HP NC8430 - fan spins but doesn't move air

I recently got a 1.5 year old HP NC8430-- finallly I have a laptop with a 3D card. The problem is it gets very hot when playing games, and the fan doesn't seem to move any air even when it's spinning at full speed. I can't feel any airflow coming out of the vent on the left side, and if i dangle a thin piece of tissue in front of it, there is no apparent effect of airflow. Maybe this shouldn't be surprising considering how tiny the inlet vents are, but come on! According to Speedfan, the CPU and GPU (which I believe it reads as Remote Temp) are both in the high 90s C, even when I set the GPU clock to medium. Temp 1 exceeds 100C.

I don't see any dust in the vent. What can I do??

 

BTW, since it seems like most people haven't figured out the GPU temperature monitor, I should say that the way I discovered it is by alt-tabbing in and out of Simcity 4 and looking at the temperature graph. It got hot exactly while the game was displaying 3d, and cooled when at the desktop. The other temperatures stayed about the same.

 

Do you dare to disassemble the laptop? You can easily remove the keyboard, the fan and the copper grills to check if there is any blockage. When the fan spins, you are supposed to be able to feel warm to hot air coming out of the left vent.

Disassembling the unit doesn't void the warranty. Just don't break anything, short the systemboard or get moisture on it, all of which steps are detailed on how you can do it safely.

Disassembly guide:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...support/SupportManual/c00762017/c00762017.pdf

Found here:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...Id=101&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=1839150

 

Thanks, I'll see about doing that. That's good that it doesn't void the warranty. It goes until June 2009 which is one reason I bought this

 

The PDF shows a sequence of disassembly. Does that mean I have to remove the optical drive etc before taking the keyboard off?

And also, the PDF says to replace the thermal paste on the GPU and CPU every time the fan is removed. Does that mean I can put new thermal paste without voiding the warranty?! If so, Arctic Whatever (whichever is nonconductive) here I come.

 

Have you tried to use compressed air to clean the inlets before starting to disassemble it?

 

No, because I don't see any dust. I figure compressed air would just blow any material into the laptop, and I've read that it can damage the fans

 

Holy moley! There was a lot of dust in there. It was good thing I took the keyboard off otherwise I would have just blown a lot of dust bunnies into the laptop. Temperatures are much much lower. At idle my cores are 43C, while before they were 70C. GPU is 40C instead of 80C.