Cleaning and Upgrading My Sager NP3250(W251HPQ) Laptop

My laptop has been running hot for a few years now, but I've never bothered to clean it. I have had my Sager for about 6 years and it finally seems like old age and neglect has gotten to it. Start up has been getting progressively slower and temperatures keep creeping up a few degrees each year. At idle my core temp reads at around 50-60 degrees Celsius and 80-92 degrees Celsius when gaming. The fan has been audibly loud for a little over two years now. There haven't been any real issues outside of slow start up over the years, but I think it's time I got in there and at least got the dust out. I'm hoping to get another 1-2 years out of my Sager before having to replace it.

The issue I am having is that I can't get the back plate off. I have watched disassembly videos of other models. I have downloaded the manual and looked at the pictures showing me which screws to take out. The problem is when I take the 5 screws out the back plate won't lift out. I thought maybe I needed to take more screws out so I took a few more out around the fan portion of the back plate. Still the thing wouldn't budge so I stopped and screwed everything back in.The manual makes it look like I just unscrew 5 screws and pop the plate off , but obviously it is more involved than that. Before I get to ahead of myself I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong.


My Laptop specs are:

Manufacturer: Sager Midern Computer Inc.
GPU: GeForce GT 520m
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU@ 2.4GHZ
Memory: 6GB RAM
Model: NP3250(W25HPQ)
Operating System: 64 Bit Windows 7 Home Premium


Also would it be possible to upgrade my GPU? I'd be willing to invest 100-300 more into my laptop if it is able to be upgraded and I could ensure the performance remains stable.

 

It should only take four screws. However, weirdly enough, the fan itself is attached to the bottom cover and it seems there might be some double-sided tape to the other side to keep it form rattling. Weirder still; the service manual has two different pictures, one with the cover in place and one showing the removed cover. Funny thing is that their shape doesn't match, so it shows images of two different models ...

Just trace the circumference of the cover and remove all screws at the edge and within, that should suffice. Also, there are four clips at the outermost edge (side of the laptop), so when removing you probably have to push it 'inwards' a little, away from the edge, to unhook it.

No, it's soldered to the motherboard. You could replace the cpu with an i7 quad core, which is quite a decent upgrade; almost twice as fast. You do need a proper repaste to take advantage of that, otherwise it'll throttle under high temperature.

Secondly; consider buying a decent ssd, if you haven't one already. If that's not enough storage then you could relocate the hdd to the optical drive with a $5 caddy (9.5mm SATA). That's $170+$80+$5; $255 in total. This is pretty good value for money, more so since the ssd can be re-used in any future system, so you can deduct that from the sum.

Now, both the cpu and ssd will help with gaming, but not so much as a less-ancient-gpu. Then again, since you're using a 520M for games right now then this relatively minor investment will go a long way to keep it current for the next two years. Besides, re-sale value at that time will not be very good, so better keep it as a pimped backup or secondary, non-gaming machine (or donate it as such). Sad thing is that apart from the gpu there's not much reason to replace a 6-year old system; cpu performance has improved only marginally in the past four/five years and maxed out SATA III is still quite sufficient for most applications and scenarios.

 

Thanks a lot for the tips. It turns out I was removing the right screws all along I just had to put some more elbow grease into lifting the back plate off. Pushing in from the edges to loosen it up seemed to do the trick. Once I saw lifting it wasn't breaking anything I could put more force into opening it. The vent was so clogged with lint it looked like a caterpillar had taken up residence lol.

Did the best I could with some q-tips and strips of paper to get in the vents and fan. Now that I am confident enough with opening and closing the back plate I'll probably wind up getting some canned air next week for a more thorough cleaning. The idle temp already looks to have dropped about 10 degrees give or take. I'll have to keep on monitoring throughout the week but it looks like a good sign.

It's a shame I can't really do anything about the GPU, but making sure this laptop lasts long enough for my last year of college is much better than being able to game at a setting or two higher than medium. Thanks again.

 

For day to day after your clean out an SSD will make it seem like a totally modern system