Asus G50VT-X5 Dust Cleaning

Hi sorry if this is in the wrong place.

My laptop is in need of some dusting and I was wondering what the best way is. I have gone through the owner's lounge and read the disassembly guide and thought that would be the best way. Which would be removing the heat sink assembply which covers the cpu and northbirdge, which is attached to the fan and the part that is dusty (its this silver grateing next to the fan).
However, I'm concerned about the possibility of encountering thermal paste over the cpu and northbridge.

All I'm wanting to do is dust it, is there a way to do this without disassembling it and voiding the warranty?

Thanks

 

Take off the back panel, hold the fan gently in place with your finger, and go at it with a compressed air can. It's good practice to take out the battery and AC adapter before you start and to ground yourself before touching anything inside your computer.

No need to remove the heatsink assembly. Breaking the thermal compound bond requires reapplication.

Personally I'm too cheap for an air can so I just held the fan and blew through the vents manually. For anything bigger I took a slightly damp paper towel (like a drip of water for a half paper towel--NO DRIPPING OR WATER STREAKS) and gently dusted off the fan blades and inside the housing. Never removed the heatsink.

 

That's what I was thinking, but if you take a look at a picture of the inside of a G50V there is a cover over the fan and in my case is not removable. Does it matter that I can't really see what I'm doing?

And another thing, doing that will just force the dust out through the heat vent and not into some sensitive area that I can't see. Correct? Would a vacuum siting close to that vent help?

 

The back panel should be easily removable if you have a Philipshead screwdriver. Undo all the screws that are on the backpanel. There's 12 of them all total that I counted.

I'd advise against using a vacuum for two reasons: static charge and uncontrolled airspeed. Faster moving air builds up charge quite nicely, so there's a higher chance of frying something from some shock somewhere. Finally, if you can't secure the fan in place gently you might force it to move faster than it was designed, damaging the bearings on it. Not saying it's impossible, I just don't want to risk 66 cores of computing power or its cooling.

 

Maybe I can explain what I meant with a picture.



What my problem is that large gray cover over the fan which is restricting my view of where all the dust is, which is to the right of the gray cover (which would be that silver metal thing to the right of it).

That's why I suggested putting a vacuum out side of the laptop heat vent when I use canned air (I like that term ), so when I blow all of that dust out my vacuum grabs it.

I'm reading what your posting and I want to try it, I just have some problems trying to figure out how to pull it off. Hopefully my picture shows my predicament.

 

Oooh you're looking to "catch" the dust. Here I was thinking you wanted to strap a vacuum onto the side of your vent lol

Looks pretty dusty in there. I suppose a vacuum would be okay as long as you're not creating a vortex of doom for the laptop fan, ie: keep it an inch or two away. Hold the fan gently in place so it doesn't spin too fast and have at it with the compressed--er, canned--air. It's not an exact science, but it's good to take a few safety measures. You probably won't kill anything, but just in case, right?
"in case" hahaha ...oook.

 

So you don't think that gray cover over than fan is a problem? It isn't removable, so I should just stick my canned/compressed air up inside there and have at it.

 

Not a problem//lol yes. The gray cover is part of the heatsink assembly, it doesn't come apart (or at least it wasn't designed to), so don't try. It's actually attached to the first set of heatsink fins. Some air cans come with a long nozzle, you can use that if you have one.

In either case, yes, you should just stick your canned air up inside there and have at it.