I cleaned my laptop by myself!

It might sound stupid to most of you...

I have a Presario 2100 series laptop.

I was too afraid of breaking my laptop, so I hadn't cleaned the heatsink and fan for the last four years. Today I bought compressed air cans.
I used one of them to remove at least some of the dust without opening up the laptop, and that was my mistake. Some dust was moved by the compressed air, and it blocked the fan.

All of you know what happens if the fan doesn't spin!!! So, I turned off my laptop. I opened up the whole laptop in order to remove the dust.

It took about 2 to 3 hours... ridiculous...

Now... I have confidence... and I think I can open up again!

 

its great to see that more and more ppl are confident enough to look inside their cases. gr8 job planetearth (i dismantled my laptop after 2 weeks of buying and pt it all back together )

 

Good for you. I have an older Compaq R4000 that I had to open up once to install an extra gig of ram in. It was a royal pain in the butt as I had to remove the keyboard and basically the entire top of the laptop to get at it.

I don't relish ever having to do that again, but I probably will at some point. I love the portability of my notebooks but cleaning them is a royal pain when compared to a desktop.

 

yeah when my old laptop broke and I had to replace the video card I was terrified to fiddle inside it but once you do it once it's no problem.

 

Thanks

first time in four years! I didn't have to open it up because my new dv4t will be here next week, but I wanted to learn something. So, I took a risk of destroying my four-year old friend...

Anyway, I learned something..

 

Yeah... I think so, too. Once you experience something challenging, it becomes easier next time. I cleaned the fan and heatsink, but I got a new problem. One screw doesn't fit...

 

Thanks

Oh... that laptop must be different from mine. To get access to the RAM cards in my laptop, I just need to remove two screws.

Yeah... cleaning laptops is really difficult, compared to desktops...
I hope HP makes it easier for us to reach the fan and heatsink...

 

remember the old witwicky motto --- "No sacrifice No victory"

 

Haha.. yes! sacrifice!!!

 

I open the external panels on my laptops for a look but I wouldn't pull my old laptop open until it was broken and I'm not opening this one until I have to (mainly because I don't want to void the extended warranty I paid for).

Grand Admiral

 

haha i attempted to open my laptop today to clean the CPU fan coz it hadn;t been cleaned in 3-4 yrs. And was giving it to my brother. I didnt succeed, so i took it to a friend who works in a computer shop. it turns out that there was a screw behind the keyboard...i was amazed at the amount of fiddling to just open it up...i now know who to turn to when my computer stuffs up

 

They're fiddly little things aren't they! I remember opening my old laptop, you had to pull these little plugs out, unscrew bits of the case, pry other bits up, unscrew more bits... Luckily I'd downloaded the service manual so I had a guide.

Grand Admiral

 

As I remember the motto from my days in the Marine Corps: "No Bawls, no glory!"

One I like better these days: "If at first you don't succeed, the hell with it!"

@OP: Good job! And never follow the second motto above.

 

Once your warranty expires, dont be afraid to do maintenance. There are service manuals and video guides made by HP. Follow the directions properly and youll be fine.

If only HP made the cpu/fan super easy accessible like Dell's.

 

my hobby.,... opening up the laptop and clean the inside, do some upgrade work, etc

 

hey miner i need help finding a forum for the hp dv9810 please help. sorry for jumping this thread

 

The really cool thing about HP is that they have free service videos for almost all of their notebooks. They're great for taking apart your notebook after the warranty period

Here's the link.