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    Dust only coming out of one vent?

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by Audiophil92, Nov 25, 2011.

  1. Audiophil92

    Audiophil92 Notebook Evangelist

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    Hey guys,

    I finally bought some compressed air and cleaned my vents. When I blew air into one, basically a hurricane of dust came out - very satisfying. However hardly anything came out of the right one. Could dust be clogged in there or something? I haven't cleaned the laptop since the summer so...

    Furmark was giving me 103 before, 85 now, so better, but I still think its too hot.
     
    Audiophil92, Nov 25, 2011
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  2. khetik

    khetik Notebook Deity

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    I really hope you didnt blow compressed air into the vent with your laptop closed up because you're basically blowing the dust into other parts of your laptop. Best thing to do is to open up your laptop and remove the fan and clean out the vent properly. When blowing air onto the fan, hold the blades with a finger so they dont spin.

    In regards to those temps, your laptop could probably use a repaste as well. That is if the temps dont drop to safe levels by just using compressed air
     
    khetik, Nov 25, 2011
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  3. Audiophil92

    Audiophil92 Notebook Evangelist

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    I did this

    Cleaning the Alienware M15x - YouTube

    Regarding temp levels, it idles at about 40-45 now, and a 2 min furmark test topped out at 85c, so its definately better than before. Would that be considered safe levels though? I bought the kit for a repaste so probably going to be doing that either way, I'd just like to know what constitutes "safe" idle and load temps for cpu and gpu
     
    Audiophil92, Nov 25, 2011
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  4. highfly

    highfly Notebook Consultant

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    those are perfectly normal levels
     
    highfly, Nov 25, 2011
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  5. khetik

    khetik Notebook Deity

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    Yes those are definitely fine temps, my idle is the same as yours. Never got around to doing a furmark, so can't comment on that. But idles look good.
     
    khetik, Nov 26, 2011
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  6. redandblack1287

    redandblack1287 Notebook Consultant

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    The reason the dust is only coming out of one vent is because the fan that cools the CPU has a metal casig around it--you have to actually open up the laptop AND the casing if you want to clean out the dust from the CPU fan/vent
     
    redandblack1287, Nov 28, 2011
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  7. Audiophil92

    Audiophil92 Notebook Evangelist

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    redandblack - could you elaborate on how I would do that?
     
    Audiophil92, Nov 29, 2011
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  8. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    Grab the service manual here:
    Alienware: Online Documentation

    give it a good read.
    Watch these official teardown videos so you'll know what you're getting yourself into:
    Alienware M15x Teardown 1 of 3 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video) - YouTube

    Alienware M15x Teardown 2 of 3 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video) - YouTube

    Alienware M15x Teardown 3 of 3 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video) - YouTube

    Go slowly and be patient, once you have it open clean all dust there (heatsinks fins, fan blades etc..)
     
    katalin_2003, Nov 30, 2011
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