Cleaning the Fans on a m1730

Hi there, been playing alot of Left for Dead lately with max settings and resolution and just recently i have noticed that the fps drop to half what they normally are, the fans seem to get ALOT louder , then say 1-2 mins later and the fps returns to normal.

I was convinced that i had some background program running that was using too many resources, or some anti virus running , so i basically disabled everything that could be causing my fps to drop and still the problems continued.

I had the laptop on my lap the other day and noticed that it was unusually hot, i installed Speedfan and it gave me an idle temperature of

80c for both GPUS (8800s)

This seems to be rather high and im keen to find out if my fans are blocked or not and this could be causing my fps problems.

I have never used compressed air on my computer because im worried about just blowing the dust further inside the computer.

Could anyone let me know if it is easy to get to the fans and clean them out, im just a little anxious about damaging the computer while im doing so. I have looked for a guide on cleaning them with some pics but cant seem to locate one. The only other option i can think is too lie to dell about some other problem and when the engineer comes over get him to clean them for me ?

thanks in advance for any help

 

You should be able to look in through the vents on the rear of the case and see the copper cooling fins and blow the dust off them using a can of compressed air with a plastic extension spout, all designed expressly for this job. If you need a better view and better access, you should be able to do some minor disassembly, ie, taking the cover plate off over the fins. This should not cause any damage to your computer.

If all the fins are clear of dust, and they probably have a lot now, you might have to consider re-seating the CPU with fresh high quality thermal paste. But get rid of the dust first.

 

Here's what I suggest:

1. Get a small paper clip or toothpick. Insert it between the fan blades.
2. Take a compressed air can and give it a good blast.
3. Also blow out the heat sinks on the back of the unit - this is where most of the dust will be.

The paperclip between the fan blades prevents the fans from spinning at an unsafe RPM. This can easily occur from a blast of compressed air.

Dont worry about dust getting into the inner areas of 'The Beast' - I just opened mine up the other day in well over a year and I was shocked to see very little dust inside.

Also, you may want to review the XPS M1730 Owners Lounge thread - last few posts... I just posted a driver which you might benefit from. Very low temps and excellent image quality. The driver apparently has issues with CounterStrike Source - but if you dont play CSS, dont worry. Take a look:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4707695&postcount=15246


80c is high in my opinion. Before the 185.66 driver, my GPU temps were never over 75c. Typically maxed out at 70c.

 

thanks very much for the advice mate, im a little concerned that if i blow the dust further inside though, that it may cause problems again at a later date.

do you know if it is easy to get to the fans, a little earlier i was brave enough to take the keyboard off then i got worried and quickly replaced everything lol!

 

ohhh great, thanks alot, i like the paperclip idea ! It will prevent exactly what i was worried about

i will give those drivers a shot also !

 

blimey .... just about to go and grab a can of air before the shops shut, just taken a deep breath and blown lightly into the vent! I was amazed to see the dust come out , it was quite funny, i have sneezed several times and my eyes are now puffy from the dust !

interestingly... speedfan is now reading at 69c cant wait to see what i end up with after a proper toothpick backed up blast !

when i do feel brave enough i will just use the techicians manual that batboy was kind enough to link to me !

 

Check to see how many fans you have, my Toshiba for example has three. if you get a proper small screw driver so that you don't mess all the screws up, you can take a few of the cover plates off to expose the fans and the heat sinks and get a very good idea that things are pretty well partitioned off and the dust is not going to go anywhere dangerous. When working with those tiny screws it is nice to have a nice magnifying glass to make sure that you are not ripping the heads of the screws to bits.