Solution for overheating notebooks

[Snufalufagus]

Recently I resolved the heat issue for all of my 3 notebooks. My son's ACER was the worse off, it would shut down automatically after 30mins of moderate gaming. The base of the notebook was very hot though the internal fan was blowing at maximum with a regular laptop cooler. Something was obviously wrong.
I did some research and went to Sim Lim to get a thermal bond. Managed to find one at Level 4, a small electronics shop to the right of the escalator on the way up. There are 3 different grades of the same thermal bond. $8, $12, and $16. I bought the $8 to try out.
Took out the casing (please ground yourself properly), located the fan and heat sink, cleaned off the old thermal bond and reapplied it sparingly. No need to be super careful with the application. I just use the provided spatula to spread the compound. Of course take the opportunity to clean the fan either with compress gas, vacuum cleaner or just blow hard in and around the fan. Fix everything back and viola! Heat issue resolved!!
I asked around, the cheapest 'servicing' would cost $35 but if you have some basic electronics knowledge, you'd be able to do this. Actually it is REALLY simple and I'd recommend ANYONE to do this if you have a problem with heat.
My VAIO, probably about 3 years old became so hot that I could not place on my lap for a minute after 30 mins upon turning it on. Now I can place it on my lap after it had been running for hours on end. Also, my main 'heating' culprit is running streaming movies on Firefox. I ran 3 simultaneous movies, one from Youku and another from Youtube plus one video on my HDD using media player. Ran for about 2 hours and it was no where close to the temperature before my diy.
If you need pictures, PM me with your email.
It is definitely worth doing it... this must be my most satisfying DIY for years.

 

[asriznet]

Recently I resolved the heat issue for all of my 3 notebooks. My son's ACER was the worse off, it would shut down automatically after 30mins of moderate gaming. The base of the notebook was very hot though the internal fan was blowing at maximum with a regular laptop cooler. Something was obviously wrong.
I did some research and went to Sim Lim to get a thermal bond. Managed to find one at Level 4, a small electronics shop to the right of the escalator on the way up. There are 3 different grades of the same thermal bond. $8, $12, and $16. I bought the $8 to try out.
Took out the casing (please ground yourself properly), located the fan and heat sink, cleaned off the old thermal bond and reapplied it sparingly. No need to be super careful with the application. I just use the provided spatula to spread the compound. Of course take the opportunity to clean the fan either with compress gas, vacuum cleaner or just blow hard in and around the fan. Fix everything back and viola! Heat issue resolved!!
I asked around, the cheapest 'servicing' would cost $35 but if you have some basic electronics knowledge, you'd be able to do this. Actually it is REALLY simple and I'd recommend ANYONE to do this if you have a problem with heat.
My VAIO, probably about 3 years old became so hot that I could not place on my lap for a minute after 30 mins upon turning it on. Now I can place it on my lap after it had been running for hours on end. Also, my main 'heating' culprit is running streaming movies on Firefox. I ran 3 simultaneous movies, one from Youku and another from Youtube plus one video on my HDD using media player. Ran for about 2 hours and it was no where close to the temperature before my diy.
If you need pictures, PM me with your email.
It is definitely worth doing it... this must be my most satisfying DIY for years.

Yep I know that feeling, always exciting to open up a new machine every time.

Commonly all the computers I opened up have lots of dust collected on the fan and sometimes on the mobo itself, sometimes it just need a bit of clean up....