Another "why you should keep your notebook clean" threads... important maintenance!!

Guys/Gals,

We see this more often than not and try to make forum members aware of this, but it continues to be a problem. You know how all warranties say normal maintenance must be keeps up with and wear and tear type things aren't covered..... well under the maintenance thing, it doesn't mean you must keep your lcd clean or crumbs from inside your keyboard... it means you must check and maintain vents.

The picture below was just sent over to me by our tech. This isn't as bad as the unit that melted before of a similiar situation... truth be told, another few months and it would have been though. Temps were rising into the 90's and NHC was set to automatically shut the system off at 100 C. Although temps CAN reach up there at points, the systemw as shutting off for the customer when they did anything taxing. Although we found the system was running full blast all the time and honestly contributing to all the heat, nothing else was wrong... at least yet... luckily. This little bit of lint, dust and probably skin cells and nasty hair helped raise the overall temps of this system at least 15 degrees at idle and probably close to 30-35 under a full load...... On a system like the Z70, there are two screws holding down the cover to the cpu compartment and then when that's off, there are two screws holding in the fan. This is a quick and easy issue to resolve yourself and can be done under anyone's warranty as you're not removing the heatpipe or cpu to do so. A cheap can of compressed air is all that's really needed, along with something to pull the blanket of junk out of the fins. The fan needs to blow air over those fins to transfer the heat, otherwise it'll go back to the cpu and just help pump up those temps. Now, keep in mind that the first picture on the second line shows lint that fell down after the fan was pulled...... that was caked onto the fins....

 

Please Make This A Sticky!!

 

Thanks for the info

 

Wow, that's a pretty disgusting amount of dust. Almost looks like the fan went moldy, lol.

 

But there are always non-techies whom are really hesistant to remove the parts(scared of breaking), so.....any steps to easily clean the fins(without really taking anything apart?)

 

Thank you for the post This would be nice stickied.

 

here is an even better example, though not an asus:

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=138273

 

You can still use the can of air. It is recommended that you use a toothpick to prevent the fan from spinning while you do this. It is really easy. I have made a habit of cleaning my V6j at least every 2 weeks to prevent this from happening.

 

Does everyone remember the melted Z70va that I posted up here 2-3 months ago? That was a lot worse, these pictures just probably help detail out everything from opening it up to the point of cleaning it out.... but even this case stumpted us and our tech Bob spent more time gaming and tweaking the system than we ever normally would... and this turned out to be the problem afterall..... It doesn't need to be stickied - but I would put it in our news thread and just come up with a new title for it so others know to look there........ and those who remember the case can send other members there.

The biggest thing to remember is that it can and will happen to everyone and with an Asus system, overheating is really one of the last things that can happen to it.... the intel mobile cpu's don't burn up..... the chipset is good... there's nothing to really go... even the fans are good over many, many years... so anyone who mentions anything about heat all of a sudden going up, please remember this and please suggest it to them. I'd say it could happen after 6 months, this case was more like 8, but I've heard of even as early as 3 months depending.......... but usually I wouldn't expect this for a year and half..... so it really depends on where the person is using it and how they're using it.

 

One thing I have to add to what Justin said. I have found that people that live in dorms and that take there computers with them quite a bit have significantly more dust buildup. My brother and sister have the same laptop, my brother lived in a dorm and my sister lived with my grandparents during the last school year. When "Spring Cleaning" came, my brothers computer had twice as much dust, even though it was about 7 months newer (out of less than a year).

 

Yes. I have seen this happen to countless systems. Around 90% of notebooks I've handled for repairs I end up cleaning out because they are getting to be like this, and a fair amount of the are unuseable because they are overheating.

What makes the dust build up much faster is it you use the notebook on soft surfaces. This can happen to your computer in about a month if you use it continually on bedspreads, carpeting, and counches. It can also pickup a lot of dust from your lap.

Haha! Are you serious? The first think I would have done when the system game in was open it up, clean it out, and reseat the RAM. Maybe you guys have some sort of process you use to find the fix problems; I go by my own ways. I do PC repair for friends and family to fund the items in my sig. =)

 

Sure, it depends on the environment. But it depends on what surfaces you use the laptop on, how many hours the system is powered on, and at what speeds the fans are going. It one person is consistently gaming and the other word processing, the notebook used for gaming will have it's fan on max, thus sucking up more air, and more air means more particles, more particles entering computer = more particles clogging the HSF. Everything is relative.

 

No, we're extremely competent and the problem actually should have been looked at already. The customer was walked through how to clean that already because it was the first suggestion that they came up with and the guy supposedly walked through doing the cleaning with our tech and he even heard the canned air being blown through the phone.... So, after all that was done, when the system came back here, we know what was going on with it and what was already looked it........ the cpu, ram, gpu, hard drive all passed the tests they put it through, it just seemed a little bit hot. First off, we also couldn't duplicate the shut offs the guy was getting and that's sort of the first problem...... we need to find the problem and duplicate it in order to fix it. So, our guys figured in the temp difference and came to the conclusion that we were using it in a nicely AC'd room and this guy was from socal someplace I believe (If you're on the forum please speak up by the way - I don't know who owned the system nor would I want to mention it on the forum), but the difference in ambient temps certainly help raise and lower the system temp, so they took it outside on a nice hot day and finally were able to make it hot enough to find the problem and it wasn't till that point that they checked that fan again and noticed all that dust on the side of the fan and figured if they saw that, there was no way it was cleaned out already........

So basically, the customer wasted our time and his...... He also wasted his money to ship it to the east coast and we paid for the 2day return to him.. This should have been taken care of after a 10 minute phone call and apparently wasn't....

I guess what I want to say is that this is a simple thing and yet very important at the same time... and cost a lot of people a lot of time and money over something that was really an upkeep issue that could have been avoided.

No responding to Caleb, I've been to college too and dorm rooms are small and if you have expensive stuff you like to keep the door locked a lot.... You have one or maybe even two roommates with their entire life in a room smaller than your bedroom at home....... that's a living hell for electronics. When I was a freshman, between myself and my two roommates stuff..... the stereos, tvs, computers, printers, cell phones, watches, you name it... We'd shut the lights off at night and it looked like a cityscape.... There's a lot of heat in a dorm room and a lot more dust and lint to get sucked into air inlets........ I remember the lazy kids just after the first semester, their stuff looked like it had been sitting there for years.... dorm rooms are dangerous places!

 

I hope you made the person pay.. ha ha but seroiusly, people wonder why they have heat problems...... what has happened to common sense!
with the theory of evolution, each generation should be getting slightly smarter than the last generation ... it just the way it is.... but sometines I wonder................

Poeple no longer LOOK at what they are doing.......

 

No, actually not...... in fact, because we had it a couple weeks to do tests I seem to remember allowing them to give him something just for the extra time...... but in reality I shouldn't have done and that he should have paid for shipping back to him, if not our time as well..... but that's not how we work here, but honestly, I don't think it would have been far fetched in this situation because it's not our fault and it's something the customer already said he did..... that little bit of fibbing it what ticks me off usually... but he was without his computer for that time and hopefully he realizes now how much that time was worth and as long as he appreciates it, that's all that matters. We get the unappreciative ones as well every once and a while and it's those people that I'd love to have face to face contact with.

 

Justin, I understand, I was just messing with you. I know very well how difficult it can be to duplicate the problem, and how difficult it can be on the other end of it when others cannot duplicate your problem. Very frustrating. I still would have checked the HSF for dust build-up anyway. This is because of what NZwaverider mentioned:

I think that's the way it has been, up until the last few generations. These days, people just seem to be getting "dumberer". Haha. Reason being:

No, see the problem is the exact opposite. People look at what they are doing and not at what "what they are doing" is doing. For example. Someone is typing up a homework assignment. They look at what they are doing. They look at their fingers and the keyboard. Now if there were looking at the screen(or what "what they are doing" is doing) then less than half as many typos would be made, and people would be able to get their message across much more easily.

EDIT:

=)

 

Oh no... I know that... a majority of people, at least in the US are dumb as nails and expect everything for nothing........... that's why companies like dell still do well. I mention something like that on the forum and I'll get at least one response from some newbie saying that kind of comment is exactly why they won't buy from our company - but it's called the truth, right? That's what everyone wants in leaders and people in any sort of important position... or so you'd think.

In this case, the only reason it wasn't done was becasue this person was a smarter individual and the cleaning out was done over the phone...... but it's entirely our fault for trusting someone.... you just can't do that nowadays, no matter who you are.

We're totally on the same page though.

 

Aye.

More often than not, the truth hurts. When you've been living a life of ignorance and all of a sudden someone tells you that you're wrong, you've been wrong your whole life because you don't know anything, it's bound to hurt.

They want to truth as long as it goes in their favor. And when it doesn't, one of two things may happen. Either you tell them and they yell at you for telling, or you don't tell them, and they yell at you for not telling.

There are people whom you can trust. But the problem is trusting yourself to determine whether a person can or cannot be trusted.

Issue blown out of proportion. See, all those who read, what happens when you don't clean out your computer THOROUGHLY? The best way to clean everything out is always to remove the heatsink and fan so that you have full access to it. But the problem is whether or not you can do this without voiding your warranty. And in most cases, you will void your warranty for removing the heatsink and fan. If you can't remove the heatsink and fan, I would suggest that you clean it as best as possible as often as possible to prolong the life of your laptop. If you look at the link the guy posted on the first page, someone had cleaned out their computer but still couldn't resolve the issue without pulling apart the HSF. Maybe if he cleaned it more often, it would have taken longer for all that dust to build up.

 

mmmm.. no comment on the people critique from you two...

but umm, I wonder if you could take advantage of that and add "Value Added Services" to your company offerings.

For example, for a nominal fee, every 6 months your company will send out a prepaid package for people to mail their laptops back, that don't want to clean/maintain their laptop themselves. Check to make sure all drivers are up-to-date, clean out the optical drive, fan, heatsink, clean out the keyboard, try to remove some scratches even maybe, apply clear plastic protectors for wrist areas, clean their LCD, redo some missing/worn paint, etc. Sort of akin to what people do for a car detail or oil change perse, or 30k, 60k, etc.

Anyway, just a musing I'm not a business person yet, so I don't know if that'll end up to be a plus for your business and for the end user. But if you find a lot of people like that and if they're willing to pay for additional service, maybe that's something to consider.

 

How much would a "nominal" fee be? Because last I checked, it means small. I don't see any company being able to offers this for anything under $200 per 6 months. And you would need the heatsink cleaned out more often than every 6 months. Also, people should take care of their notebooks and keep them from getting scratched. If it gets scratched, then it is a lesson to them. That first off, they shouldn't care so much about a scratch, and second, that they should be more careful with a laptop. Same goes for the keyboard. People should not eat over a computer. It is not a plate. Off to the side, I can understand. But not over the keyboard.

The software end of the deal could result in roughly 3-10 hours per system. That is many more times longer than it took to originally put the system together. This would be expensive, not to mention the costs of the cosmetic fixes.

 

See, there is an issue there which you may not understand Lythia.... When a customer sends something in for a warranty repair, the last thing that want to hear is "that isn't covered, but we do offer that service"...... We do a lot things for customers at not charge, and we do things that upfront they know will cost them, like repairing physically broken parts, this is a grey area which is difficult. I'd rather get everyone to get customers to understand, ok, this shouldn't have been covered, but it was or we did this even though it was above and beyond what we should have. We do have to limit that though, but as long as someone is appreciative of it, it's better for word of mouth down the road. I limited myself to the person who says "do this or else", but there's just a fine line which needs to be defined prior to the problem. I know your intentions are good and I appreciate that but when a system comes in here, we clean it just so we can use it...... I mean, I can't put it any other way, but CSI should clean these systems out before we get them...... between bodily fluids and curly hair, you name it and we can identify it on a computer..... No word of lie, a face mask and rubber gloves are used to do the initial once over and cleaning.... germs.. yuck..

Anyway, thanks.

 

PROPortable

Ah I see. Well word of mouth is definitely a good reward, if nothing else, for the extras you end up having to do, since it sounds like this happens often from the earlier posts.

 

This isn't an everyday thing, or even an every month thing...... but a handful of times throughout the year we see it and when you figure how often we're fixing other systems (which is very low itself), then you tend to remember it........ it's just something that I think happens even more than people would realize and there are even people who will read this thread and know their system does seem to run hotter than it used to and yet still not connect the dots...... that's where I hope something like this can just get through to people because it'll save them in the long run and make them more satisfied with the computer their bought.

 

Every single rma we get gets cleaned now a days even if the problem is not related to dust. I actually found that about half of the rma that comes in that is more then half a year to a year old need some cleaning tho not completely clogged always. I would say its a big problem. Even when the heatsinks are clogged like the pics justin posted the laptop can continue to work without problems but for how long?

 

That is one of my PC repair principals. =)

It is a major problem for budget users who just want a laptop they can use for office work/web browsing and who wish to use the same computer for multiple years. Eventually the laptop will either become unuseable because temp sensors power it off, or the elevated heat levels cause parts to prematurely fail. I've seen it happen far too many times.

Whenever I see a laptop sitting on a bedspread, carpeting, blankets, etc. I get the shivers. I just can't stand to think about what is going to happen to the poor piece of hardware, and what the owner is going to be going through. Of course, 99% of the time no one ever listens to me. Of course, when it fails, I'm the first one they come to. Whatever, if people weren't stupid then I would never have been able to fund any of the things in my sig.

 

I know this is a bump from last year, but it's a reminder of everyone to CLEAN YOUR NOTEBOOK insides regularly!