Solved Dust and CPU Temperature correlation

[dreamer]

Hi all,

Well to be honest i am not a good maintainer of my laptop and you would find lots of smudge marks and stuff on my laptop unless i don't feel lazy enough to clean it all lol.

So my laptop was getting heated a bit even while playing this latest HTML game on IE9 Cut the Rope and CPU usage was nearing to almost 30%-40 %.Even playing low graphic intensive games which take a bit of CPU usage was making my laptop get heated and core temp were nearing 70 ˚C-80 ˚C.I analysed for few days and noticed high usage RAM applications didn't heat up my laptop only high CPU usage applications heated temp up.I mean normally if i browsing with chrome and 5-6 tabs are open plus few other apps,RAM usage was almost 35%-40 % and CPU usage hovered around 5-10 %.

Well what i mean to say is yesterday i got this instantaneous idea and decided to blow some air around the fan vents on bottom and side of my laptop and voila the temperature now hardly exceeds 40-50 ˚C when using low CPU usage apps and never goes beyond 60-65 ˚C while using high CPU usage apps.

The question i want to ask is how much correlation is there between dust accumulation inside the laptop and higher core temperature??and is there any safe way to open laptop back case and clean all dust?

My laptop is almost one year old and i use it extensively.

Thanks all

 

[Dwarf]

Excessive dust accumulation in a laptop can impede the free flow of air through it, leading to an increase in temperature (especially when under load). This is because dust typically tends to settle on fan blades and in between/around heatsink fins. Periodic cleaning of these will help to reduce temperatures. For details on how to do this for your laptop, please refer to the manufacturer's website for the correct documentation/instructions.

As for Cut The Rope, I would say that it is still a bit buggy. It won't fully load on my Windows 8 Developer Preview, and infact causes it to freeze necessitating, in some cases, a reboot. Go figure. ​

 

[dreamer]

Thanks Dwarf for the information.Will surely check DELL site for the same.The warranty on my laptop has expired so i am hesitant to open laptop back case on my own and i generally don't have any idea how much it would cost for a technician to clean it for me.

In this dusty Indian environment the maintenance of laptops surely is a PITA.Anyhow i was wondering for a while what is the normal core temp of a laptop with and without load so i can have a reference point for future.

Thanks

 

[Dwarf]

What is the full model number of the laptop?

 

[dreamer]

What is the full model number of the laptop?

Its DELL N4010.System specs are listed in my profile

 

[Dwarf]

Here you go: Documentation

Have a read through of these. They should give you the information required. One thing that I would do if you do decide to clean the dust (and associated matter) from your laptop yourself, is to take the opportunity to replace the coin-cell battery at the same time.

 

[dreamer]

Thanks a bunch Dwarf.Quickly glancing through the documentation i realized i am electronically impaired and might well do more harm than good to my laptop.

 

[dreamer]

Ok guys bad news.Today in morning as usual i opened my laptop and after few minutes of browsing noticed my fan was not rotating and obviously temperature had shot up.Took my laptop to DELL service center and they refused to replace fan or whatever part was faulty unless i extend my warranty (already expired few days ago) and were charging me Rs.6220 (120 $ approx) for one year extended warranty.

I mean i was willing to pay service charges plus part replacement price but they are adamant on this warranty thingy.

Anyway guys is there a chance i can buy heatsink/fan whole package from reputed retail store and ask any technician to replace it for me??

One more thing last night the fan was working as normal without any temp jump and i shut down my laptop normally.I can use my laptop normally today except its heating up obviously.Is there any chance fan has stopped working because of dust or loose socket connection??

Thanks guys in advance

 

[dreamer]

Bump anyone???

 

[Dwarf]

Are there any other computer specialist stores in your area you could take your laptop to, other than Dell's service centre?

 

[dreamer]

Are there any other computer specialist stores in your area you could take your laptop to, other than Dell's service centre?

Yes there are of course.Just a niggle of doubt regarding what they might or not do to my laptop.I am torn between whether to accept DELL offer regarding extended warranty or take my laptop to nearest computer shop.

 

[Dwarf]

It's entirely up to you. You could try a few of them to see what it would cost you, even if you do decide to go the Dell route in the end. It would be worth stressing that you don't want a system reinstall, and possibly removing the HDD before letting the technicians loose on the laptop.

 

[Layback Bear]

What ever you decide to due is up to you of course, but I would not use the laptop until the over heating problem is repaired. Over heating can destroy a computer.

 

[dreamer]

It's entirely up to you. You could try a few of them to see what it would cost you, even if you do decide to go the Dell route in the end. It would be worth stressing that you don't want a system reinstall, and possibly removing the HDD before letting the technicians loose on the laptop.

This is precisely why i am afraid of these technicians especially where i live.Will update as soon as i get time to visit nearest shop.

What ever you decide to due is up to you of course, but I would not use the laptop until the over heating problem is repaired. Over heating can destroy a computer.

Nope i am not using laptop since yesterday just logged in into Ubuntu to transfer my data to external just in case.

Thanks both of you

Edit: Using Mac in meantime but missing Windows 7 already

 

[dreamer]

Just an update.
Took my laptop to technician.He opened the case and a lot of dust had accumulated on the fan and was stopping it from rotating.Just the usual cleaning and servicing and laptop & fan is working normal now.

Thanks all

 

[3D Jed]

Slightly off-topic, but dust related -

I had a desktop in for repair this week that was stuck in a boot-up loop, never getting past the Windows splash screen. I opened the case and there was so much dust and fluff it looked like the inside of a vacuum cleaner. The heatsink fins were solid. Seemed the cpu was reaching shutdown temp just trying to load Windows.

Even after cleaning it was still overheating. Guessing that the thermal paste had degraded with the extreme temps, a new blob of Artic Silver finished the job.

Should have taken a photo . . .

 

[ReviverSoft]

Unfortunately, a sizeable portion of PC Users around the world are unaware of or ignore the fact that dust can accumulate inside a PC case and cause overheating of the hardware components in the long run.

They only realize this when it's too late.

 

[dreamer]

Unfortunately, a sizeable portion of PC Users around the world are unaware of or ignore the fact that dust can accumulate inside a PC case and cause overheating of the hardware components in the long run.

They only realize this when it's too late.

I know about dust accumulation on desktop towers probably because i own one.Never knew about dust affecting laptops until mine's fan stopped working.Fortunately cleaning the fan n heatsink solved the problem.Have to be more careful in future about the same.

 

[rraod]

You could go to a third party service station in your city's computer market, where they will do the fan replacement, ( a simple job for them) at a fraction of cost what you have to pay to Dell.

Later on buy a laptop cooler with a USB fan underneath which helps in good air circulation and will keep the laptop cool.

Frequent cleaning and blowing with a air blower will keep the dust out of the heat sink and will keep your laptop spick and span. I am using two laptops (one dell and one toshiba in Riyadh, where we have frequest dust storms and lot of dust). All I do is blow the dust out of the laptop and they have never given me a problem in last 2-3 years. I monitor the temperature of the CPU and whenever the temp goes up, I do the cleaning.