vents, then blew away the resultant dust bunnies.
I then closed it up and restarted it. Now my laptop is running a nice 57C internally, which is far more tolerable, and doesn't get get through the keyboard insulation and burn my fingers.
I put the keyboard and bezel back and screwed them down. The whole operation took 15 minutes. So, yeah, if you can, clean the inside of your laptop.