dv6700t generates too much heat. Need some cleaning tips!

This is two and half year old dv6700t CTO notebook. Has been running great since day one. Have been doing all the software optimization I could think of. Just formatted the HD and clean installed Win7 last week. Runs smooth as far as software goes. But I never took things apart to clean keyboard and air vents. Even though I used air duster on it today, I am pretty sure air vents are clogged up since it still generates a lot of heat. Fan noise has been pretty loud lately too. I want to use this notebook for another year, so want to give it a maintenance tune-up and clean-up. I am pretty tech savvy and like to play around with electronics, but I love this laptop too much and don't want to mess up with it if it is too complicated to open it up. Please advice how hard is it to clean it up and blow the dust which has settled on its fan and internal inaccessible parts?? Any links to any guide would be appreciated.

Any other tips to keep it running cool and smooth??

TIA.

 

See the service manual for disassembly instructions: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01295877.pdf

Taking it apart is THE best way to clean things up in the fan and intake/exhaust area.

 

That's what it will look like: cooler/fan of a dv6000 -series couple months ago. A large ball of dust is in the fan itself, preventing it from spinning properly. Also the heatsink was totally blocked by dust.

 

use the manual provided above, in addition to compressed air and a vacuum - make sure though to be very careful and also hold the fans in place with a toothpick or something to prevent them from spinning and getting damaged

 

And, if I might add; use a Q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol to clean off caked on dust from the fan blades.

 

I also have a Dv6000 and I heard that you could do a copper shim mod as well? I have see a lot of copper shims for our laptops being sold on ebay so I would highly invest in that as this laptop seems to have a lot of heating problems. I'm planning on upgrading my TL-50 to a TL-60 when I do the copper mod and reapply some new Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste.

 

Yea I recently cleaned my dv6700 CTO, Idles at 40-45 degrees Celsius now, which is great. I would also change the thermal compound since its probably rock-solid by now, get arctic silver compound.

 

I would highly recommend stripping the laptop down for cleaning as you will not shift the accumulation of crud effectively any other way, as KLF points out in the pictures it builds up a mat over the cooling radiator which effectively chokes the laptop as it cant circulate air anymore, blowing it out with an airduster etc will only drive the crud further into the laptop. It`s not too hard to strip them down just take your time, mark where everything goes, pay attention to the service manual and you will be fine, while your in there clean off the old thermal compound from the CPU and heatsink and replace it with a good quality silver based compound (I`m liking the Akasa one at the mo) remove the thermal pad from the GPU and replace it with a copper shim (you may have to research the right one for your laptop but most of the HP`s I`ve done have been 1.2mm) and seat that with a small amount of the thermal compound also. once your done update to the latest bios as the new HP bios versions keep the fan running longer at lower speeds and you should see temps at least 20% lower

Hope some of this helps


John

 

Anyone else do this recently. I think I am going to give it a try soon, as my fan runs all the time.

 

I had to replace the motherboard in my DV9000 series a couple weeks ago. It was very straight forward to take apart. Will be pretty much the same structure as yours. Lots of screws. Carefull with the ribbon cables. Its not difficult at all.
I found a lot of dust and fibre stuck inside the fins on the cooler. I used to blow it and suck it with a vacuum now and again and assumed it was clear in there, and I always used it on a coffee table to reduce picking up dust and crud.

So there definately is no way to get that stuff out without dismantling it, its stuck to the fins inside.

I also recommend the copper shim for the GPU (graphics) chip. HP used a cheap piece of tin foil and thick thermal compound. The shim that came with my new motherboard was size of a small postage stamp.