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    Travelmate drive cage modding/queestions.

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by n1hilist, Jun 27, 2007.

  1. n1hilist

    n1hilist Notebook Consultant

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    Hi guys. I'm thinking of modding my TM 4403 to cool down the hard drive. It runs hot even with the plastic HDD+RAM cover removed.

    I noticed the bracket that you attach the hard drive before mounting it into the notebook has a thin layer of plastic, it's a sort of mdium-soft/hard plastic that goes between the hard drive and the metal bracket.

    My bracket has holes (about the thickness of a pencil) but the plastic blocks these holes.

    I've thought about punching through these holes to help let the air escape the chamber.

    Anyone who reads this message and has removed/replaced their Acer notebook hard drives, could you tell me what your enclosure looks like? Pictures would be a bonus, I'm a bit nervous to mod the notebook - it's out of warranty but i'm doing research before I attempt it.
     
  2. hoggie

    hoggie old boy

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    the plastic is there to stop any metal parts of the hard drive from coming in contact with the motherboard:
    get your self a cooling pad.there are some good ones that are powered by the usb.
    my aspire 7110 runs almost cold and im using a usb when im out, but at home i have a home made cooling pad.
    have you cleaned all the dust away from the cooling fan?
     
  3. hoggie

    hoggie old boy

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  4. n1hilist

    n1hilist Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks. I don't /really/ want to purchase a cooling pad, I often need to move my notebook around and lugging an extra item with me is a hassle. The cooling fan (top left corner) doesn't seem to have any impact on the hard drive, the CPU can be running at 800mhz at 36-39 celcius or cooking up at 67 degrees celcius but the hard drive is always 53-61 degrees depending on load.

    A cooling pad would probably do the trck but it's a silly means of fixing a problem I should never have had in the first place.

    My notebook's been powered on for about 3 hours now and the only spot under the notebook that is hot is the hard drive area, the wifi is warm, the CPU area is cool-warm, ram is cool, HDD is hot though. My fiance's Travelmate 4222's hard drive doesn't even get remotely warm when idle and under a 2 hour surface test, it gets up to 45 degrees C max!

    Sorry, ranting, it's just annoying me a ton.