Get out the Air Cans!

I know that this is probably a "Duh!" in most peoples books. Some of you will say, cool story, I knew that. Just a bit of discovery for me:

When I first got the laptop and started looking at GPU temps, they were as shown:

Initial temps:
Idle: ~55C
Load: ~85C

Recently, my G73JH has been idling quite a bit hotter than it used to. Temps were as shown:

Idle: ~70C
Load: ~95C

I thought, hmmm.. Maybe I should "repaste" as seems to be a popular topic or answer to this problem on this forum. I have some skills taking computers apart, but I haven't recently been doing much computer repair, so I wasn't ready to commit myself just yet.

The other night, I decided to whip out a can of air. I just hosed both exhaust vents out and a ton of dust came out.

After "Can of Air" fix temps:

Idle: ~54C
Load: ~85C

I also noticed that the CPU was running quite a bit cooler, but I never really concerned myself with paying attention to those temps.

So, lesson learned: Try cleaning before taking apart!

Hope this helps out some people in similar situations

 

A few questions, if anyone wants to answer:

1. How often should this be done?
2. Which can of air did you use and where did you get it?
3. Can a can with too much pressure possibly damage any internal parts if you apply it too close?

thanks in advance.

 

Good questions, but I really don't have any answers.

I had two cans of air, both were old ones that have been sitting on my shelf for quite some time...

 

Where do you buy the can of air?

 

I can confirm it works!!!!!

My idle temps were:

65-69-67

Right after the cleaning with compressed air my temp were:

55-60-58

Now GPU clock tool is reporting (not complete idle):

53-58-56

I just can say...wwwhoooaaa!!!! the amount of dust particles that came off through the vents were incredible. Now my laptop is cold as new... and no repasting needed

 

how exactly do you spray the laptop without disassembling? blow it into the vent behind?

 

let me get this right.... you blew air into the "exhausts" meaning the two openings under/behind the screen, and dust came out...from the same place ?

 

In the Vents!!!!

Look in the back side of the screen/laptop, you will see two enormous vents (on in the right and other in the left)... just push compressed air in the vent and you will see dust coming off the vents, next, enjoy your new temps.

 

seems easy enough thanks, will try it when the time comes

 

Repasting is to be done when your stock clocks CLEAN computer has high temp readings.

You just... cleaned up your dirty laptop.


Man, these topics get redone every so often, makes me feel like we have hit a wall with how much information the end user gets. Stuff like this should appear on TV more often or something.

 

I heard of cleaning laptop with compressed air quite a few time and not sure how it should be done. A picture on how to do it properly would be greatly appreciated.

 

Don't use an air compressor. Blow dust OUT of the laptop, not in. Not sure how else to explain it.

 

I was thinking of repasting my g73 a while back as well. My temps had climbed and I had read on this forum that repasting help a few others out. Seeing as I really wasn't comfortable with ripping my precious apart I decided on the canned air approach first to see if it would help.... It did. Like other posters here stated tons of dust came flying out of the vents and then to my surprise my temps fell all the way back to where they initially were when I first got my laptop. It's now a rule if thumb for me to hit the vents (intake and exaust) atleast once a month.

 

Don't you have to somehow hold the fans still while blowing he air? Won't the fan motors get damaged from how fast the air is spinning the fans?

 

I dont think you blow it when the fan is on.

 

Is this a serious topic?

I don't mean to offend it's just.... I can't believe you guys didn't know about it sooner. I mean, it's like the forums get a step backwards regarding general knowledge of computer's mantainance. I know some of you are new etc, but that's just my point, that the info is not reaching you guys.

It is recommended to at least once a month you clean the innards of your machine for dust bult up, as it is the primary culprit of overheating components. Repasting is to be done for other reasons, not to clean your laptop from dust.

I personally clean my laptop twice per month because I live in a place with a lot of dust around.

A can of compressed air is your friend.

 

no, the y won't. I did mine with my laptop on in idle state to see in real time how the temps decreases. Was glad to see the cold down from 65 to 54.

Right now, just boot my laptop up and after 10 min my laptop is 52C

 

Yes, they will. If they spin up too fast.

 

I blow my G73 out about every 3 days , I use it a lot so I keep it clean.
I have not had any temp issues so far and it is working fine.
Also I do this for all my computers. This is one of the main things I see when people bring them to me to fix. I take them apart and they are not just dirty. They are plugged up . Some so bad that I can not see the blades on the heat sink. There fans are solid with crud.

You got to keep them clean to keep them running.

 

I am curious about something do you guys just take the CAN and blow inside of the read back exhaust? And dust will come out of that same exhaust??? ???

 

only way to be sure is to really try it yourself lol... or someone is kind enough to make a video of it.

 

agreed with above, blowing inward sounds very wrong, not exactly something I would recommend to do.

the fan will damage the laptop if it spins too fast

read their comments again
it is about how to blow the air can because blowing into the vent is a very uncommon thing to do.

 

Will, first of all, dust buildup tends to e 75% on the fan itself. Second, a propper usage of compressed air is with short busrts. You can surely blow directly into the vents, and any openings like under the keyboard or any fins you see around.

It would preferably be better to open the laptop a bit to ensure you are cleaning well but in the end, most of the dust gets into the fans. Just keep your laptop turned off, and perform short bursts. The fan spin itself along with the shot of air will burst out excess of dust but won't take care of it all. At least it will keep the thing less cluttered. Keep in mind that blowing into the fan vents will also blow a % of the dust back into the notebook, so you just need to keep that in mind.

 

Did the same thing with my G71, temps were slowly climbing so I pulled it apart and sprayed out the heat exchanger and fans from the inside. Instant 10c drop, I am idling at 33c right now

 

this is the worrying part, is it really safe to blow the dust back into the computer?
I am worried that this maybe the only workable solution for me because G73 is much harder to open up than my older laptops

 

Nothing to worry too much about. Even if the G73 is a bit harder to open up, you don't need to open it all up to get access to small holes where you can blow dust away.

The main thing with the G73 is how sealed up it is, but the benefit of actually blowing away most of the dust off the fan, vs not doing so, is much greater.

 

Yes, I just blow the air in one side of the vent and then the other till the dust comes out as much as it will, then I blow out all the heatsink to make sure it is as clean as it will get. You just have to monitor what is coming out to see how you are doing.

And yes some of this may get back into the machine. But not that much and having the Heatsinks clean and working is more important to me .

As it is now when the fans are running the computer is drawing air through the keyboard and from under the system to cool all the inside. This will draw in dust anyway.
There is no great way to keep the machine all cleaned out as it is now. But I guess after doing this for a year or so I will take the computer apart and give it a good cleaning, and after that time I will not have to worry about voiding my Warranty by opening up the case.

I have just found out that I just live a few miles from the Repair Center that fixes the ASUS computers in our area, so I am going to take a trip up to the shop next week and see what and how they do this, and see if they have any tricks on working on this machine and keeping it clean. This shop is a larger one and from what I can see, and found out they are a top rated shop in this area, not like some that are questionable. Anyway I am going to find out for myself.

 

Thanks r0gue3. I had same temps as you, but now everything is perfect - idle ~58C / load ~ 85C. Thanks again

 

Can someone detail me exactly how to blow the air into the vents step by step?

I'm very interested in doing this.

 

Just take your can of air and put the tube on it. Then at each vent take and put the tube on one side and just blow it out, use a few burst of air, then move over to the other side of the same vent and do the same. Then blow out the vent all over after you do that so you get all of the heatsink veins blown off.

Then mover over to the other vent and do the same.
Also you can blow out the vents on the bottom of the case and blow off the keyboard as air is taken in through that also.
I do this every few days as I use the computer quite a lot. And if you live in a dusty or smokey area then you might have to do this more often as you will collect more crud on you fan and heatsink.
It is not hard to do and you will see the dust come out when you blow them out. That is if it has dust in it.

 

Yeah, but knowledge is power.

When a ton of people are posting on this forum about "Hey, my temps dropped, I repasted" yay, alot of people may think that "repasting" is the way to fix their issue. That is the general knowledge that this forum has handy, which is why I thought I'd post this topic to see if I could help out some people.

Hope this helps!

 

Last time i opened mine i had the fan with so much dust in it it was 60% covered with dust I manually removed it with my hands but i dint actually clean the actual fan its self, just the heat sink part that goes with the fan. That was 2 months ago its starting to run hot again. I am guessing i will have to do this every month then.

 

Thank you for this advice, I know it should be common sense but I haven't done it yet. Off to get a dust can!

 

I do the same as generally described here, but I also hold a vacuum cleaner just at the mouth of the vent. I blow on one side and have the vaccum sucking in everything that comes out. It makes sure that a max of dust will come out instead of some falling back in.

I also heard some people remove the memory trap door before blowing to allow a path for the dust to leave the computer instead of relocating.

I'll do this again this weekend as I'm overdue... but the truth is that lately I have not been using the G73 so much, I'll post if I get any results, just for the extra feedback.

 

Forgive me, but this method seems counter-intuitive. It's difficult to wrap my head around how blowing the compressed air back INTO the machine by placing the straw into the REAR vent is a good thing. I understand that common sense dictates that the air will travel through the machine and back out of the other rear vent on the other side. However, this method doesn't seem like it would be efficient for it's intended purpose.

Wouldn't it make more sense to blow compressed air somewhere from the front of the laptop where the air intake is greatest and blow toward the rear of the laptop as this is the straightest path for the dust to exit the machine? I would think this would provide greater efficiency as the dust is taking a straight path out toward the rear vents and no dust is being blown back into the laptop first in order to then be blown out as your method seems to entail.

I personally have not bought my laptop yet (probably within the next couple of months, so I've been on here reading all I can to get educated about the laptop). Perhaps there is no area in the front of the laptop to perform the air-blowing but since the machine is designed to take air into it fromthe front and blow it out the back I would have to think there is some area near the front that would make for a more efficient procedure.

 

The dust builds up on the leading (inside) edge of fan blades and radiator fins. By blowing the dust in the opposite direction to the normal airflow, it dislodges the dust, hopefully unblocking the airflow and pushing it where it's large enough to pick out from the memory panel or not light enough to be lifted on the the opening of the grill to block the airflow again

I angle the G73 with the power socket pointing straight up, so the bulk of the dust ends up near the WLAN card. I also run a weak- dust buster over the vents and *near* the memory slot. (Don't get too near, or touch cos static is bad mmkay?!?!)

 

Yeah, that's my point. This is decade's old knowlegde on itself. But since it is not properly passed down to the consumer, you guys are left off with what is currently discussed on these forums, specially the repaste job.

We should have sticky info about this so that everyone can access a quick maintenance guide, because repasting is a far more advanced job to do, besides not being the first solution to the problem. Well, it is a solution for a different problem.

People should really try this out because building dust cripples machines way faster than regular use would.

 

My G73 has been running considerably hotter than usual. I was in my kitchen and I noticed I was idling at 64 degrees and my CPU core at 55+, higher than it's ever been. Took out my Rocket Air Blower, went to work on the vents, unholy amounts of dust. Check my temps now, GPU is idling at 52 and CPU cores at 43-46. Definitely keep those vents and fans nice and clean, pretty big difference.

 

Air-blower to blow directly back inside of the machine that is basically working backwards

 

The two vents are not interconnected. It either comes out through the memory trap, or through the same vent. Else it finds a nice cozy place to relocate inside.

Once you get your computer, if you find a way, do post back. Love to hear about it.

 

We know that blowing the air into the vents is not the best way! But it is the only way we have to do this without voiding the warranty.
And it does work to keep the machine running cool.
That is the reason that the new users are being told to clean the computer this way.
If there was another way that did not void the warranty then I and others would be doing just that.

 

I just Aired mine through the back and a whole bunch of dust came out. Now the fans dont spin that hard and its cool again. Good thing i dint have to totally dismantle it again, like i did last time.

 

You guys that think this is "backwards" need to realize that the majority of the air blown into the vents just blows immediately back out the other fins, hence why so many G73 owners are saying "tons of dust came out the vents". This method is safe to do.

 

I really need to get a can of air to try. Where can i get one? Computer hardware store?

Does the same technique, blowing into the vents work for other laptops? My old M1530 is heating up like crazy, and i think it needs some air blowing soon.

 

Go to Wal-Mart to get your air, or a store of the same type. The Computer stores for the most part charge quite a bit more for the caned air.
But one thing you will see is that it is not cheap , at least as cheap as you would think.

But anyway a can last through many cleanings . If you have not used the canned air then when you do be sure not to turn the can on it's side or upside down as it will blow out the liquid into your machine and if it hits you skin that way it is really,really cold .
But I am sure most know this already but just in case someone has not used this before then this is good to know.
There are a few brands of this product and as far as I can tell most are just the same as the next. So just buy the least costly of the group if they are the same amount in volume. And make sure the the tube is on the can that you attach to the nozzle . It is not very easy to use with out this air tube.

And as to the type of laptop it really does not matter, just do the same as told here and you will be fine. You may see though on your type of computer vents that doing it in an order other than what is said may be better for you.
Just try ways and watch the outcome and you will see the best.

 

Also, if you play paintball, you can just use your CO2 canister and spray some air from it. But don't use a compressor, the psi is generally too high and will damage the board.

 

errr... You mean lot of dust came out when you turned your computer back on again right ? or did you in fact air it out while it was running ? o.o

 

I would say that it came out when he was cleaning the vents.
But I have and do blow mine out with the computer running. And I have been doing this for years on Notebooks and Desktops and I have not had any issues .
But I do not blow into the vent to the point where I spin the fan to huge speeds. When I do this it also helps get the crud off the fan blades .

Now, just because I do this and it has worked for me does not mean that it will for you .
So if you do this do so at your own risk! As I cannot be responsible for the outcome of doing this type of cleaning.
If you spin your fans up to a speed that is to high ,you can damage the fan or fan motor. Or as I have seen done, spin the fan blades off the fan motor.

 

Actually the computer what off. If you blow air in the rear. Dust will come back out because the span spins when you blow it so air comes right back out but with dust. Then when you stop seeng dust, you know its kinda clean. You should try it yourself.

 

hoover is a great option, it turns the fans in normal direction and suck the dust with vacuum. take out battery and ac cable. than use vacuum you dont need to buy a air compressor. hoover is safer and better than it I think.