Samsung R50 Cleanout
Now that I got the new computer, my Samsung R50 is now no longer my primary computer and so I decided to open it up and to give it a clean. I have partly disassembled it before, although it's always been very minor and I've never actually been able to open it up to the point where i could access and clean the cooling fan and heatsink. And because if I stuffed up, I wouldn't have a computer to use, I didn't push the issue too much either. Now that the situation has changed, I decided to break out the tools and open the sucker up.
In preparation, I tried to scour the internets for information on how to disassemble the R50 or to see if there were any service manuals that I could get my hands on. There didn't seem to be any guides for disassembly, and although I could find service manuals to download, they all required payment so that wasn't an option either. Never mind, I'll just somehow work it out. And I ended up working it out. After removing a bunch of screws, the optical drive and the keyboard, I could now disconnect and separate the LCD screen from the main part of the laptop. Another screw, disconnect some connectors, and I could now pry the top half of the chassis off. And voila, I could see the whole motherboard, the fan, heatsink, CPU, the whole shebang. A look at the cooling fan, and it was easy to see why my CPU and GPU temps were so high: the fan was caked in a layer of fours years of accumulated dust and dirt. I took it out, and cleaned off all that crap, and then moved onto the heatsink/vent. Using my vacuum cleaner, I sucked up a whole lot of crap out of there as well and ended up being able to actually see though the vent. While I was at it, I also cleaned all around the mobo and chassis out of all sorts of dust and other dirty stuff, removed the card reader and wireless card to clean under them, etc.
It was quite interesting to have taken the laptop apart and actually see what's inside the guts of the thing, but cleaning job over, it was now time to see if I could put it back together. Popping connectors back into place, getting the screws in, all done, plug in a power source, and press the power button. It beeped at me and I got some sort of PCI conflict error when it tried to boot, but I could get past that and things worked. I restarted, and the same PCI conflict error occurred. I started to worry a tiny little bit at this stage, and headed into the BIOS to see if there was anything I could do to fix it. Nothing. Hmmm, I did pull out the wireless adaptor which is PCI... So I went though the whole process of disassembling the laptop, got to the wireless adapter, pulled it out and plugged it back in. This time though, I didn't reassemble the laptop, as I wanted to make sure it was working first. Power plug in, press the power button, and w00t, it worked normally. Only then did I go though the whole process of putting it all back together.
In the end the disassembly/assembly went well, so it was time to see what effect cleaning the fan and heatsink had. I powered on, and then had a look at the temps at idle: it was in the mid thirties and forties as opposed to being about 50°C, so there was some improvement there of about ten to fifteen degrees. Pretty good. Alright, full load on the CPU. And the result was pretty astounding. Whereas before, when on full load, my CPU would get up to about 85°C, this time around, it was peaking at 65°C, a drop in temperature of 20°C!! Putting my hand at the vent, I now actually feel the stream of warm air being expelled, since it was no longer all clogged up. I was quite happy and this little maintenance job on my laptop was quite a success.
The bottom half of my laptop, with the LCD screen and keyboard removed
The cooling fan, connected to the heatsink vents (covered) and the long heatsink to the CPU and graphics card
The LCD screen
The fan removed, showing the dust and dirt accumulation
The opened up chassis
In preparation, I tried to scour the internets for information on how to disassemble the R50 or to see if there were any service manuals that I could get my hands on. There didn't seem to be any guides for disassembly, and although I could find service manuals to download, they all required payment so that wasn't an option either. Never mind, I'll just somehow work it out. And I ended up working it out. After removing a bunch of screws, the optical drive and the keyboard, I could now disconnect and separate the LCD screen from the main part of the laptop. Another screw, disconnect some connectors, and I could now pry the top half of the chassis off. And voila, I could see the whole motherboard, the fan, heatsink, CPU, the whole shebang. A look at the cooling fan, and it was easy to see why my CPU and GPU temps were so high: the fan was caked in a layer of fours years of accumulated dust and dirt. I took it out, and cleaned off all that crap, and then moved onto the heatsink/vent. Using my vacuum cleaner, I sucked up a whole lot of crap out of there as well and ended up being able to actually see though the vent. While I was at it, I also cleaned all around the mobo and chassis out of all sorts of dust and other dirty stuff, removed the card reader and wireless card to clean under them, etc.
It was quite interesting to have taken the laptop apart and actually see what's inside the guts of the thing, but cleaning job over, it was now time to see if I could put it back together. Popping connectors back into place, getting the screws in, all done, plug in a power source, and press the power button. It beeped at me and I got some sort of PCI conflict error when it tried to boot, but I could get past that and things worked. I restarted, and the same PCI conflict error occurred. I started to worry a tiny little bit at this stage, and headed into the BIOS to see if there was anything I could do to fix it. Nothing. Hmmm, I did pull out the wireless adaptor which is PCI... So I went though the whole process of disassembling the laptop, got to the wireless adapter, pulled it out and plugged it back in. This time though, I didn't reassemble the laptop, as I wanted to make sure it was working first. Power plug in, press the power button, and w00t, it worked normally. Only then did I go though the whole process of putting it all back together.
In the end the disassembly/assembly went well, so it was time to see what effect cleaning the fan and heatsink had. I powered on, and then had a look at the temps at idle: it was in the mid thirties and forties as opposed to being about 50°C, so there was some improvement there of about ten to fifteen degrees. Pretty good. Alright, full load on the CPU. And the result was pretty astounding. Whereas before, when on full load, my CPU would get up to about 85°C, this time around, it was peaking at 65°C, a drop in temperature of 20°C!! Putting my hand at the vent, I now actually feel the stream of warm air being expelled, since it was no longer all clogged up. I was quite happy and this little maintenance job on my laptop was quite a success.
The bottom half of my laptop, with the LCD screen and keyboard removed
The cooling fan, connected to the heatsink vents (covered) and the long heatsink to the CPU and graphics card
The LCD screen
The fan removed, showing the dust and dirt accumulation
The opened up chassis