Notebook maintenance - Cleaning the fan

This is a thread made to be attached to the sticky. Feel free to comment however.

Notebooks are tools of the trade, they are meant to be used. As mobile as they are, they also suffer from wear and tear, whether it be evident in such cases as keyboard and wrist rest wear, or tear from accidents. However, one of the most common cases of wear and tear is the cooling system in notebooks.

Due to the size constraints, notebook fans are usually small and come in small amounts, usually one or two depending on the size of the notebook. It may not sound like much, but the fan is a vital part of a notebook, and can make a difference whether or not the notebook will function well and at times, the lifespan of the notebook.

Often overlooked, there has been many questions and inquiries where the fan is the culprit:

1) Why is my notebook so hot?
2) My fans are too loud all of a sudden!
3) Overheating notebook?

Such cases is from these situations is because the fan is being clogged, as well as the air vents. The vents of a notebook let air ventilate the notebook, but where there is air, there is dust, particles, insects, and other various minuscule objects that may be sucked into the vents.

This results in the fan being clogged and can not move hot air in the notebook effectively. As mentioned above, some of the situations there are only some symptoms of what can happen if a notebook is not cleaned enough, or thoroughly.

My ASUS V6va has been maintained quite well, I own a few cans of compressed air and bi-weekly I spray some air into the vents and I could see dust and particles blow out. I would of thought this would be effective enough to clean my notebook and have it purring. It has been almost 19 months since I have bought the notebook and used it heavily wherever I go, be it at school, a coffee shop, the library or a friends house.

This is a simple guide, a generic guide as most notebooks are not the same in where the insides are. If you find yourself unsure what to do, feel free to ask or contact your dealer so you do not harm your notebook.


Bottom of notebook, there are a handful of screws to open up the back plate. The screws marked 'K' are for the keyboard removal.

As of late, I found my notebook running excessively hot, and the fans would be on very often at max when I play games, or even when I'm watching movies. At idle, the CPU would be at 58-63, and under stress, it ht up to 80 degrees, with NHC warning me about the temperatures. At first, I did my regular routine, take off the back plate, the keyboard and clean the vents with a can of compressed air.


Opening up the back plate, the fan is attached by 3 screws. Make sure there are no 'WARRANTEE VOID' stickers. IN my case, there was none except for the one on the CPU heatsink.

However, being the curious person I am, I decided to take out the fan and see whats up. Well, I found what was the problem.


The fan itself was caked in dust, which was pretty bad considering the maintenance I did with the notebook. Think of what would be the case if a person did not do maintenance with the insides!

Looking further in, I saw the main source of the problem, and it wasn't pretty!


Caked with more dust, hair, and whatnot, the other side of the main vent was pretty clogged. Think of what would be the case if a person did not do maintenance with the fans! Yikes!

I used the can of compressed air to blow majority of the dust and particles away(outside of course), but there were still some that wouldn't come off. To further clean the insides and the fan, I used a handful of Q-Tips, some of them damp, to clean the insides. After a pretty nasty cleaning session, I put everything back together and let it dry for a bit.

What I found inside were a mix of dust, small hairs, coffee grinds(I worked at a coffee shop for a year as a Barista) and lots of unknown bits I don't think I would want to identify.

After a few hours, I booted up the notebook, let it run for a bit and now it's running much much better. The surfing temperatures fell down into the low 50's, gaming would peak at a bit over 70.

Maintenance may seem like a hassle, but to improve notebook temperatures and a healthy lifespan, it's well needed. Like a vehicle, regular changes are necessary, and this notebook is humming away happily.

 

Awesome post.

I'll be getting cans of compressed air on my way home today!

 

hey just cleaned it like mentioned in the post before i used to only clean my fan but once i took it out completely and looked around where it sat saw alot of dust clumped together around the vents.. cleaned the vents with toothpicks to take out all the dust it even reduced the temps by like 5-10 degrees and laptops much quieter now...

Great post

 

Glad to hear it helps. And yea, as simple as it sounds, it can really benefit in the end.

Updated thread with larger pictures.

 

Thanks Cori
I used this guide to clean my W3J and it matches.

 

Does anybody know if the fan set up will be similar too my ASUS F3 series because after 7 months of use at home and college i may have a similar issue since i have noticed high temperatures, at first i thought i may be due to the higher room temperatures so i bought a Notebook Cooler, but now i will be doing this.

Would it matter what i used to clean the insides of it with? As in could i use cotton buds to clean it? Also where could i get cans of compressed air from?

 

Quick tip: Use a clean toothbrush to get some of the hard-to-reach areas. And if you need to use a liquid to clean anything, use rubbing alcohol (BUT NOT ON THE SCREEN!!!!). It will evaporate quickly. Use a water-moistened cloth to clean the screen. No chemicals, no windex (seen it done )

 

Great info, Coriolis. Silentheero makes a good point too.

I usually use a 50/50 mix of isopropyl alcohol and water when cleaning small areas with q-tips. Breaks down some of the gunkier gunk and drys quickly.

 

yeh its basically the same i got my f3ja about 7 months ago as well and started getting fustrated with the high temps so gave it a good clean. the main area to concentrate on is the 3rd picture after you unscrew the fan.

 

I used a QTip, but I made sure to loosen up the cotton at the end. I also used a tiny bit of water to help clean off the harder particles.

Compressed air can be found at any electronics stores, even Staples or Best Buy carries it.

 

So what on the F3 the place that gathers the most dust is the fan and heat sink then? Were there, or is it likely there will be void warranty stickers on the fan itself which i will be exposing when cleaning?

patel7, there may be a flaw with the model in that the fans get clogged up easily because after 7 months i too have been having heat spikes where i didn't before. Can anybody else verify a heat increase after several months using this model..?

 

About the compressed air can, NEVER do it directly to the fan...Making the fan turning like this can unballanced your fan, making it noise and sometime dead...
Try to direct the compressed air to the mounting of the fan, so that the air go throught the fan withouth making it turn too fast. If you cant, try to do some burst on the fan insteed of long shot.

 

You can use a pencil or something to stop the fan from turning.

 

it depends a lot on usage and environment. For instance, I've cleaned out the fans in my Z71v a couple times in 2 years, but I've needed to clean out under the keyboard every 3-4 months (I'm messy ) If you think you've got some dust accumulation, it never hurts to check.

 

I just cleaned mine out and what a difference!!

I was on world of warcraft and had been for about 2 hours, not a demanding task for my notebook and shouldn't cause it to get hot but when i put my hand in front of the vent the air was almost at a burning temperature. This imidiatly worried me, as i was using an Antec Notebook Cooler as well with those extraction fans on maximum. So i shut most programs down and installed Everest Ultimate again (since it was lost when i re-formated). The Temperature Idling were at a staggering 55 degree C (Cooling pad on Max). Now when i last measured these they were at about 50 max(cooling pad on Max) on standard usage.

Anyways i turned it off and decided to crack the case off and have a look. I didn't find much until i took the fan off and saw the heat sink and exhaust vent. Over half of it was covered in dust, and when i got it out, i looked like it had been there a while and was mainly hairs of varies sizes with a dust coating over the top and instantly i thought "Problem Solved" so i just cleaned out the fan blades and used lung power to blow excess away (as i still have no canned air). I then careful put everything back together.

Now turning it back on i noticed my fans were quieter and when i got Everest up i was somewhat thrilled to see that my surfing temperatures were on 45 Degrees C and that is with my cooling pad on its low setting.

I have noticed a huge difference and i would recommend if you have had your notebook anything longer than 5 months to do this.

---

Incase you are wanting some background desciptions to what i do and this is used for... most of the time it is sat on my desk in my room and i cart it off to college too, but all the surfaces i am putting it down on are cleanish.. i dont leave it on the sofa to get clogged with fluff either. Its general and careful usage and after 7 months i get such huge effects.

So i think the exadurates the fact this is a must for most people even careful users like myself.

I would also like to say thank you to coriolis, your guide has been a great deal of help to me.

 

Take care when cleacning with compresed air, it may come out liquid if not used properyl!

 

Best to just spray a little bit in the air before using, like that the condensed liquid will be sprayed out and it'll be safe to use.

 

Nice info coriolis, usually overlooked. Cleaning the fan worked great for me as well. I noticed today that I was idling at 65C and gaming topped out at 87C, undervolted too. Roughly 10C higher than normal. I had no compressed air but I unscrewed the fan, cleaned it with a q-tip and blew out the vents. Also another tip, use something called an interdental toothbrush (I had one lying around the house), perfect to clean right between the gaps of the fan. Temps are now 3C lower than my norm so it worked.

 

Use cleaning alcohol instead of water.

 

can you use those squige pump thing for cameras instead of compressed gas.
Coz I have no idea whatsoever where to get compressed air in hong kong.

 

Nice tip. I've always wondered why my notebook seemed to be higher in temp, with the fan constantly running on high, and hovering around 60. Now the CPU is down to 47. Thanks again.

 

This canned air 'maintenence' is a pretty bad idea. you are only shoving the dirt farther in and making it go where it couldn't go normally. Very bad idea.

The OP might have actually helped the fan clog up by using compressed air.

 

Did you read the whole first post or just the start?

Towards the end

 

Is there any reason why just putting a vacuum cleaner over the vent and sucking out all the dust wouldn't work?

I've noticed how noisy my laptop has become recently, so I plan to clean mine. Vacuum seems easier

 

A vacume cleaner isn't as effective. It won't provide enough pressure and the suction area is too large to target some of the smaller regions in the notebook.

 

Damn, this is important. On my G1sn, i usually tried to keep it tidy, and sometimes did blow air to the vent, where more than once, dust came blowing out. I thought doing this was helping out keep the laptop in a good state, since an (now-marked-incompetant) technician from Asus, told me it was not a problem.

I did not know this and now its making some weird noises. It happens only when it spins fast. I guess its unballanced or something of the sort.

I am checking on solutions for this. Can it be fixed? or does it have to be replaced? I've scarcely found information about fan maintanence.

I will post a solution if i find it elsewhere, but i would really appreciate any help.

 

Just wanna thank coriolis for the valuable advice about cleaning the fan and the vents. I had noticed since 6 months back that my notebook fan had become irritatingly noisy, especially because I use my notebook for voiceover recording. The noise had gone up to a high pitched, whining level that could be picked up on my studio mic. Plus the heat of the underside was scalding. But I ignored it, thinking my 2 year old laptop was just showing a sign of old age. And tonight, a perfect storm made up of a very hot summer night and dirty vents and fan caused my notebook to suddenly shut itself off. That gave me a rude awakening, plus a mild panic attack.

I thought my machine had a fatal hardware crash, but I was hoping it was just heat exhaustion. Luckily it was, as I was able to turn it back on as soon as the CPU and RAM had cooled off. I quickly Google'd my problem and came across this thread. I figured I could handle cleaning the fan and vents myself.

I carefully unscrewed the fan tonight and discovered 2 years worth of black dust sitting between the fan and the vents. No wonder it was "whistling" already. After throwing out the 2 inch by half inch slab of dust, i dry swabbed the vents and the fan with Q-tips and some cotton. And now I happily hear the sweet sound of silence from the fan. I actually have to put my ear up against the vent to hear the fan's buzz.

So as coriolis mentioned, the importance of a healthy notebook fan and clean vents cannot be overstated. Especially when said notebook is used for your livelihood.

 

I'm wondering if I should do the same. My laptop has only 3 months.

Idle: CPU 40C | GPU 70C
Games: CPU 50C | GPU 90C (reached already 102C)

Mine is Asus G60vx, and Notebookcheck Review at ( Notebookcheck: Review Asus G60VX Gaming Notebook) sad:

I'm guessing notebookcheck uses a brand new laptop to make the tests. So 101C in a brand new one, and mine 102 with 3 months seems pretty reasonable.

 

Just wanted to jump in here.... this post really helped. My laptop was starting to blue screen and it never did that before. Felt kinda hot....

Following the advice of this post....

PHOTO

 

Damn thats a lot of Dust

 

any idea how to get inot an asus v2s notebook?

 

I have an xps 1530, bought a can of compressed air recently, but I dont really have the confidence to take my comp apart and remove the fan as was done in the OP.

Does anybody have noob level suggestions on how I can clean out my system?

 

Have you checked the disassembly guide for your 1530? There are some detailed instructions on how to disassemble your laptop on the Dell website. Basically, you should be looking to take out the heat sink/radiator and fan.

Documentation

 

Thanks for the guide. I'll look into it, I'm not used to tinkering with hardware.

I'm sending my Notebook back to dell soon to replace a broken CD drive, perhaps I could have them clear it out.

 

Thank you so much for this post and especially the pictures. While my Asus computer is a 2010 and varies a bit from the model in the picture, I was able to find and fix everything in a very short time. This was the first time I had ever opened a notebook and now when I do it regularly for cleaning, I'll know exactly what to do Ah, so nice not to hear that whine!

 

I wonder how come they don't make such fans on new notebooks. Did some cleanin' not so long ago. The "victims" were my sister's ASUS F3JC (2006) and mine ASUS M60J (2009). On sister's notebook I was able to unscrew the fan, whereas on mine the fan is built in that metal went thingy. Had to do all my cleaning with the vacuum cleaner. And actually I was surprised what temps on mine dropped pretty good, as it was then I just bought it. Vacuum cleaner !

 

Just a quick question on the compressed air method. I own a M50V series and there is only one vent off to the left. A lot of guides say to blow air into the intake and exhaust. Is the only way to clean this model to open the bottom and blow air from the inside out?

 

Can someone please tell me how can I remove and clean the cooling fan on my Asus V2S Notebook? I´ve tried to search this information, but I can´t seem to be able to find it anywhere. When I take out the panel at the back, I can see the cpu and a part of the fan, but I can´t take the fan out because it´s blocked by the bottom cover. Do I have to take the whole bottom cover of my notebook away, and if, then how?

Thanks on advance for any useful advice,

Ais

 

where are the images that go with this guide?